Http to Https

[aflat9]

I am transferring my site to HTTPS due to the new chrome updates now saying every site that has something to do with a password is unprotected (if it's only HTTP).

I'm a bit concerned about the whole site having redirects on from my old links - has anyone experienced changing over and suffering a drop in rankings? I know Google does class HTTPS as a small ranking factor but it's not going to help straight away!

 

[GraemeL]

We changed, with no impact.

 

[SEOpie]

Http to https redirects without any change in URL other than the protocol should not affect page authority/link 'juice'/rankings. It might be a few days for things to settle, though, as Google do see it as a 'site move'.
Ensure you also set up a new property in Search Console for the https version (with both www and non-www sites).

 

[webhostuk]

Ranking will have postive impact after SSL is enabled so don't worry move your site to secured environment.

 

[SEOpie]

I should also have mentioned that, as you and webhostuk have said, having a valid SSL cert. is generally considered a positive ranking factor.

 

[websensejim]

It used to be considered quite risky in some SEO circles due to the potential loss of pagerank when implementing 301 redirects. Google has since said (last July if i remember right) that there is no longer any pagerank loss with 301s, so you shouldn't see any ranking losses after implementing the 301s. Of course, there are many other things that can go wrong when switching to https (esp with larger sites) so if you make any mistakes during the implementation, your site could still suffer some losses.

This is a great guide on all you need to know about switching to https (from an ex Googler).

 

[Pat Walsh]

I've recently moved my 3 main business websites to https and would definitely recommend a move to https - once you've read through both Google's own info on it and also some guides to doing it.

The main things to ensure are:

• after the move to https, redirect all http requests to https using 301 redirects, which is the best way to redirect and also to keep 'link juice'/SEO ranking where possible
• check your site to make sure there's no mixed content, at least on the most important pages, otherwise the user's browser won't display the secure/green padlock icon for the page
• add a new https property to Google Search Console and set this up with an XML sitemap and force Google to crawl the https site using this (use the Fetch as Google option)
• also further admin to get sites to use the https urls - such as updating Google Analytics, your online ads, Bing Search and your social media profile links

 

[mugatea]

I found it no trouble and Google didn't mind it one bit. Only thing I found tricky was Facebook wasnt keen and a lot of posts lost their 'likes' gradually over a couple of weeks as FB saw the new https as a new url, which lost (for some posts) thousands of likes, but I used Social Warfare to fix that. SSL is a positive step but it's not gonna boost your rankings much if any, but worth doing if like me it is provided free by web host.

 

[Cherin]

https ensures security.So moving from http to https is worthy.

 

[makeusvisible]

This may be of interest.

 

[PropertyWebmasters]

Changing a website from HTTP to HTTPS has both benefits and pitfalls.

Benefits:

provides a 'security blanket' for your website, and if you're an eCommerce site in particular, customers are more likely to purchase from your website than a competitors who doesn't have that padlock in the address bar.

Pitfalls:

you need to make sure you have the time and resources to check your website, making sure there are no broken links and that all links to your site are updated, this is generally just good practice. This can be too time consuming for those who are already super busy.

Do it!

If you have the resources, a strong IT & digital team then I would strongly recommend switching from HTTP to HTTPS, this will provide a strong foothold in maintaining a good ranking position. If you check out the moz blog, there is a post from yesterday that explains that half of Google's page 1 results are now HTTPS websites.

 

[aflat9]

Cheers guys, super useful! I'm planning the switch this week.

I don't particularly like customers coming on the website and now seeing 'not secure'.

It should be ok to switch over, it is a pretty large site but I do have very good developers helping!

 

[Rina Talwar]

Ranking will increase after SSl is enabled and it doesn't affect your ranking. It is a secure environment for website.

 

[Ian J]

Ranking will increase after SSl is enabled and it doesn't affect your ranking.

Isn't that a contradiction?

 

[StevePoster]

Ranking will increase after SSl is enabled and it doesn't affect your ranking.

Its confusing, kindly read twice or thrice first your message before posting to avoid crap post.
Anyway, moving from HTTP to HTTPS has nothing to do with ranking but for the sake of your website's important files and transactions from the clients or users.

 

[Search Sparkle]

After moving to https, do you need to reupdate all your links that were in http for seo purposes?

 

[Pat Walsh]

After moving to https, do you need to reupdate all your links that were in http for seo purposes?

If you mean the inbound links from other websites, that should be taken care of by the 301 redirect, which should redirect all http requests to the https version

 

[justinaldridge]

After moving to https, do you need to reupdate all your links that were in http for seo purposes?

Generally not...BUT....and it's a big BUT....many directories (business, local, niche, etc) use software to ensure that websites are still live so that the directories are not linking to 404 pages. A directory crawler will not follow a redirect which means it will drop your listing even just changing to https.

We always ensure that we update any good and relevant directory listings to the HTTPS version after the site changeover.

We have often found that some websites will also drop links when they start redirecting so it's good practice to monitor this for the first 3 or 4 months using tools like AHREFS.

Any critical backlinks should always be changed to https if possible just to ensure that they are not dropped by the linking sites.

 

[extulsftjz]

Google have confirmed a ranking boost with https - however it is only very very small. They said that if two websites are 'ranked equally' then the one with https would just edge the other - basically, it's hardly a boost to SEO at all but is worthwhile doing.