Pro's & contra's: http vs https
-
Hi there,
We are planning to take the step and go from http to https. The main reason to do this, is to mean trustfull to our clients. And of course the rumours that it would be better for ranking (in the future).
We have a large e-commerce site. A part of this site ia already HTTPS.
I've read a lot of info about pro's and contra's, also this MOZ article: http://moz.com/blog/seo-tips-https-ssl
But i want to know some experience from others who already done this. What did you encountered when changing to HTTPS, did you had ranking drops, or loss of links etc?I want to make a list form pro's and contra's and things we have to do in advance.
Thanx, Leonie
-
We don't use Comscore. Analytics transparently kept tracking everything without any change. We don't use Tagmanager url matching tracking, but unless you have not defined rules which include the url protocol it should not need any attention either.
-
Hi, did you encountered problems with other tools, like Google Analytics and or Tagmanager, Comscore?
Thanx, Leonie
-
We have expensive certificates now for the payed section, i think we'll use the same
i'll ask about the server support SNI, not sure about that, thanx
-
In case you choose the most expensive EV certificates as we did, for whatever is not directly visible, like the cdn serving js, css and images you can just use cheap 8 $/€ certificates.
One thing I forgot, if your server support SNI, don't use it.
We did initially, but soon found out some price engines could not read feeds, moz crawler could not crawl, and everyone on XP+IE was left out. So we disabled it.
-
Hi Max, Thansk, and good to read that you didn't lost ranking. that's my concern and also the backlinking. although you should say with a redirect all the external links i can't control will redirect to https.
We have 2 different ssl certificates now, we are looking for what we need and if we have the right ones.
If i've finished the plan and list i'll think i'll publish it here
Grtz, Leonie
-
I did it a month and half ago for a couple of websites.
Transition was smooth. I had to buy more ssl certificates than I thought for the many domains serving js css and so on... But was not a big hassle.
Just after moving from http to https I didn't notice any ranking change, and to have a good level of accurancy I monitor the same keywords with both moz ranktracker, proranktracker and semrush.
But in fact google is slowly recognizing the move few urls at time, each day you will notice some google serp start serving https url in place of http ones.
After a month we had a big jump in ranking, around +30% more keywords in the top 100 and a general increase in ranking for all the keywords already in top 10, top 30 and top 50.
But I have no idea if it's connected with the shift to https since we also constantly do many other things, get backlinks, improve on-page, etc...
At least it didn't seem to penalize the websites.
-
Hi Pixelbypixel, thanx for your reply.
Right now i'm making a plan for the switch, i'm not in a rush, so i really want to make it all clear before we go, or maybe decide not to..
I don't think most of our clients know what's secure and what isn't. But we want the opportunity to comunicate about this with our clients, something we don't have right now (only when the order something)
The ranking factor, what i read about it, is not a big thing at this moment, but indeed, in the future and can be a bigger one, so that's also a good reason to go.
Thanx for the linked articles!
Grtz, Leonie
-
I'm going to give my opinion more than a list of pros and cons, most people who switch over tend to see a drop in traffic and if you don't ensure you get it all right it can be a nightmare so make sure you've got your plan ready.
Are you sure most "clients" know what https is? Most people outside our world have no idea what it is combine with the fact that the so called ranking boost has yet to be well documented it can be fairly certain its tiny.
Now it is possible that your clients know what it is and will see it and go to your site but in most cases I suspect like the ranking boost other factors would play a bigger role. My advice is to really make sure you have all the bases covered for your transfer. Also wanted to point out in the future it may be a bigger factor.
As for advice on people who have already done it oodles of info here on Moz here are a few -
http://moz.com/community/q/http-to-https-transition-large-drop-in-search-traffic
http://moz.com/community/q/https-sitewide-move-has-resulted-in-huge-rankings-drop
http://moz.com/community/q/authority-site-drastic-ranking-drop-after-google-https-switch-please-help
Obviously people tend to come here for problems more than a shout out for how great it is so don't take that as a massive negative and all of the above is my opinion I'm sure some others will give other opinions and I don't want you to be put off just to be aware that there is a lot to cover in a switch over.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google selecting incorrect URL as canonical: 'Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical'
Hi there, A number of our URLs are being de-indexed by Google. When looking into this using Google Search Console the same message is appearing on multiple pages across our sites: 'Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical' 'IndexingIndexing allowed? YesUser-declared canonical - https://www.mrisoftware.com/ie/products/real-estate-financial-software/Google-selected canonical - https://www.mrisoftware.com/uk/products/real-estate-financial-software/'Has anyone else experienced this problem?How can I get Google to select the correct, user-declared canoncial? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | nfrank0 -
Community Discussion - What's been your experience with accessibility?
When Laura Lippay came to me with the idea to write a series of posts on the Moz blog about SEO and accessibility, it really got my gears turning. As the blog manager, I realized I'd been thinking about all sorts of ways to make the blog the best it can be, but accessibility was one place I had yet to explore in-depth. While I have my own goals and projects around this topic churning along in the background, I'd love to hear what the community's done to be inclusive to all users of the Internet. What've you struggled with in terms of making sites you've worked on accessible -- both technically and as an initiative in general? What's often missing that you've become passionate about including? Do you have any big wins you're especially proud of and want to share? Looking forward to reading your thoughts and stories, folks! 🙂
Technical SEO | | FeliciaCrawford1 -
My blog post for a specific keyword is in the 'omitted results'. Why might this be, and how to overcome it?
My website Homepage: http://kulraj.org Here is the page I am working to rank for:** http://kulraj.org/2014/07/15/hedonic-treadmill/** When I search specifically for 'kulraj hedonic treadmill' just to test it, the first result is this: kulraj.org_/tag/_hedonic-treadmill. It shows the shortened version of the article that is within the Tag page. [I'm new to SEO and Moz, please keep in mind] Moz has told me I have duplicate content, which is regarding my main Blog page and Tags page, which is true the content is duplicate. However, the actual blog post itself is not displayed anywhere else on the website, or anywhere else on the web. Moz confirms this, and reports no duplicate content warning. My questions, therefore, are: 1. How do I actually go about installing a rel canonical tag within a standard WordPress dashboard (I'm using Genesis Framework) - I'm finding great difficulty finding instructions on this anywhere on the web. I clearly need to fix the issue with Blog page and Tags Page. 2. Why would my blog post be omitted, and are there any suggestions I could implement to bring it into the main search results. Other things I've noticed: 1. If I type this URL in: kulraj.org/hedonic-treadmill, it automatically redirects to http://kulraj.org/2014/07/15/hedonic-treadmill/ 2. Inside Google Webmaster Tools it says: No new messages or recent critical issues. 3. Regarding the above, when I click 'Labs > author stats' within Webmaster Tools, it shows nil stats, so something there is not quite right either, even though Google+ Authorship is confirmed.
Technical SEO | | Kulraj0 -
Amazon Product Descriptions and our website's product descriptions
I am updating our product descriptions site-wide. I wanted to also update our amazon listings for those same products. Is that considered duplicate content if it would be on amazon and our site? Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to do that? Is google product ads also a problem?
Technical SEO | | EcomLkwd0 -
I'm redesigning a website which will have a new URL format. What's the best way to redirect all the old URLs to the new ones? Is there an automated, fast way to do this?
For example, the new URL will be: https://oregonoptimalhealth.com/about_us.html while the old one's were like this: http://www.oregonoptimalhealth.com/home/ooh/smartlist_1/services.html I have redirect almost 100 old pages to the correct new page. What's the best and easiest way to do this?
Technical SEO | | PolarisMarketing0 -
How do i properly combine these two schema's from schema.org
So we're redoing our reviews/testimonials page on our website right now and moving over to the schema.org format as described here: http://schema.org/Review But we would like to combine each of our reviews with a location for which it was reviewed using this: http://schema.org/LocalBusiness What i can't wrap my head around would be the correct syntax? is it just the first block and then the next block? or is there a way of putting the actual physical address within the review page itself? So is this the correct way to do a page full of reviews that are reviewing various physical locations? * <div< span="">itemprop="reviews" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review"></div<>* <span< span="">itemprop="name">Value purchase</span<> -* by <span< span="">itemprop="author">Lucas</span<>,* <meta< span="">itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-03-25">March 25, 2011</meta<>* <div< span="">itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating"></div<>* <meta< span="">itemprop="worstRating" content = "1"/></meta<>* <span< span="">itemprop="ratingValue">4</span<>/* <span< span="">itemprop="bestRating">5</span<>stars* <span< span="">itemprop="description">Great microwave for the price. It is small and</span<>* fits in my apartment. 1. <div< span="">itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"></div<> 2. # <span< span="">itemprop="name">Beachwalk Beachwear & Giftware</span<> 3. <span< span="">itemprop="description"> A superb collection of fine gifts and clothing</span<> 4. to accent your stay in Mexico Beach. 5. <div< span="">itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"></div<> 6. <span< span="">itemprop="streetAddress">3102 Highway 98</span<> 7. <span< span="">itemprop="addressLocality">Mexico Beach</span<>, 8. <span< span="">itemprop="addressRegion">FL</span<> 10. Phone: <span< span="">itemprop="telephone">850-648-4200</span<> <div< span="">itemprop="reviews" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review"></div<>* <span< span="">itemprop="name">Value purchase</span<> -* by <span< span="">itemprop="author">Lucas</span<>,* <meta< span="">itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-03-25">March 25, 2011</meta<>* <div< span="">itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating"></div<>* <meta< span="">itemprop="worstRating" content = "1"/></meta<>* <span< span="">itemprop="ratingValue">4</span<>/* <span< span="">itemprop="bestRating">5</span<>stars* <span< span="">itemprop="description">Great microwave for the price. It is small and</span<>* fits in my apartment. <div< span="">itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness"></div<> <span< span="">itemprop="name">Beachwalk Beachwear & Giftware</span<> <span< span="">itemprop="description"> A superb collection of fine gifts and clothing</span<> to accent your stay in Mexico Beach. <div< span="">itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"></div<> <span< span="">itemprop="streetAddress">3102 Highway 98</span<> <span< span="">itemprop="addressLocality">Mexico Beach</span<>, <span< span="">itemprop="addressRegion">FL</span<> Phone: <span< span="">itemprop="telephone">850-648-4200</span<>
Technical SEO | | adriandg0 -
Schema Markup and Google's Rich Snippet Tool
Has anyone ever used the snippet tool and gotten the following error "could not fetch website"? When using the tool and placing an url that does not have markup present it will show that as the error. Or if part of markup is wrong, it will diagnose it accordingly. Did a search online and found limited info...one of which someone had this error but when other users tested it, they were not getting the same error.
Technical SEO | | andrewv0 -
Issue with Joomla Site not showing in SERP's
Site: simpsonelectricnc dot com I'm working on a Joomla website for a local business that isn't ranking at all for any relevant keyword - including the business name. The site is only about six months old and has relatively few links. I realize it takes time to compete for even low-volume keywords, but I think something else may be preventing the site from showing up. The site is not blocked by Robots.txt (which includes a valid reference to the sitemap)
Technical SEO | | CGR-Creative
There is no duplicate content issue, the .htaccess is redirecting all non-www traffic to www version
Every page has a unique title and H1 tag.
The URL's are search-engine friendly (not dynamic either)
XML sitemap is live and submitted to Google WM Tools. Google shows that it is indexing about 70% of the submitted URL's. The site has essentially no domain authority (0.02) according to Moz - I'm assuming this is due to lack of links and short life on the web.
Until today, 98% of the pages had identical meta descriptions. Again, I realize six months is not an eternity - but the site will not even show up for "business name + city,state" searches in Google. In fact, the only way I've seen it in organic results is to search for the exact URL. I would greatly appreciate any help.0