Mass HTTP to HTTPs move
-
Hi,
As as part of an on-site SEO optimisation process, we've identified moving over from http to https - this is also in part to ensure our on-site forms are secure.
In our industry our website has a high traffic volume (top 2 in the industry), we are concerned what impact the 301-redirecting from http to https would have on our organic traffic, both in terms of how Google would react to this mass-301 redirect plus the loss of 'search value' of inbound links.
Privacy issues aside, would the minor quality-signal improvement be worth the move? Anyone have experience with such a move - was the outcome positive?
Many thanks,
Jason
-
Hi Cyrus,
Thanks for the feedback.
I'm concerned that some of the other more urgent on-site optimisation changes will already impact traffic volume in the short-term so I don't want to compound this further by making the switch over to HTTPS.
So this is off the table for now. Thanks everyone for the feedback on this.
More on the discussion side, Google shouldn't really be re-evaluating URLs when there is a protocol change in my opinion, especially when moving from http to https. It seems this would discourage site owners from making the move as organic traffic would be more valuable than user privacy.
-Jason
-
Alrighty! Thanks once again Cyrus
-
We observe only a small correlation between HTTPS sites and higher rankings (like 0.04) - so there's very little apparent pure SEO benefit. It really seems to be the "tie-breaker" Google claims, though this difference may increase in the future.
-
Thanks for sharing your experience and this great article Cyrus, really useful stuff.
What's your observation on post migration traffic trends? Does it makes sense to migrate to https for SEO perspective only?
-
Hi Jason,
I've been involved with a number of migrations (including this site, moz.com) and in my own experience I've seen anywhere from zero traffic change to a loss in the range of 8-9%.
Google says that in theory, you shouldn't lose any traffic, and several large publishers I've spoken with can attest to this.
In practice, HTTPS migrations can be complex, and with more moving parts the potential to do things less than perfectly can escalate. If you mess up your 301s or create confusing redirects, the potential for reduced traffic is real. My general advice is don't let the migration to HTTPS scare you, but proceed with caution. This post may help: https://moz.com/blog/seo-tips-https-ssl
-
Hi Jason,
Are you purely moving to SSL for the SEO benefit? Without knowing your site and any links I wouldn't be able to guess the impact. SSL is a relatively low ranking signal from what I can tell (and the studies into it) so I would hesitate to say that the benefit for the moving to ssl will out do the 301 redirects.
However, does the SSL have a benefit to your users? Will it help you increase conversion rates using it? Will you be able to put a trustmark on your site to help convert higher? This should help with your business case as any change you do should be to help your site perform better (either through money as a business or through informing people if you're a charity)
-
Hi Jason,
I had a word with a friend who handled the similar project for a large organisation a month back and what they observed is, the traffic went down initially for sometime and picked up the flow later on.
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
-
GoogleBot still crawling HTTP/1.1 years after website moved to HTTP/2
Whole website moved to https://www. HTTP/2 version 3 years ago. When we review log files, it is clear that - for the home page - GoogleBot continues to only access via HTTP/1.1 protocol Robots file is correct (simply allowing all and referring to https://www. sitemap Sitemap is referencing https://www. pages including homepage Hosting provider has confirmed server is correctly configured to support HTTP/2 and provided evidence of accessing via HTTP/2 working 301 redirects set up for non-secure and non-www versions of website all to https://www. version Not using a CDN or proxy GSC reports home page as correctly indexed (with https://www. version canonicalised) but does still have the non-secure version of website as the referring page in the Discovery section. GSC also reports homepage as being crawled every day or so. Totally understand it can take time to update index, but we are at a complete loss to understand why GoogleBot continues to only go through HTTP/1.1 version not 2 Possibly related issue - and of course what is causing concern - is that new pages of site seem to index and perform well in SERP ... except home page. This never makes it to page 1 (other than for brand name) despite rating multiples higher in terms of content, speed etc than other pages which still get indexed in preference to home page. Any thoughts, further tests, ideas, direction or anything will be much appreciated!
Technical SEO | | AKCAC1 -
Move from 4 Domains to 1
Hey Moz Community We are running 4 domains at the moment. www.rapturecamps.com www.surfcamp.travel www.surfcampbali.com www.surfcampinportugal.com We started of our business with 1. after a view years in business we got the option to buy the other 3 domains which have ranked quite well with certain keywords. As its quite allot of work maintaining all these websites with two languages, we where thinking of actually moving number 2, 3 ,4 all to number 1. All domains receive still some good rankings as well as daily hits. So we kinda like would like to keep the SEO Juice. Therefore we where researching for some time what would be the best practice todo so. For us there are two possible options We go trough all posts/pages on the domain 2,3,4 and copy the content over to domain 1. After thats done we create 301 redirects on the domains 2,3,4 linking them back to domain 1 posts/pages. We do do so by manually adding the 301's into the htaccess file, so we are able to delete the Wordpress installations. Our we just copy the Pages/Posts from the domains 2,3,4 to the domain 1 and then kill the 2,3,4 domains afterwords, and let google index these Pages/Posts on the new domain. This way we think we would loose the whole SEO Juice from the old domains. The reason we are asking this one here, we have been reading that this method could lead to red flags at google if we redirect to much Pages/Post back to Domain 1. Hopefully someone here can help us answer that question.
Technical SEO | | 5Gates0 -
Secure HTTP Change - No Links in WMT
Website was changed over to secure HTTP about twp months ago. Just looked in Google Webmaster Tools and it only shows about 8 inbound links. We did a permanent 301 redirect for all URLs. There are over 800 links according to Open Site Explorer. Is it just that they are showing only the HTTPS inbound links? Should I add the HTTPS version in WMT? Thanks for any assistance
Technical SEO | | EBI0 -
Does anyone know if an increase in 804 HTTPS errors will affect SEO rankings?
We recently moved our whole site over from HTTP to HTTPS and we went from having 106 keywords in the top 3 positions to 80 in just one week. The only thing that I can think of that caused the drop is the HTTPS changes to our site. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | SimonWorsfold0 -
Https vs http two different domains?
If i visit mywebsite.com.au, www.mywebsite.com.au and http://www.mywebsite.com.au - i get one website BUT if I visit https://www.mywebsite.com.au I get a different website - I also get a untrusted website warning The logo in the bottom right of the https: website is the name of the webdesigner where the website is hosted. Is this a normal practice?
Technical SEO | | GardenBeet0 -
Http:// to https:// 301 or 302 redirect
I've read over the Q & A in the Community, but am wondering the reasoning behind this issue. I know - 301's are permanent and pass links, and 302s are temporary (due to cache) and don't pass links. But, I've run across two sites now that 302 redirect http:// to https://. Is there a valid reason behind this? From my POV and research, the redirect should 301 if it's permanent, but is there a larger issue I am missing?
Technical SEO | | FOTF_DigitalMarketing1 -
Moving Old Site to New
Dear SEO Gurus, I have been working on #2 site for a couple of months and I think it is a good idea to redirect #1 (old site) to #2 (new site) below, yes? What is the most effective way of doing this? Do I have to 301 Redirect one page from the old site to a relevant page on the new site and do this for every page.... or can I do a 301 redirect for the whole old site to the new site? Thank you for your time in advance for helping me out! Sheryl | | 1 | Gazpachos - Restaurnte Y CantinaExplore http://www.gazpachorestaurant.com/ |
Technical SEO | | TOMMarketingLtd.
| 2 | Gazpacho's RestaurantExplore http://www.restaurantsdurango.com/ | Page Authority | Page Linking Root Domains | Domain Authority | Root Domain Linking Root Domains |
| 42 | Check_big_gray 36 | 30 | 37 |
| 21 | 1 | 6 | 1 |0 -
What's the best way to deal with an entire existing site moving from http to https?
I have a client that just switched their entire site from the standard unsecure (http) to secure (https) because of over-zealous compliance issues for protecting personal information in the health care realm. They currently have the server setup to 302 redirect from the http version of a URL to the https version. My first inclination was to have them simply update that to a 301 and be done with it, but I'd prefer not to have to 301 every URL on the site. I know that putting a rel="canonical" tag on every page that refers to the http version of the URL is a best practice (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394), but should I leave the 302 redirects or update them to 301's. Something seems off to me about the search engines visiting an http page, getting 301 redirected to an https page and then being told by the canonical tag that it's actually the URL they were just 301 redirected from.
Technical SEO | | JasonCooper0