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  4. Switching from HTTP to HTTPS: 301 redirect or keep both & rel canonical?

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Switching from HTTP to HTTPS: 301 redirect or keep both & rel canonical?

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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  • Steven_Macdonald
    Steven_Macdonald last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 9:29 AM

    Hey Mozzers,

    I'll be moving several sites from HTTP to HTTPS in the coming weeks (same brand, multiple ccTLDs). We'll start on a low traffic site and test it for 2-4 weeks to see the impact before rolling out across all 8 sites.

    Ideally, I'd like to simply 301 redirect the HTTP version page to the HTTPS version of the page (to get that potential SEO rankings boost). However, I'm concerned about the potential drop in rankings, links and traffic.

    I'm thinking of alternative ways and so instead of the 301 redirect approach, I would keep both sites live and accessible, and then add rel canonical on the HTTPS pages to point towards HTTP so that Google keeps the current pages/ links/ indexed as they are today (in this case, HTTPS is more UX than for SEO).

    Has anyone tried the rel canonical approach, and if so, what were the results? Do you recommend it?

    Also, for those who have implemented HTTPS, how long did it take for Google to index those pages over the older HTTP pages?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Steven_Macdonald
      Steven_Macdonald @GlobeRunner last edited by Mar 28, 2016, 3:40 AM Mar 28, 2016, 3:40 AM

      Thanks Eric, I appreciate the response.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GlobeRunner
        GlobeRunner last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 6:31 PM Mar 23, 2016, 6:31 PM

        Regarding the GCLIDs, you'll want to update  your Google AdWords campaigns and anywhere else you can updated the URLs to the new HTTPs version of your site.

        Whenever you use a 301 Permanent Redirect  you typically lose the referrer data, so that's why you're going to see issues with the referrers.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • GlobeRunner
          GlobeRunner last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 6:29 PM Mar 23, 2016, 6:29 PM

          I would definitely use the 301 permanent redirects and NOT use the canonical tag for this. Also, don't forget to verify the HTTPs version of your site in Google Search Console, as well. We recommend getting a few new links to the HTTPs version of the site, as that will help with indexing and crawling.

          Steven_Macdonald 1 Reply Last reply Mar 28, 2016, 3:40 AM Reply Quote 0
          • LoganRay
            LoganRay @Kilgray last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 3:00 PM Mar 23, 2016, 3:00 PM

            The best way to mitigate this problem would be to update the destination URLs in your Adwords Campaigns. You can do this in bulk relatively quickly using the Adwords Editor desktop application.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • Kilgray
              Kilgray last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 2:50 PM Mar 23, 2016, 2:50 PM

              Hi Logan,

              I have a question related to this topic. We have something similar in place, but we are struggling as the 301 redirect from http to https sometime kills the gclid parameter that AdWords uses to track clicks coming search or display campaigns.

              Have you heard about this before? Do you any practical solution to this?

              Cheers,

              Kilgray Translation Technologies

              LoganRay 1 Reply Last reply Mar 23, 2016, 3:00 PM Reply Quote 0
              • LoganRay
                LoganRay @Steven_Macdonald last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 11:00 AM Mar 23, 2016, 11:00 AM

                No problem!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Steven_Macdonald
                  Steven_Macdonald @LoganRay last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 10:47 AM Mar 23, 2016, 10:47 AM

                  Thanks Logan!

                  LoganRay 1 Reply Last reply Mar 23, 2016, 11:00 AM Reply Quote 0
                  • LoganRay
                    LoganRay last edited by Mar 23, 2016, 10:31 AM Mar 23, 2016, 10:30 AM

                    Hi Steven,

                    You'll definitely want to apply 301 redirects to any site that you move to HTTPS. For most sites, this can typically be done with a single redirect rules that essentially replaces http with https, so you won't have to comb through each URL and apply one-to-one redirects.

                    No need to worry about losing link juice, Google views these types of 301s differently than a typical 301, and all authority will pass through them.

                    Canonical should also be applied, this will help search engines learn your new URL structure and ensure they index the new HTTPS URLs.

                    Cryus Shepard wrote a great post with all the necessary steps for a secure migration, check it out here: https://moz.com/blog/seo-tips-https-ssl

                    Good luck!

                    Steven_Macdonald 1 Reply Last reply Mar 23, 2016, 10:47 AM Reply Quote 1
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