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Changed URL from HTTP to HTTPS - 99% of my backlinks don't know though
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Hi Moz community,
I've got a question about all old backlinks pointing to the http version of my site: Firstly, how it impacts my site's backlinks for SEO and secondly, why does Moz and if you know why Majestic have different metric report values for the different URLs.
The Back Story
Two months ago I bought an SSL for my personal domain and changed my URL from http to the https version. I 301'd it and can verify that on Majestic SEO using the old http URL. I did this sitewide for an eCommerce site that I'm working and did see a lift in traffic; that was the main reason based on Google talking about sites moving to the SSL Web.
I'm No Stranger to 301s
Of course all the URLs on my site have been 301'd. I used a HTTPS Redirect plugin for my WordPress site and there's been no issue. I also installed a 404 Checker plugin to log broken external links to my site where I can create a redirect right away in case the HTTPS plugin missed something along the way. I'm comfortable knowing that doing when you change the domain name for a site or just a page going from one URL to another will transfer all the link equity over time.
What's Causing the Confusion
What's a little confusing is that when I use tools like OSE or Majestic's Explorer, the data doesn't match. For instance in OSE, the https version of my domain has a DA of 1 and PA of 1. But, the http version of my site has a DA of 25 and PA of 36. With Majestic (BTW, please feel free to stop me from asking questions about another tool on Moz, but since we're all part of the same SEO community, I thought I'd ask it here anyway) the Trust and Citation flow values are definitely closely matched but still different values nonetheless.
My Question
Will I ever see the DA and PA the same for the https & http versions in the future? Does OSE catch the fact that there is a 301 redirect to the https version or does it only recognize that it redirects from http://kingrosales.com to http://www.kingrosales.com when in fact it redirects to https://www.kingrosales.com?
My second question is, what about the backlinks? Is it because they are different URLs that OSE doesn't have a way to recognize this and display links from the old http version to the new https version? How will I know the true PA and DA of the https version of my site even with a perfectly executed 301 redirect? lol
Let me know if you need more clarification.
Thanks
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I have a simialr problem...
In December, a client site switches from http to https. Any clicks from old backlinks redirect from the http target to https, so the traffic still flows. But because the backlinks are to http, not https, the latter version has lost the Domain Authority.
How do we resolve this? Is the only solution to approach referring sites and ask them to change links to https?
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Hey there, hoping I can chime in a little bit and while I can't speak fully to the SEO nitty gritty, I can at least shed some light on how Moz sees this.
http://moz.com/blog/save-your-website-with-redirects - One resource shedding some light on this is our very own Cyrus taking about the best practices.
Essentially during our index if we don't index your old backlink pages for various reasons (buried in new content, deeper within the page, etc.) we will of course not find the link equity and thus correlating DA and PA that come along with it. This process also won't be instant as the new page will be checked for relevance (bounce rate) from the old page.
I know some of our community may have more experience on this so I am hoping they will chime in.
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