How will canonicalizing an https page affect the SERP-ranked http version of that page?
-
Hey guys,
Until recently, my site has been serving traffic over both http and https depending on the user request. Because I only want to serve traffic over https, I've begun redirecting http traffic to https.
Reviewing my SEO performance in Moz, I see that for some search terms, an http page shows up on the SERP, and for other search terms, an https page shows. (There aren't really any duplicate pages, just the same pages being served on either http or https.)
My question is about canonical tags in this context. Suppose I canonicalize the https version of a page which is already ranked on the SERP as http. Will the link juice from the SERP-ranked http version of that page immediately flow to the now-canonical https version? Will the https version of the page immediately replace the http version on the SERP, with the same ranking?
Thank you for your time!
-
"I have the option of choosing either www.example.com or example.com, but no option for https://www.example.com or https://example.com."
Go in to the https & pick the same format use what ever your site retain the www. if you had it drop it if you did not.
"I have Search Console verified for both HTTP and https pages"
- On the Search Console Home page, click the site you want.
- Click the gear icon, and then click Site Settings.
- In the Preferred domain section, select the option you want.
Nice! So you have 4 URLs? pick the same format as you had but from # 3 or 4 below.
- HTTP://
- HTTP://www.
- HTTPS:// if you did NOT have www use this
- HTTPS://www. if you had www use this
- ** The to do list. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6332964**
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XB26X_wFoBBlQEqecj7HB79hQ7DTLIPo97SS5irwsK8/edit?usp=sharing
**Next, **
Make certain that you force https:// on your hosting environment or WAF/CDN
**Check it using a **Redirect mapper
- https://varvy.com/tools/redirects/
- If you get lost and need to fix something
- https://online.marketing/guide/https/
- https://www.deepcrawl.com/blog/news/2017-seo-tips-move-to-https/
Add HSTS once everything is definitely working.
Make sure everything is working correctly before Google crawls it use
all the best,
Tom
-
Thanks, Thomas. This is a comprehensive and clear answer. Your help is much appreciated.
I have a question about Search Console. In the Moz question you linked to, the instructions given are to go to Search Console > Site Settings and to choose the preferred domain.
In Search Console I can find Site Settings, and I see that you can set a preferred domain. However, in the Site Settings for both the http and https sites, I have the option of choosing either www.example.com or example.com, but no option for https://www.example.com or https://example.com. I have Search Console verified for both http and https pages.
Do you have insight on this issue?
The htaccess file has been updated. My plan is to add self-referencing canonical tags to https, http > https canonical tags, and 301 redirects, in addition to Search Console changes. Have I missed anything?
Thank you again!
-
"My question is about canonical tags in this context. Suppose I canonicalize the https version of a page which is already ranked on the SERP as http_. Will the link juice from the SERP-ranked_ http version of that page immediately flow to the now-canonical https version? Will the https version of the page immediately replace the http version on the SERP, with the same ranking?"
Yes, it will as long as you set it in Google Webmaster tools and create the proper 301 redirects please look at this reply.
Okay you have been creating duplicate content for Google I would decide to use HTTPS and point your self-referencing canonical as well as your 301 redirect to HTTPS
you need to correct everything in Webmaster tools/Google search console these things are essential in order to maintain your traffic. Please look at my post here and make sure your canonical is self referencing to HTTPS://
- http://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/https-vs-http/
- http://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/http-https-migration-checklist-google-docs/
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]</ifmodule>here is an updated article on using HTTPS the browsers alone are forcing people to do it.
https://www.semrush.com/blog/https-just-a-google-ranking-signal/
I hope I have been of help let me know if I can clear anything up.
All the best,
Tom
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
-
New page disappeared from the ranks, under dubious circumstances
I've had an odd situation happen today. Published a blog post and it ranked No 6 within 2 or 3 hours, just come back now (About 12 hours later) and it has completely vanished! I have checked to page 9, and used a couple of keyword tools and it appears nowhere! It didn't have any back links, but it was unique and high quality. I have checked on the page does still exist and it is still readable. Any thoughts would be gratefully received.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
Url structure on product pages - Should we apply canonicalized links in breadcrumbs or entry folders
We have products in the that go into mulitiple categories on our e-commerce site. But of course, each product is only canonicalized to one category. My question is: what should the breadcrumbs look like when users access a product from a non-canonicalized/primary category ?Should we apply canonicalized links in breadcrumbs or entry folders? For example: Let´s say we have product called "glacier hiking in the alps". It is in two categories; 1) glacier hiking 2) mountain tours. And is canonicalized to the glacier hiking category. If a user accesses it from the mountain tours category, should the url/breadcrumbs look like this: www.example.com/glacier-hiking/glacier-hiking-in-the-alps (because that is the canonicalized version) Or should it look like like this: www.example.com/mountain-tours/glacier-hiking-in-the-alps (because that is where the user came from) Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | guidetoiceland0 -
Taken a canonical off a page to let it rank with new unique content - what more can I do?
A week ago, I took a canonical off of a page that was pointing to the homepage for a very big, generic search term for my brand as we felt that it could have been harming our rankings (as it wasn't a true canonical page). A week in and our rankings for the term have dropped 7 positions out of page 1 and the page we want to rank instead is nowhere to be seen. Do I hang fire? As such a big search term, it's affecting traffic, but I don't want to make any rash decisions. Here's a bit more info: For arguments sake, let's call the search term we're going after 'Boots', with the URL where the canonical was placed of /boots. The canonical went to the root domain as we sell, well... boots. At the time, the homepage was ranking for Boots on page 1 and we wanted to change this so that the Boots page ranked for that term... all logical right? We did the following: Took off mentions of Boots from meta on the homepage and made sure it was optimised for on the boots page. Took the canonical off of /boots. Used GSC to fetch & ask Google to recrawl "/boots". Resubmitted the sitemap. Do I hang fire on running back to the safety of ranking for boots on the homepage? Do I risk keyword cannibalisation by adding the search terms back to the homepage?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kelly_Edwards0 -
Will Reducing Number of Low Page Authority Page Increase Domain Authority?
Our commercial real estate site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) contains about 800 URLs. Since 2012 the domain authority has dropped from 35 to about 20. Ranking and traffic dropped significantly since then. The site has about 791 URLs. Many are set to noindex. A large percentage of these pages have a Moz page authority of only "1". It is puzzling that some pages that have similar content to "1" page rank pages rank much better, in some cases "15". If we remove or consolidate the poorly ranked pages will the overall page authority and ranking of the site improve? Would taking the following steps help?: 1. Remove or consolidate poorly ranking unnecessary URLs?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan1
2. Update content on poorly ranking URLs that are important?
3. Create internal text links (as opposed to links from menus) to critical pages? A MOZ crawl of our site's URLs is visible at the link below. I am wondering if the structure of the site is just not optimized for ranking and what can be done to improve it. THANKS. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqchfqveelm1q11/CRAWL www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (1).csv?dl=0 Thanks,
Alan0 -
Fetch As Google Redirect from HTTPS to HTTP
Hi Moz Community, We just launched a redesigned site and moved our blog from http://sparkline.motifinvesting.com to https://www.motifinvesting.com/blog. When I went to check the site today I noticed something strange. When I Fetch a Blog URL as Google it is redirecting from https to http AND dropping the / <post-id>from the end of the URL.</post-id> So for the URL https://www.motifinvesting.com/blog/cleantech-obama-romney/1494 I am getting the attached results when I Fetch as Google. When I access the same URL in my browser, I see a 200 status code and no redirect. Why would Google Bot show that the URL is being redirected? Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | motif_marketing
Breanna https://www.motifinvesting.com/blog/cleantech-obama-romney/1494 I7yQPza.png0 -
HTTP Pages Indexed as HTTPS
My site used to be entirely HTTPS. I switched months ago so that all links in the pages that the public has access to are now http only. But I see now that when I do a site:www.qjamba.com, the results include many pages with https in the beginning (including the home page!), which is not what I want. I can redirect to http but that doesn't remove https from the indexing, right? How do I solve this problem? sample of results: Qjamba: Free Local and Online Coupons, coupon codes ... **<cite class="_Rm">https://www.qjamba.com/</cite>**One and Done savings. Printable coupons and coupon codes for thousands of local and online merchants. No signups, just click and save. Chicnova online coupons and shopping - Qjamba **<cite class="_Rm">https://www.qjamba.com/online-savings/Chicnova</cite>**Online Coupons and Shopping Savings for Chicnova. Coupon codes for online discounts on Apparel & Accessories products. Singlehop online coupons and shopping - Qjamba <cite class="_Rm">https://www.qjamba.com/online-savings/singlehop</cite>Online Coupons and Shopping Savings for Singlehop. Coupon codes for online discounts on Business & Industrial, Service products. Automotix online coupons and shopping - Qjamba <cite class="_Rm">https://www.qjamba.com/online-savings/automotix</cite>Online Coupons and Shopping Savings for Automotix. Coupon codes for online discounts on Vehicles & Parts products. Online Hockey Savings: Free Local Fast | Qjamba **<cite class="_Rm">www.qjamba.com/online-shopping/hockey</cite>**Find big online savings at popular and specialty stores on Hockey, and more. Hitcase online coupons and shopping - Qjamba **<cite class="_Rm">www.qjamba.com/online-savings/hitcase</cite>**Online Coupons and Shopping Savings for Hitcase. Coupon codes for online discounts on Electronics, Cameras & Optics products. Avanquest online coupons and shopping - Qjamba <cite class="_Rm">https://www.qjamba.com/online-savings/avanquest</cite>Online Coupons and Shopping Savings for Avanquest. Coupon codes for online discounts on Software products.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | friendoffood0 -
How does having multiple pages on similar topics affect SEO?
Hey everyone, On our site we have multiple pages that have similar content. As an example, we have a section on Cars (in general) and then specific pages for Used Cars, European Cars, Remodeled Cars etc. Much of the content is similar on these page and the only difference is some content and the additional term in the URL (for example car.com/remodeled-cars and /european-cars). In the past few months, we've noticed a dip in our organic ranking and started doing research. Also, we noticed that Google, in SERPs, shows the general page (cars.com/cars) and not the specific page (/european-cars), even if the specific page has more content. Can having multiple pages with similar content hurt SEO? If so, what is the best way to remedy this? We can consolidate some of the pages and make the difference between them a little clearer, but does it make that much of a difference for rankings? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JonathonOhayon0 -
How do you transition a keyword rank from a home page to a sub-page on the site?
We're currently ranking #1 for a valuable keyword, but the result on the SERP is our home page. We're creating a new product page focused on this keyword to provide a better user experience and create more relevant content. What is the best way to make a smooth transition to make the product page rank #1 for the keyword instead of the home page?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | buildasign0