Switching from HTTP to HTTPS: 301 redirect or keep both & rel canonical?
-
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?
-
Thanks Eric, I appreciate the response.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
No problem!
-
Thanks Logan!
-
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://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/seo-tips-https-ssl
Good luck!
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
-
Losing backlinks between http and https
Late last year, Shopify moved all their sites from http to https. I did an audit of a Shopify site recently and discovered the following... The https version of the site has just 13 backlinks from 5 domains The http version of the site has 568 backlinks from 48 domains So I went into the blog (which is on a different domain - long story) and changed all the backlinks from http to https. One week later... the https version of the site now has 278 backlinks from the same 5 domains. I've been told that Google doesn't worry about this when it comes to rankings. Not sure if this is true or not. But I definitely believe this DOES affect MOZ Domain Authority. Can anybody confirm or deny this? If the backlinks do not change from http to https following a migration, does this impact MOZ Domain Authority and/or Google rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
301 Redirect and Loss of PA and DA
Mozzers, http:itsgr82bme.com Old domain homepage had a DA of 24 and a PA of 36 Currently redirected to http://thekidstime.com Homepage shows a DA of 6 and a PA of 1. That is a significant loss of authority. I thought a 301 is supposed to be better than that. What gives? What are the next steps, asking the old backlinks to update their links? Thanks for your help, Matt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | matt.nails0 -
When moving a site from HTTP to HTTPS, will i lose value from the 301 redirect?
I am looking at moving my site from HTTP to full HTTPS, so i will 301 redirect any HTTP requests to their HTTPS counterpart. All my pages in the Google index are HTTP, so will that 301 redirect reduce the value of the pages? Cheers
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEOhmygod0 -
SEO Impacts if changing from https to http (or viceversa)
Hi there, I want to take the benefits (both Google's SEO rewards and increased site speed) from putting on-line my site (it's not yet live) with a SSL certificate and make it use the new HTTP/2 protocol. Now the question is: if in the future I won't renew the SSL certificate (because too expensive, maybe), so the site will run through normal HTTP, do I risk to see changes of my pages on the SERPs? Will I lose all positions that I got? Thanks in advance for your tips!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | valeron0 -
Client would like to 301 redirect the homepage to a category page
Hello MOZ Community!!! I would like your expert opinions on a scenario, please! My client is an ecommerce company, and currently has one of its category pages outranking its homepage for a few key phrases. The homepage, however, has a better conversion rate. So, the client is asking that we make the homepage the category URL, so http://www.theirsite.com/blue-clothes. The existing homepage URL - http://www.theirsite.com - would 301 REDIRECT to the category page - which would render the current version of the homepage. Therefore, there would be nothing, ZERO content, on the MAIN URL: http://www.theirsite.com Has anyone ever done this before? What are the pros and the cons of this practice? Here is my same client, for reference: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/community/q/issue-with-category-ranking-on-page-1-vs-homepage-ranking-on-page-2
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | accpar0 -
301 redirect
Hi there, I have some good links pointing to one of my web pages at the moment, however we are just about to launch a new design with new URL structure and I am clear that I need to do a 301 redirect on the URL to the new URL. However, do I keep the old URL live forever? or can I remove it after a while? Kind Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Paul780 -
New to SEO. How do I set up a 301 Redirect? What Else should I do?
Hello, I am new to web design. I designed my own site using dreamweaver and did all my seo on my own, I read a few books. Long story short I rank on the bottom of page 1 just after 3 months and the keywords are highly competitive. Now, I am up against some heavy hitters from national brands versus my local real estate site. I don't have a 301 redirect, and am not sure what else I should be doing to get my site ranked higher. I have back links from various sites, ( non-paid ) so it's what others call white hat. When I grade my site on website grader I get a great score versus the sites that are higher than me. I'm guessing my sites age is an issue. I guess I'm looking for some guidance. Thank you all, Here is my site to view. http://www.bronxpad.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bronxpad0 -
Problem w/ 301 Redirect
Here is how I did the configuration of the redirects: I don’t understand why the destination page is different from the one is configured in the apache server. Any ideas? For example: http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/entertainment/ is being already being 301 redirected to a 404 page (http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.htmlentertainment/) that does not exist on the Apache server. As you can see, the url was incorrectly written. Another occurrence from the spreadsheet is http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/spanish/gallery/beach.html, which is also being 301 redirected to a 404 page (http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.htmlgallery/beach.html). This is causing a hard 404 page. Here is my .httpaccess file: <virtualhost 192.168.200.25:80=""></virtualhost> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot /home/www/solgroup/americas/meliacaribetropical.com ServerName www.meliacaribetropical.com ServerAlias meliacaribetropical.com Redirect permanent /spanish/services/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/services.html Redirect permanent /entertainment/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/services.html Redirect permanent /press/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/restaurantes/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/gastronomia.html Redirect permanent /spanish/entertainment/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/servicios.html Redirect permanent /spanish/services/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/servicios.html Redirect permanent /es/spa/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/servicios.html Redirect permanent /spanish/accommodations/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/habitaciones.html Redirect permanent /spanish/spa/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/servicios.html Redirect permanent /spanish/royal/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/servicio-real.html Redirect permanent /spanish/dining/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/gastronomia.html Redirect permanent /spanish/flintstones/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/galeria/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/visor.html Redirect permanent /spanish/gallery/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/visor.html Redirect permanent /es/reuniones-eventos/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/grupos.html Redirect permanent /lowest-rate.php http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /es/los-picapiedra/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /gallery/beach.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /gallery/dining.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/gastronomy.html Redirect permanent /gallery/pools.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/sitemap.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/galeria/playa.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/galeria/restaurantes.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/gastronomia.html Redirect permanent /es/galeria/piscinas.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/prensa/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/gallery/beach.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/gallery/pools.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/gallery/dining.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/gastronomia.html Redirect permanent /spanish/press/ http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /en/groups.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/groups.html Redirect permanent /terms-condition.php http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /es/all_inclusive.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/terms-condition.php http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/prensa/family-facilities-amenities.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/outside-us-telephone-listing.php http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/press/melia-international-brand-overhaul.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /es/prensa/melia-international-brand-overhaul.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /press/family-facilities-amenities.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /press/melia-international-brand-overhaul.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html Redirect permanent /es/prensa/melia-caribe-tropical-announces-fall-promotion.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /spanish/press/melia-caribe-tropical-announces-fall-promotion.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/es/index.html Redirect permanent /press/melia-caribe-tropical-announces-fall-promotion.html http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.html
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Melia0