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google ranking switch from http to https

by newdude
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
i manage an e-commerce website. since it's inception many years ago, we've had an SSL certificate for it, which means that for every http page, there's an equivalent auto-generated httpS page.

google used to organically rank our store's http pages. and rank them well. now it seems they are only ranking the httpS versions of our pages. and these httpS pages are not organically ranking nearly as well as the http page used to.

1. why are the httpS pages now getting listed and not the http pages?

2. why are the httpS pages doing worse organically than the http pages used to? they have the same exact content.

3. in a different forum, someone suggested that I setup redirects so that every single http page of our site redirects to the https versions. do you agree with this suggestion? why or why not?

please advise. thanks in advance!!!
#google #http #https #ranking #seo #switch
  • Profile picture of the author silverm
    There should be only 1 version of your site visible to the outside world.
    Either http or https.
    Google treats both of them as "separate sites"
    There is no difference in the seo of a site based on whether it is http or https.

    Further more you should have only 1 version of your domain
    Either www or non-www

    If you have setup https recently, and plan to use https in future, then redirect all http links to corresponding https links.

    Organic rankings should remain intact.
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  • Profile picture of the author newdude
    thanks silverm. https has been setup since the beginning of time. i guess this is part of a change in google's algorithm/.

    can you elaborate on having only one domain, either www or non-www? when someone goes to the non-www version of the site, they are auto-redirected to the www verison i guess that's what we need, right?

    also, this is a wordpress site. i guess i could simply go to the wordpress WordPress Address (URL) setting and Site Address (URL) setting and change them both from http://www.website.com to https://www.website.com?
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    My question is, why would you allow http pages to exist If you've set the entire site up for https?

    It's like going out & buying a new car & walking to work everyday.
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  • Profile picture of the author BenJackson
    You need to set a canonical tag for the http versions and redirect them to the https versions.
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  • Profile picture of the author newdude
    thanks for the advice.

    final question (hopefully)... we have a lot of product pictures from hour http site that are indexed very well in google images. when i change settings to https, is this going to wreak havoc with the google image rank of our pictures?
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by newdude View Post

      when i change settings to https, is this going to wreak havoc with the google image rank of our pictures?

      Yes, If you break the image URLs.

      Solution, don't break the URLs. It's your choice.
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  • Profile picture of the author BenJackson
    It shouldn't as long as the http version is redirected and a canonical tag points to the https version. I've switched from http to https and noticed little change in rankings, and I'm assuming with image rankings it's no different.
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  • Profile picture of the author newdude
    thanks all. we have now made the switch from http to https. which raises my next question... in google webmaster tools>Search Console, we have the following 4 properties listed:

    www.website.com
    website.com
    https://website.com
    http://www.website.com


    I suspect my next steps should either be:
    1. deleting www.website.com and website.com

    or

    2. or keeping all 4 above and adding http://www.website.com and http://website.com?

    or

    3. do something else? or leave as is?

    please advise. thanks in advance!
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  • Profile picture of the author lizajack2013
    It doesn’t matter http or https?
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    • Profile picture of the author newdude
      our site is now https based.

      my question is, what properties should exist in the Search Console?
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by newdude View Post

        our site is now https based.

        my question is, what properties should exist in the Search Console?

        What does that even mean?
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  • Profile picture of the author newdude
    right now, i have these 4 properties setup in the Search Console:

    www.website.com
    website.com
    https://website.com
    http://www.website.com

    so my question is, should i be making any changes to this list? should i add any more properties? should i delete any properties? or should i leave just these 4 and that's it?
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