google ranking switch from http to https

by 12 replies
14
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!!!
#search engine optimization #google #http #https #ranking #seo #switch
  • 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.
  • 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?
  • Banned
    My question is, why would you allow http pages to exist If you've set the entire site up for http?

    It's like going out & buying a new car & walking to work everyday.
  • You need to set a canonical tag for the http versions and redirect them to the https versions.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • 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?
    • [1] reply
    • Banned

      Yes, If you break the image URLs.

      Solution, don't break the URLs. It's your choice.
  • 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.
  • 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!
  • It doesn’t matter http or https?
    • [1] reply
    • our site is now https based.

      my question is, what properties should exist in the Search Console?
      • [1] reply
  • 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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    google ranking switch from http to https

    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.