Does having a page (or site) available on HTTP and HTTPS cause duplication issues?

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Say I've got a site that can be accessed using either protocal (i.e. HTTP and HTTPS), but most (if not all of the links) are pointing to the HTTP versions. Will it cause a problem if I start link building to HTTPS versions?

In other words does google see http://mysite.com as the same page as https://mysite.com?

Thanks

[Naghirniac]

Yes, you will have a duplication issue. You can work with both, but you will need to use the rel cannonical.

[Vizergy]

I have heard many times over the years that Google does not crawl/index secure pages... however, when performing a inURL:https search in Google you will see that this is certainly NOT true; they not only crawl, they index.  So, if it is being crawled and indexed I would say there is a very real chance that it could cause a Dup issue.

I would set up a canonical tag to be safe.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Makes sense - thanks

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Thanks Vizergy

[Dr-Pete]

Present day, Google has no issue with crawling/indexing secure pages, but Naghirniac is right - they will be seen as duplicates. The canonical tag is probably your easiest solution.

The best canonical solution, though, is to use the same URL consistently. Out of curiosity, why are you building links to the secure versions?

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Thanks for answering Dr. Pete

The reason I want to build links to the https version is because I plan to redirect the non secure homepage to the secure one.

The home page captures some customer details, so I don't think it makes sense to have the non secure version available as well.

If that makes sense.

[Dr-Pete]

Got it - saw your other question. This is definitely a bit tricky.