HTTP to HTTPS Transition, Large Drop in Search Traffic

[Marketing.SCG]

My URL is: https://www.seattlecoffeegear.comWe implemented https across the site on Friday. Saturday and Sunday search traffic was normal/slightly higher than normal (in analytics) and slightly down in GWT. Today, it has dropped significantly in both, to about half of normal search traffic. From everything we can see, we implemented this correctly.

• 301 redirected all http requests to https (and yes, they go to the correct page and not to the homepage )
• Rewrote hardcoded internal links
• Registered/submitted sitemaps from https in Bing and GWT
• Used fetch and render to ensure Google could reach the site and also was redirected appropriately from http to https versions
• Ensured robots.txt does not block https or secure

We also use a CDN (though I don't think that impacts anything) and have had no customer issues with accessing or using the website since the transition.Is there anything else I might be missing that could correlate to a drop in search impressions or is this just a waiting game of a few days to let Google sort through the change we've made and reindex everything (it dropped to 0 indexed for a day and is now up to 1744 of our 2180 pages indexed)?Thank you so much for any input!Kaylie

[justin-brock]

I get a 504 error when I first tried to load your site (https). Then I loaded the http version, but was redirected to the HTTPS version after some time. Not sure what's going on there. I could not repeat the error.

Also, Webmaster Tools data is about two days delayed. Are you sure you're comparing the same days in both applications? (Not uncommon mistake for me to have made.)

[Marketing.SCG]

Thanks for the response!

Sorry about the timeout error. Not sure what happened there either. I have been unable to replicate it.

You were partially right about the dates. So now I am looking at the same time table for Analytics and GWT (21-27) and I see a huge "drop" on the 27th in GWT. However, if I extend GA through today, I see a minor drop on Friday the 26th and then it bumps back up to normal levels. Is there a chance that maybe GWT is reporting search/clicks from part way through the 27th rather than the full day of data, creating a false sense of alarm?

I wanted to see a larger set of data that might tell a more complete story. So, looking in GA, I only see a change of 5% in traffic when comparing the 23rd-29th with the 16th-22nd. That is a 4% decrease in Google organic, but I don't feel like these numbers are the cause for alarm that GWT graphs initially indicate. Thoughts?

Thanks for your input!

Kaylie

[justin-brock]

For Webmaster Tools, you are only getting partial data from the 27th right now. I'd monitor WT for the first full week post switch and compare your data then.

Also, for Google Analytics, that 4% difference may be due to having only partial data from today. So you may need to wait a bit longer for a more accurate comparison there. That said, 4% difference in traffic isn't alarming for the amount of time you're digging into. You're probably overly sensitive after the switch. I'm sure I'd be.

Once thing you can do in GA is ask for higher precision on the reporting. Click the weird icon next to the graduation cap in the top right and slide the toggle under "Control the number of sessions used to calculate this report" toward Higher Precision.

I'm really interested in your experience because we're mapping out a move to https, too.

0Fl26uY.png

[Marketing.SCG]

Hmmm, I don't appear to have that icon. Perhaps because sampling is not occurring on my report?

I actually felt that the transition went really well, which is why I was surprised by the data. I have a feeling, however, that I indeed just need to give it a few more days and keep checking the traffic/search information.

I'll keep you posted on how things pan out over the next week or so!

[intoto-digital]

Important think to remember if you are running AdWords to your site is to make sure that your AdWords also point to the https url.

Also when you create new AdWords add pay attention, as default setting is http.

[Marketing.SCG]

Thank you for the reminder! I believe these have all been switched over, but I'll give it another look to be sure!

Kaylie