Client has moved to secured https webpages but non secured http pages are still being indexed in Google. Is this an issue

[VanguardCommunications]

We are currently working with a client that relaunched their website two months ago to have hypertext transfer protocol secure pages (https) across their entire site architecture.   The problem is that their non secure (http) pages are still accessible and being indexed in Google.

Here are our concerns:

1.  Are co-existing non secure and secure webpages (http and https) considered duplicate content? 
2.  If these pages are duplicate content should we use 301 redirects or rel canonicals? 
3.  If we go with rel canonicals, is it okay for a non secure page to have rel canonical to the secure version?

Thanks for the advice.

[donford]

Hi,

1. Yes, http and https are considered different urls and duplicate content is an issue.

2. You should redirect all http traffic to https inside your .htaccess file located in your root directory usually public_html

 <code>RewriteEngine On
 RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
 RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]</code>

3. You could use rel canonical but a 301 redirect is certain. It is safe to rel canonnical from http to https .

You will also want to follow up and make sure you have a robots.txt in the https version

Hope that helps!

Don

EDIT FOR A LINK: https://sites.google.com/site/onlyvalidation/page/301-redirect-https-to-http-on-apache-server

[Christy-Correll]

Hi, thanks for your questions! Don has provided some great advice. In addition, you should verify both the http and https versions of your site in Google Webmaster Tools, and configure each account according to Google's guidelines for webmasters at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033085?hl=en&ref_topic=6033084. (You can also use GWT to tell Google your site has moved, denote the new site, remove old URLs, etc.) Hope that helps!

Christy

PS - To clarify what Don recommended on preventing duplicate content, it is best practice  to 301 redirect URLs when moving from http to https (vs. using canonical tags).