Mass HTTP to HTTPs move

[Clickmetrics]

Hi,

As as part of an on-site SEO optimisation process, we've identified moving over from http to https - this is also in part to ensure our on-site forms are secure.

In our industry our website has a high traffic volume (top 2 in the industry), we are concerned what impact  the 301-redirecting from http to https would have on our organic traffic, both in terms of how Google would react to this mass-301 redirect plus the loss of 'search value' of inbound links.

Privacy issues aside, would the minor quality-signal improvement be worth the move? Anyone have experience with such a move - was the outcome positive?

Many thanks,

Jason

[_nitman]

Hi Jason,

I had a word with a friend who handled the similar project for a large organisation a month back and what they observed is, the traffic went down initially for sometime and picked up the flow later on.

[ThomasHarvey]

Hi Jason,

Are you purely moving to SSL for the SEO benefit? Without knowing your site and any links I wouldn't be able to guess the impact. SSL is a relatively low ranking signal from what I can tell (and the studies into it) so I would hesitate to say that the benefit for the moving to ssl will out do the 301 redirects.

However, does the SSL have a benefit to your users? Will it help you increase conversion rates using it? Will you be able to put a trustmark on your site to help convert higher? This should help with your business case as any change you do should be to help your site perform better (either through money as a business or through informing people if you're a charity)

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Jason,

I've been involved with a number of migrations (including this site, moz.com) and in my own experience I've seen anywhere from zero traffic change to a loss in the range of 8-9%.

Google says that in theory, you shouldn't lose any traffic, and several large publishers I've spoken with can attest to this.

In practice, HTTPS migrations can be complex, and with more moving parts the potential to do things less than perfectly can escalate. If you mess up your 301s or create confusing redirects, the potential for reduced traffic is real. My general advice is don't let the migration to HTTPS scare you, but proceed with caution. This post may help: https://moz.com/blog/seo-tips-https-ssl

[_nitman]

Thanks for sharing your experience and this great article Cyrus, really useful stuff.

What's your observation on post migration traffic trends? Does it makes sense to migrate to https for SEO perspective only?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

We observe only a small correlation between HTTPS sites and higher rankings (like 0.04) - so there's very little apparent pure SEO benefit. It really seems to be the "tie-breaker" Google claims, though this difference may increase in the future.

[_nitman]

Alrighty! Thanks once again Cyrus

[Clickmetrics]

Hi Cyrus,

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm concerned that some of the other more urgent on-site optimisation changes will already impact traffic volume in the short-term so I don't want to compound this further by making the switch over to HTTPS.

So this is off the table for now. Thanks everyone for the feedback on this.

More on the discussion side, Google shouldn't really be re-evaluating URLs when there is a protocol change in my opinion, especially when moving from http to https. It seems this would discourage site owners from making the move as organic traffic would be more valuable than user privacy.

-Jason