Once on https should Moz still be picking up errors on http

[Ruth-birdcage]

Hello,

Should Moz be picking up http errors still if the sites on https? Or has the https not been done properly? I'm getting duplicate errors amoung other things.

Cheers,

Ruth

[BlueprintMarketing]

Do a search & replace on your site then recheck it.

search for HTTP url's & replace with https URL's

[Ruth-birdcage]

Thanks, Thomas. The https urls are in place but I was concerned that if the http urls are showing up still that the move to https hasn't been done properly.

[ThompsonPaul]

You need to ensure that the HTTP version of the site's URLs are no longer reachable, Ruth. That means adding a 301-redirect to force all URLs to their HTTPS versions. This is the most likely cause of your issue

To test, simply go to a page URL in the browser address bar and remove the s from the HTTPS and hit enter. Watch what happens. If the address bar shows the automatic change back to the HTTPS version of the URL, you're good. If it doesn't, you'll need to add the redirect.

You should also ensure that all the internal links within the site have been rewritten to use the HTTPS version of the URLs - like menus, sidebars, widgets, and in-content links to other pages.

Hope that helps?

Paul

[Ruth-birdcage]

Hi Paul,

Yes thank you, that's brilliant and confirms what I've been thinking - that the https hasn't been done properly as they're not redirecting when going to the http version. I thought the client had at the htaccess so will look into that.

If the redirects are done properly do I need to add canonical tags or are the redirects enough? Just want to make sure I'm covering all bases.

Thanks so much for your advice.

Cheers,

Ruth

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Ruth,

Paul brought up a very good point.

If using Apache  and it sounds like you are you can force the HTTP to HTTPS redirect using

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]</ifmodule>

See this for more https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/https-vs-http/

301 Redirects are in place verify that by using a tool like this one.  you can drop all the URLs you want to check in here. https://httpstatus.io/

Then make sure any HTTP is a 301 and any HTTPS is a 200

Then  run a search and replace

• http://mydomain.com to https://mydomain.com
• http://www.mydomain.com to https://www.mydomain.com

If you are running a WordPress website this is a very effective plug-in ( and free if you type the name into wordpress.org's plugin repo)

https://bettersearchreplace.com/ or https://interconnectit.com/products/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/

Your canonical tags (unless very good reason like third-party content) should be self-referencing meaning add canonical's to the https:// urls not the http:// URLs like below. A good example is what you see below

Moz will tell you as will https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/redirect-checker/ & https://deepcrawl.com will easily find any of the problems. some references below for rel-canonical tags

https://moz.com/blog/rel-canonical

https://yoast.com/rel-canonical/

Last but not least here is a wonderful tutorial that goes over migrating from http to https

https://www.keycdn.com/blog/http-to-https/

I hope this was of help,

Tom

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[Ruth-birdcage]

Thanks, Thomas will have a look at those.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Ruth,

I am more than happy to help. Please have a look at these resources if you believe the migration has not been done correctly.

Please have a look at these resources I think they will be immensely helpful. Please remember the Google doc referenced in number one is available in line 3 as well as In the instructions anchor text on line 2.

1. https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/http-https-migration-checklist-google-docs/
2. To easily make a copy, add to your own Drive, download or print, go to the Google Docs, then choose “File” and select your preferred option: (Or use link below)
3. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XB26X_wFoBBlQEqecj7HB79hQ7DTLIPo97SS5irwsK8/edit?usp=sharing

• https://moz.com/community/q/switching-from-http-to-https-but-what-about-images-and-image-link-juice

Please let me know if I can be of any help,

Thomas

[ThompsonPaul]

Wow - sorry this question slipped past, Ruth.

As long as the proper HTTP redirect has been written to HTTPS, there's nothing that needs to be done with canonical tags.

The beauty of 301-redirects is that they are server directives - once in place, its no longer even possible to reach the non-HTTPS URLs. The HTTPS URLs should of course still keep their own self-referential canonical tags, but that's handled automatically in most CMSs (Content Management Systems like WordPress.)

Hope that covers what you were asking?

Paul