SEO best practice : HTTP to HTTPS

[Crocodesign]

What's the best practice to switch from an all HTTP site to an all HTTPS site ?
No changes to the site structure, just a full site switch to SSL.
Right now, the site is reachable with HTTP and with HTTPS.

http://crocodesign.be --> https://crocodesign.be
http://www.crocodesign.be --> https://crocodesign.be
https://www.crocodesign.be --> https://crocodesign.be

CMS : Wordpress 3.9
Server type : Apache
Preferred method : .htaccess

[TomRayner]

The above redirect structure you've proposed would work great.  You're ensuring only one homepage version exists, making it the canonical, and all variations (which may also have previous links going to them and SEO value) are being redirected to pass on to the canonical version.

You can use your .htaccess file to force http to https by adding the following code:

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

The first line turns on redirection capabilities.  The second line checks to make sure the connection is not already https. The third rule will redirect users from their original location, to the same location but using HTTPS.

And also, in case you want to know how to make sure that the www. version of your site redirects to the non-www version, the code would be:

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.(.)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.)$ https://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

Hope this helps

[Crocodesign]

Thank you for your reply @TomRoberts
How can I make sure it's a 301 permanent redirect ?

[Devanur-Rafi]

You can use any of the HTTP header checkers available online for the purpose or a desktop tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider can also give you the HTTP header status codes for any URL.

Best regards,

Devanur Rafi

[Crocodesign]

@Rafi : I want to explicity state in the .htaccess rule that a 301 must be used.

[Devanur-Rafi]

Oh ok...

This line ensures its a 301:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

[KeriMorgret]

We'll also be posting more info about this on the Moz blog later this month.

[EGOL]

I wonder why Google's PhD engineers didn't post detailed info about this?....  But, I can probably understand it better from the Moz blog.

They also should have warned people that it would tank their adsense earnings.