Do I lose link juice if I have a https site and someone links to me using http instead?

[Lisa-Devins]

We have recently launched a https site which is getting some organic links some of which are using https and some are using http. Am I losing link juice on the ones linked using http even though I am redirecting or does Google view them the same way? As most people still use http naturally will it look strange to google if I contact anyone who has given us a link and ask them to change to https?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Hector

This is something I wouldn't be too concerned about. Do the following and you will be fine:

• Ensure all pages are following the new https structure

• No http version

• Make sure your site is either www. or non www. consistently

• Make sure you have no chain redirects

• Update any old redirect files

• Make sure resources are secure as well (CSS files / javascript / widgets / images / etc)

• Make sure canonical tags reflect URL change

• Update your sitemap.xml

• Update sitemap.xml in Google Webmaster Tools / Bing Webmaster Tools

• Correct all of your internal links to reflect the new structure

• Consider using relative URLs

• If you want, find your high quality backlinks using Moz or Majestic

• Reach out and ask them to reflect the https structure

Again, this isn't a huge issue as Google will pass 90-99% of link equity and https is now a ranking factor. You should be all good, but make sure you run through this list I just put up for you and you can tie up any loose ends. Here's a great resource from Moz.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[TheWebMastercom]

Is there any reason to use relative Urls from an SEO perspective?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Jonathan

Not really. Some say it shortens load times because it shortens code on the page, but that's minimal. I am looking at it from the standpoint of if you ever change your domain or URL structure, you don't have to go through the tedious task of manually changing internal links.

Does that make sense?

[TheWebMastercom]

Thanks, that was my impression of it as well.  Just wanted to check I wasn't overlooking something.