Http to https what should one look out for

[Taiger]

Hi, we are moving our site from http to https and would like to know what should one look out for. What are the things that can go wrong, and what is the best way to go about it.

Regards Tai

[GastonRiera]

Hello Tai,

Take a look on these three articles. They might help you.

The Big List of SEO Tips and Tricks for Using HTTPS on Your Website - Moz Blog
The HTTP to HTTPs Migration Checklist in Google Docs to Share, Copy & Download - AleydaSolis
Google SEO HTTPS Migration Checklist - SERoundtable

Best luck!
GR.

[Taiger]

Wow, thanks you for the links Gaston, I will look in to these..

All the best

[muzzmoz]

Thanks for this Gaston. I have a few questions/comments to add:

1. Do you have any specific advice for sites on Shopify? It seems they made the decision to move to https in 2016 and just leave a swaythe of small site owners to sort out redirects etc after it happened
2. One 'gotcha' that I keep finding is with backlinks. When the site moves to https, backlinks that were previously set up to point to http are not recognised as backlinks on https, which appears to impact backlink profile and domain authority on the new https version. Does this make sense? Therefore, all the old backlinks need to be changed to point to https. Is this correct?
3. I typically use the Traffic Control app to redirect URLs, but they seem to use relative links. So how do we redirect http to https?

Murray

[GastonRiera]

Hello Murray!

1. Do you have any specific advice for sites on Shopify? It seems they made the decision to move to https in 2016 and just leave a swaythe of small site owners to sort out redirects etc after it happened
   Sorry, i've little to none experience in Shopify. Can't help here.

2. One 'gotcha' that I keep finding is with backlinks. When the site moves to https, backlinks that were previously set up to point to http are not recognised as backlinks on https, which appears to impact backlink profile and domain authority on the new https version. Does this make sense? Therefore, all the old backlinks need to be changed to point to https. Is this correct?
   Here there are 2 points make. On one hand, if the redirection to https is done correctly with a 301 all the backlinks will point to the last page. On the other hand, IF, only IF, you have some way to change the URL in the backlink, it could be a nice idea. I'd prefer assuring a correct redirection rather than changing the pointed URL in old backlinks.
   Remember that non-google backlink profilers (such as Moz, ahrefs, magestic or others) will take some time in collecting all the information in the HTTPS site. That is simple it is a whole new site/page for them.

3. I typically use the Traffic Control app to redirect URLs, but they seem to use relative links. So how do we redirect http to https?
   Don't know how large and/or complicated is the site. I do handle (or say to the IT team to handle) the redirection strictly with 301 redirection rules. Most of them with some sentences in the .htaccess file or with a plugin if Wordpress is used. Hope i've helped.
   Please feel free to ask more if i haven't answered you or if I haven't explained well.
   GR.