HTTPS attaching to home page

[hiphound]

Hi!!

Okay - weird tech question.

Domain is http://hiphound.com. I have SSL attaching to checkout and my account pages. Tested and works well.

Issue - I am able to reach the home page at https://hiphound.com AND http://hiphound.com. If I access the home page via HTTPS and click on a link (any link) then the site is redirected to HTTP again which is good.

My concern is the home page displaying via HTTPS and HTTP. Is this is an issue that can be resolved or is it expected behavior I have to live with.? I am being told by DEV there is nothing they can do about it but want to understand why and if they are correct.

Thoughts? Thank you!!

Lynn

[Highland]

So you're saying you don't want the HTTPS homepage? You should be able to go a 301 redirect to the non-HTTPS version or just use a canonical to specify to only index the non-SSL version

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

[hiphound]

Hello!

Yes - that is correct. The home page should only be found via HTTP not HTTPS (HTTPS only for shop and account pages).

I do have canonical setup on the site but it looks like it is only applying to the shop pages. I will have it implemented on the home and CMS pages as well. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

Do you know why one would use canonical over a 301 and vice versa? I know there are always 10 ways to accomplish the same thing but am wondering if one is better than another.

Thanks so much for your help and insight!

Lynn

[jmueller]

One does not always have the option to use a canonical. If you have the option; always go with the 301-redirect in such a scenario.

If your concern is about the SERP's only you can try this bit of code in a htaccess file (if you use apache):

RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^443$
RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ robotsssl.txt

Then add this code to your robotsssl.txt

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Have a good day!

Jan