Another http vs https Question?

[sherohass]

Is it better to keep the Transaction/ Payment pages on a commercial website as the only secure ones (https) and remainder of website as http?

Or is it better to have all the commercial website as secure (https)?

[KyleChamp]

As long as the pages that users enter any type of private / secure  information is SSL (https), than you're fine. Alternatively if you want to have your entire site https, that’s fine also.

[Matt-Williamson]

This is a good question, I would consider going down the route of making your transactional/payment pages https and then anything else http - anywhere your customers have to enter their sensitive data should be https. The one thing to remember with https is that it potentially causes duplicate content from a search engine point of view:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-content-and-http-and-https

Have a look at this interesting article in relation to https and why everyone isn't using it:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/03/https-is-more-secure-so-why-isnt-the-web-using-it/

Remember more importance has been placed on page load times since Panda so people are looking to shave every ounce of time they can in relation to load times, this also improves user experience.

I hope this has helps give you some more insight into HTTPs and whether it would be best for your site to be all this protocol or just part of it.

[William.Lau]

From my experience, if you are an eCommerce site, it is usually best to have https with account or checkout pages.

If you are a banking or payment processing site, it is best to have https throughout the site to offer confidence to users.

So...

eCommerce = Only in checkout/payment pages or account info.

Sensitive sites, like banking or financials = throughout the whole site.

[sherohass]

Hi,

The thing is that I have the login box on all pages of that website to allow access for purchase of Products that are quite diverse and also toenter to  website's social media accounts.

That is what had led me to have it https throughout whole site

Thanks.

S.H

[William.Lau]

From what I understand, login boxes usually wait to be logged in to activate HTTPS. And as for social media accounts, aren't the social media sharing and links sent to the social network? Like Twitter usually goes to API of twitter's site, which is usually HTTPS.

[sherohass]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. The thing I had the website set as such as Http with Https oertaining to transactions only but had problems in a warning appearing on logging to website indicating that some contents of pages have insecure informtion withan option to logon anyway. This has been turning visitors away.

I however realize that I have a duplicate content issue with website being as https at the moment. I am just trying to reach a solution whereby visitors feel safe purchasing from a new website that offers quite diverse service at better price than the other competitors who are major market players.

Thanks.

S.H

[sherohass]

Wow, thank you so much for your response. It attracted my attention to new points. Is there a way to keep the site entirely as https and avoid the duplicate content issue?

I am  fairly new to SEO.

I am struggling with a solution for this website which is Drupal based as I am finding it not that easy to work with from SEO point.

Again thank you so muh.

S.H

[Matt-Williamson]

No problem - you could place canonical tags on all the http:// pages to the https://  -

have a look at this guide from SeoMoz -

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization

I think you should also give this recent Q&A a read as it is very informative in regards to what you are looking at -

http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-content-and-http-and-https

Hope this helps

[sherohass]

I really appreciate your help. This information will definitly help me to keep my site all throughut as https the same way I wanted it to be from the beginning.

You are the Best.

S.H