Canonical Tag Question

[PurpleWeb]

I have been made aware a number of my sites are viewable on both http and https. I havent implemented the SSL's yet on the server so i wondered why this is happening. Is this something that happens automatically or is there something i have setup thats causing it.

Also the person who made me aware said that it could be affecting my rankings. I have a number of sites with this issue and some are still performing well where others are struggling. Can someone clarify this for me please

Thanks

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Where are you hosting the sites? That could be the root of the issue.

 

[Chris McCreery]

A bunch of hosts using cpanel have implemented the LetsEncrypt free SSL certificates and I've seen a few that have enabled these by default.

Another cause could be that your shared host has an SSL on the server and your site is being served up by that.

And finally, if you're using CloudFlare you may have their flexible SSL enabled which will server https from your users to CloudFlare, but not from CloudFlare to your server.

 

[PurpleWeb]

Hi. All my sites are on a vps that I rent. They have recently moved over. I now have free SSL certificates but I haven't implemented them yet which is why it came as such a surprise to see the https versions working. I just assumed when I was made aware that this was common.

What's the best way to resolve the issue asap.

Thanks

 

[PurpleWeb]

A bunch of hosts using cpanel have implemented the LetsEncrypt free SSL certificates and I've seen a few that have enabled these by default.

Another cause could be that your shared host has an SSL on the server and your site is being served up by that.

And finally, if you're using CloudFlare you may have their flexible SSL enabled which will server https from your users to CloudFlare, but not from CloudFlare to your server.

Hi Chris.

Thanks for you reply. As I mentioned above the server does have SSL but I have not implemented it yet so all my sites are on http. I wanted to fully understand the SEO implications before switching the sites over.

Can you advise what you think might be the best course of action.

Thanks

 

[djbaxter]

As I mentioned above the server does have SSL but I have not implemented it yet so all my sites are on http.

What do you mean by "I have not implemented it yet"? If the sites have SSL certificates then an https connection can be made to them whether or not you do anything to force https.

I wanted to fully understand the SEO implications before switching the sites over.

There are no negative SEO implications and these days, depending on the type of sites you're running, there may well be negative SEO consequences of NOT forcing them to SSL.

What platforms are you using for your sites?

 

[PurpleWeb]

What do you mean by "I have not implemented it yet"? If the sites have SSL certificates then an https connection can be made to them whether or not you do anything to force https.



There are no negative SEO implications and these days, depending on the type of sites you're running, there may well be negative SEO consequences of NOT forcing them to SSL.

What platforms are you using for your sites?

Hi

Yes let me clarify. I moved my sites to my VPS from a shared platform without any SSL. It has them now but i haven't done anything regarding them yet. I have been looking around and i have read that it's best practice to start using the https rather than http but i was just concerned about harming an existing SEO so i wanted to make sure i knew exactly what was required before i switched the domain over.

Have you got any resources that you can share that will assist me in moving over

Thanks

 

[PurpleWeb]

Sorry, My preferred platform is Wordpress

 

[Chris McCreery]

Good resource here -

http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-ssl-and-https-in-wordpress/

 

[djbaxter]

Yes let me clarify. I moved my sites to my VPS from a shared platform without any SSL. It has them now but i haven't done anything regarding them yet. I have been looking around and i have read that it's best practice to start using the https rather than http but i was just concerned about harming an existing SEO so i wanted to make sure i knew exactly what was required before i switched the domain over.

Have you got any resources that you can share that will assist me in moving over

Chris just gave you one above. I'll be back with some additional resources in a minute.

Sorry, My preferred platform is Wordpress

With Wordpress, your job just got a whole lot easier.

How well these will work depends on your specific server configuration:

Really Simple SSL

If your hosting configuration gives you "too many redirects" with that plugin, try:

Easy HTTPS Redirection

or

WordPress Force HTTPS

And to fix those internal or external link issues, try:

SSL Insecure Content Fixer

 

[djbaxter]

Some more resources you may or may not need:

WordPress HTTP:// to HTTPS:// Quick Start Guide | Donna Fontenot Cavalier

If you get redirect errors:

How to Fix Error Too Many Redirects Issue in WordPress

You probably won't need to worry about .htaccess if you use the plug-ins but just in case:

Redirect HTTP to HTTPS automatically | GoDaddy Help CA

And to test your site after converting to https

SSL-check: crawl your HTTPS website and find unsecure content

Why No Padlock? - Why is my SSL web page insecure? Find the culprit!

 

[djbaxter]

Let us know how it goes, PurpleWeb!