SSL or not?

[Mike Pedersen]

Is it worth doing an SSL for SEO?

And if you do, does that affect all the URLs listed on the Internet, since an ssl is "https:?

 

[patrice]

I was one of the first french seo consultant to switch to SSL in france, i have seen a significant long tail effect in terms of SEO in a couple of weeks after i switched to it. Other french SEO agencies that followed me saw a significant jump in SERP positions too.
Only my long tail keywords were significantly affected, the "big ones" did not gain anything, but also it might be because it's a "nuclear war" on the french equivalent of "seo agency"/"seo consultant" etc.. I'm managed to rank very well with "french seo agency" on an international level, and i don't think i would have succeeded without https, it gave me that little extra ounce of power i think.

You can have part of your site in https and some other parts in http. But beware, google considers https and http like 2 different sites, so make sure to make all your 301 redirect properly else you risk of losing lots of link juice and then your positions...

 

[Mike Pedersen]

That was one of my concerns.

If you type in just "www" and it stays non-SSL.

Then you type in "https:" and it shows SSL is that basically 2 websites?

I was one of the first french seo consultant to switch to SSL in france, i have seen a significant long tail effect in terms of SEO in a couple of weeks after i switched to it. Other french SEO agencies that followed me saw a significant jump in SERP positions too.
Only my long tail keywords were significantly affected, the "big ones" did not gain anything, but also it might be because it's a "nuclear war" on the french equivalent of "seo agency"/"seo consultant" etc.. I'm managed to rank very well with "french seo agency" on an international level, and i don't think i would have succeeded without https, it gave me that little extra ounce of power i think.

You can have part of your site in https and some other parts in http. But beware, google considers https and http like 2 different sites, so make sure to make all your 301 redirect properly else you risk of losing lots of link juice and then your positions...

 

[patrice]

Yes, it is actually written in Google Webmaster tools (Search Console now) when you add your https site if i remember well, they use to popup a little box with that warning.

That means you also have duplicate content if your site is live. (same problem as with /index.html that doesn't have a canonical url for example).

 

[mborgelt]

I would say keep it as simple as possible. We are experienced in resolving the issues surrounding http/https but I would rather avoid the headaches that could pop up. From what I have read, it is only incremental reward based on the work. From the Official GWT blog,

"For now it's only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content — while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web."

So flipping may put you ahead of the curve but I haven't heard of them raising the priority or seen anything strong enough to suggest they have. Curios to hear the experience of others.

 

[djbaxter]

I would say keep it as simple as possible. We are experienced in resolving the issues surrounding http/https but I would rather avoid the headaches that could pop up. From what I have read, it is only incremental reward based on the work. From the Official GWT blog,

"For now it's only a very lightweight signal ? affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content ? while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we?d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web."

I've also done some research into this and I agree with mborgelt. Apart from the expense and the headache of getting everything working correctly (and all that goes with that including potential losses in SE indices if you mess something up), it really doesn't seem like you stand to gain enough to make it worthwhile. At least, not yet.

The referenced Google statement comes from here, by the way: Google Online Security Blog: HTTPS as a ranking signal

 

[Blaine]

We had a client changed over last month. So far we've not seen any appreciable rank gains from it. Granted it was only done 2-3 weeks ago.

One thing I did notice was that we lost data tracking in Google WMT. So there was that to deal with, but it wasn't hard to get it all functioning again.

Basically had to claim the new url in WMT and get WMT to see the tracking code again.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

I spent some time with my hosting company for a client.

This is the client with SSL (https) for their site.

if I type in domain.com, shouldn't it redirect to the https?

Also, if I type www.domain.com shouldn't that also redirect https?

If any of the above doesn't, is google seeing 3 potential websites?

I was going to do a 301 redirect in the .htaccess file, and the hosting company said it would disable a wordpress site.

Hmmm???

 

[patrice]

You need to install the proper plugins to do what you want to do. I have written a full tutorial but it's in french (https://www.sitepenalise.fr/passer-blog-wordpress-en-https/) i'll try to translate it, you could use google translate in the meantime.

you need the plugin :
WordPress Force HTTPS ? A Kai Armstrong
Yoast : ( force canonical to use httpS )

Hope that's enough, else let me know, i'll try to translate the tutorial today.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

They have all-in-one SEO and I have entered the correct setting, but the site is still not redirecting. I don't want to sit comfortable thinking it's okay now, when I don't think it is.

You need to install the proper plugins to do what you want to do. I have written a full tutorial but it's in french (https://www.sitepenalise.fr/passer-blog-wordpress-en-https/) i'll try to translate it, you could use google translate in the meantime.

you need the plugin :
WordPress Force HTTPS ? A Kai Armstrong
Yoast : ( force canonical to use httpS )

Hope that's enough, else let me know, i'll try to translate the tutorial today.

 

[patrice]

did you change the address of your site in the wordpress settings ? ( the default "general settings" ).

 

[Mike Pedersen]

Yes, I inserted the https

did you change the address of your site in the wordpress settings ? ( the default "general settings" ).

 

[patrice]

what is the url of your site, can you pm it ?