Best method of redirecting http to https on homepage
-
Hi everyone,
I'm looking to redirect all http requests to https for a site's homepage. It only needs to be for the homepage, not site wide.
What's the best method of doing this without losing pagerank or ranking?
I'm using IIS7.5 so I've been looking at a URL Rewrite or possibly this ASP.Net solution;
http://www.xdevsoftware.com/blog/post/Redirect-from-Http-to-Https-in-ASPNET.aspx
Or is a simple 301 or 302 (for some reason Microsoft's site says to do a 302 re-direct, though I'm not sure if this is great from an SEO perspective?) re-direct from http version to the https version the best method?
Also if the solution retained the URL query string that would be even better!
Any help appreciated! Thanks
-
Are you securing a lead-gen form? One thing to test first - have you done an A/B test of the in-page form vs. a large call-to-action button? I've seen testing go both ways. Sometimes, the in-page form drives more leads, but sometimes a clear call-to-action to a separate form is better (really seems to depend on the form and the industry). If the call-to-action works just as well, it would be much easier to secure the stand-along form than your home-page.
Going secure full-site would help solve some problems, although you do need full-site 301-redirects then, and you've got to make sure your servers can handle it (https: needs additional overhead). It's really tough to tell without knowing the nature/scope of the site.
I'd be happy to close the private question, but if you want to dive into details there, it might not be a bad idea. Seeing the site would really help, since this is a tricky issue.
-
Ooo, doesn't sound great.
Do you think if I was to do this it would be better to convert the whole site to HTTPS and enforce it site wide?
(I actually posted a private question on this as well hoping you'd answer it, but you've done it here! - can I close the private one??)
Thanks
-
301 is probably best here. There are two tricks here, though, and it can get messy:
(1) You'll need to link to the HTTPS version in your internal links as well.
(2) If you use relative links (like "/about.aspx"), then all the navigation links from your secure home-page will cause Google to crawl the rest of the site with HTTPS, possibly creating mass dupe content.
Practically, there's a fair amount of risk in just securing your home-page, and it goes beyond the home-page itself. I'd proceed with caution and really evaluate the pros and cons.
-
For SEO the 301 is the best and simple solution
-
Naghirniac - thanks for your answer.
Granted, but which is the best for SEO?
I'm thinking, surely I can just do a simple 301?
-
Shelly,
There are tree methods, all with their benefits and difficulties. They are: Redirect via a landing page, Redirect via a custom error and Redirect via URL manipulation.
You can take a look at this detailed post: http://www.iis-aid.com/articles/how_to_guides/three_methods_redirect_http_https
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect By IP location
Hi All, I have a client who operates in multiple countries with the sub directory structure. In AU for their main brand name .com site still ranks in the first position but /au ranks for most of the other terms. Current we have a 301 redirect in place for .com for anyone accessing the site from AU to /au. This is only for home pages as other .com pages don't rank in Australia. Just wondering what implication this can have on our SEO campaign. Cheers
Technical SEO | | SSP21
Thank you for your expertise and insights in advance.1 -
Http to https redirection issue
Hi, i have a website with http but now i moved to https. when i apply 301 redirection from http to https & check in semrush it shows unable to connect with https & similar other tool shows & when i remove redirection all other tools working fine but my https version doesn't get indexed in google. can anybosy help what could be the issue?
Technical SEO | | dhananjay.kumar10 -
Mass HTTP to HTTPs move
Hi, As as part of an on-site SEO optimisation process, we've identified moving over from http to https - this is also in part to ensure our on-site forms are secure. In our industry our website has a high traffic volume (top 2 in the industry), we are concerned what impact the 301-redirecting from http to https would have on our organic traffic, both in terms of how Google would react to this mass-301 redirect plus the loss of 'search value' of inbound links. Privacy issues aside, would the minor quality-signal improvement be worth the move? Anyone have experience with such a move - was the outcome positive? Many thanks, Jason
Technical SEO | | Clickmetrics0 -
Internal links best practices
In looking at the inbound links to a client’s Home page, I see that the link from each page of the website back to the Home page is an image, and the ALT text is “Home.” I have a few questions about this, and would appreciate help understanding best practices: --Does it matter that the link back to the Home page is an image (presumably the client’s logo)? -- If we keep the image link, wouldn’t it be better to use “client’s company name” as ALT text rather than “Home”? --Should I recommend using an HTML link back to the Home page, and using the company name as anchor text? (I don't think it's relevant, but the site is built in Drupal.) Thanks!
Technical SEO | | jrae0 -
Importance of 301 Redirects
Hello, I have been brought in at the last minute to consult for an e-commerce client who is about to relaunch their website. The site currently receives 8000 visits a month, 3100 of which are from organic search. They have a few thousand product pages. The web development firm they are using is changing all of the old product page urls and using 'search engine friendly' urls for the new site, which is expected to launch in a few weeks. However, they did not/are not planning on including 301 redirects from the old URLs. Other than simply stating 'this will be bad for your SEO', what would be a correct way of explaining to the client how much of a problem it will be if their new site launches without 301s. For example, is this a big enough issue to delay the launch of the site / get in a contract dispute with the web developer?
Technical SEO | | stageagent0 -
Https Version of Homepage in SERPS
The https version of our homepage appears in Google's SERPs. We have rel canonical on the page pointing to the http version. We have a redirect in our htaccess that sends https to http. I thought this was just a fluke and it would be fixed by the next crawl, but it's been like this for a few weeks now. Not only that, but we're losing rank a bit and I'm afraid there's a correlation. Has this ever happened to anyone?
Technical SEO | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Best TLD for china
In China there are 2 commonly used tlds .cn and .com.cn. We own both versions for a new domain. Does anyone know if there is research done which one is the best TLD "in the eyes" of the search engines Baidu and Google? Or maybe there is a methodology to select the best? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Paul-G0 -
Http:// vs http://www.
Why is it that when I run an "On Page Optimization Keyword Report" for my website I get a different score when using http://www.tandmkitchens.com vs http://tandmkitchens.com. My keyword is "Kitchen Remodeling" http://www.tandmkitchens.com scores an A http://tandmkitchens.com scores a B It's the same page yet one url scores higher than the other. Any help! Thanks
Technical SEO | | fun52dig
Gary0