Moving Main Site from HTTP to HTTPS: Seeking Quick Items to Consider

[WhiteboardCreations]

Hey Mozzers!
We're going to be moving are main company site from http://whiteboardcreations.com > https://whiteboardcreations.com and wanted to get some of your quick tips for items we need to consider. We are working on a new web redesign now and keeping in WordPress. A couple facts for your info... We have read a lot about it, but wanted to get some quick tips we need to take into account from your points of view.

1. March 2010 domain age
2. Ranks very well locally for our targeted keywords around web design, WordPress, SEO, social media, blog writing, web maintenance
3. Not many of our competitors, especially the SEO competitors, have moved to HTTPS
4. Site is hosted at WP Engine
5. Going to be purchasing a Domain Validated SSL... Is there any advantage to an Extended Validated SSL in Google's eye/mind?
6. Should we expect rank decrease or increase?
7. Anything else we should expect or prepare for from your experiences?

Thank you!
Patrick

[WhiteboardCreations]

Hey! Yes, we made the switch to SSL and everything went smooth. We set up our 301 redirects and submitted to Google right away. No real loss in traffic and our rankings for the 100+ keywords we monitor either remained the same or increased a little over the first couple months. So, that was pleasant to see and experience.

The real test is when we finish and launch the new design, however, we will be working to keep our URL structure the same, but will be adding many more pages to the site focused on more educational/SEO friendly content. Not really caring if searchers stumble across it in their browsing, but moreso that Google indexes the content for our targeted keywords those pages are designed to capture and rank for (inner landing pages).

As long as we're keeping our authoritative pages un-drastically changed, the URL remains the same and the content is about the same, we shouldn't experience much loss in rankings of traffic. If anything, we should see new keywords ranking very well in a short amount of time and our traffic increasing. We'll see come end of 2015, into 2016!

[TVape]

Hi Patrick,

did you do the move to https and what were your results?

We did it and lost 50% traffic. I am wondering if it is just us or many others. I have another few cases were the same thing happened and just trying to get more real world feedback. what happened with you guys?

[Chris661]

I have been postponing the switch on my Wordpress site anticipating grief!

Did you use the WP Enging "sandbox" to build the new site? I'm probably going to use my offline test box (WAMP) since my host doesn't provide a test area.

Best,

[WhiteboardCreations]

Andy, great tip on the WP image URLs!! Honestly, that never crossed our mind and will be sifting through to find them and update them all.

I really appreciate the feedback on the rank increase. I would enjoy seeing that for some of the other keywords we see lingering on the top of Page 2... hopefully see those get a little push to Page 1.

We installed the DV SSL yesterday and working through the redirects. We should be finished tomorrow and have all testing completed and verified by end of the week.

All in all, a great new experience for an older domain with some good authority built up. Thanks again!

• Patrick

[WhiteboardCreations]

Thanks, Chris! Yes, we are working through the force redirects as the SSL just went through yesterday. A great learning experience and hopefully will have it all resolved soon. Working closely with WP Engine tech guys has been a breath of fresh air too. - Patrick

[WhiteboardCreations]

Thanks for your input, Patrick! I actually referenced your post for another client, so I'm glad it is applicable to a HTTPS update as well.

[Chris661]

Hey Patrick not sure if this is an issue or not but I notice if I enter http and your urls, your site serves the http version. Clicking on any menu item goes to https, but I would think the http should be re-directed to https?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Patrick

I answered a similar question of things to consider when moving a site. You can read that here.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Patrick,

First of all, visit Google and follow their guide. This will provide you with everything you need to know and there are even more very good considerations here.

Check everything and then check it again. Make sure with Wordpress that images reference https, not http, as this is a common issue. I have also seen the same with how Google Fonts are referenced.

Going to be purchasing a Domain Validated SSL... Is there any advantage to an Extended Validated SSL in Google's eye/mind?

No, nothing in doing this.

Should we expect rank decrease or increase?

You should expect an increase, but there is absolutely no guarantee of this, and if so, by how much.

When the move is complete, check your pages that show (if any) a warning triangle as this denotes a page issue. You find this in the developer console in Chrome (Inspect Element --> Console). This will tell you where issues lie.

Finally, make sure you set your site to https://www.site.com from http://www.site.com

-Andy