do's & dont's for https migrations #searchldn

Do's & Dont's for HTTPs migrations

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

I’m Aleyda Solis

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

ORAINTI.COM @ALEYDA FB.COM/ALEYDASEOTIPS/

I Do SEO

BITLY.COM/LIBROSEOALEYDA

I’m Aleyda Solis

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

I PublishI Share

I Blog I Speak I’m Featured

I’m Aleyda Solis

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Why moving?

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

It’s about security, users safety, trust & experience

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

The perfect opportunity to start using HTTP/2 & improve your site speed

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

bit.ly/http2seo

Provide another Positive Ranking signal

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

bit.ly/spreadhttps

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

It’s already becoming the “default” in top SERPs

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

The goal is that your users can browse securely, earning their trust

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Instead of this

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

While also migrating your rankings & traffic from your HTTP to HTTPS URLs

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Without traffic drops

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Instead of this

bit.ly/httpsmigration

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Let’s see the most critical do’s & don’ts as well as a checklist to maximize chances of success

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Before Moving

Don’t show and allow access to content via your HTTPS version if you haven’t migrated yet

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

You want to avoid having mixed indexation, cannibalization & content duplication issues

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Make sure to canonicalize and refer consistently to your HTTP URLs to facilitate the migration

301-redirect Canonicalize LinkInclude in

XML Sitemaps

HTTP

Create GSC profiles for your HTTPS domains & subdomains to start monitoring them

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t mix HTTPs migrations with other structural Web changes

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Verify the type of SSL Certificate you need, like wildcard ones for multiple subdomains

sslshopper.com

It doesn’t need to be expensive! You can even do it for free by using Cloudfare

bit.ly/freehttps

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Check with your hosting provider if they offer them, as it might be easier to enable it too

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

If you work with CDNs you will also need to activate it for your subdomains zones

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Create a list of your top pages from a visibility & conversion perspective to monitor closely

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

When Moving

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html

Make sure that the SSL certificate is effectively installed

For HTTP to HTTPS migrations you can’t use GSC “Change of address” feature

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Update your canonical & hreflang tags so they refer to the HTTPS URLs

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

If your links use absolute URLs they need to be updated with your HTTPS ones

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

Generate a new XML sitemap with your HTTPS URLs

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

Implement 301-redirect from each of your HTTP URLs to their HTTPS versions

bit.ly/redirectgenerator

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

bit.ly/chromedevicemode

It’s critical to move all the resources (images, css, js) too to avoid “mixed content” issues

Remember these should be permanent 301-redirects & not 302s

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Make sure to also update your robots.txt to your HTTPS domain & update URLs if needed

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

If you use Wordpress there’s a plugin that facilitates it

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/really-simple-ssl/

After Moving

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Validate your SSL certificate & secure content status

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

https://www.whynopadlock.com/

Crawl your migrated site emulating both desktop & smartphone Googlebots

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Do also a list crawl of those top pages that you wanted to prioritize

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Have all URLs been migrated or are there any remaining ones in the crawl? Is there a

performance change?

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Do you find HTTP URLs in the crawl? Errors, redirects & canonicalization issues?

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

See which old HTTP URLs you’re still linking, if they’re showing errors or are redirected

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Do the same looking for canonical tags pointing to old HTTP URLs

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Have XML sitemaps also been updated? What’s the gap vs. the crawled URLs?

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Check if the Page-to-Page Redirects are Effectively Implemented with 301s

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

… and that they’re redirecting to the relevant HTTPS URLs showing the content with a HTTP

200 OK Status

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

That there are no chained redirects between them…

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

And If there’s an independent mobile Website, verify that the redirects and rel alternates &

canonicals with desktop URLs are correct

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Don’t do this

Prioritize the fix of those pages w/ erroneous protocol, status & canonicalization w/ highest

traffic

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Look for orphan URLs by identifying which URLs with organic traffic are not in the crawl

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Once you’ve checked all this is fixed you can submit both your HTTP & HTTPS versions to be

re-crawled & submit XML sitemaps

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

And start monitoring maximizing your changes to see this

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti

Thanks! Questions?

#httpsmigration at #SearchLDN by @aleyda from @orainti