how to secure your site for google’s https algorithm

March 4, 2015

How to Secure Your Site for Google’s HTTPS Algorithm

Bill Hartzer

Senior SEO Strategist

@bhartzer

searchmarketingexpo.com

@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

About Me

• Senior SEO Strategist, Globe Runner

• Brand Ambassador, Majestic.com

• Personal Blog: www.BillHartzer.com

• Practicing Organic/Natural SEO since 1996


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Overview

• Preparation

• Planning

• Preparing Your Site

• Moving Day

• After Moving Day

• Case Study


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Preparation

• Choose the right certificate - 2048-bit key

• Choose the right, trusted provider

• Talk to web host about switch

• Review current server needs

• Check if CDN can handle SSL

• Consider moving/upgrading server at same time?

• Add CloudFlare to hosting? (Free SSL Certs)


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Preparation

• Move all content or partial content?

• Prepare site (internal links, canonical tags, etc.)

• Review links to site, identify links to update

• List of social accounts, profiles to update

• Google Webmaster Tools review


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Site Preparation

• Ensure internal links point to HTTPS

• Check CMS settings (i.e., WordPress, etc.)

• Check canonical tags

• Check image, CSS, JavaScript URLs (all URLs)

• Set up 301 redirects (.htaccess file, etc.)


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Redirects

• Always use 301 Permanent Redirect

• Sample Apache redirect code:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off

RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Plan for Moving

• When will you switch/move?

• Detail process for moving

• Internal company: who is responsible for what?


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Moving Day

• Verify Google Webmaster Tools

• Test website:

- Test SSL (Qualys Lab tool) www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

- Test for Heartbleed vulnerability

- Server header check

- Crawl site (Screaming Frog SEO Spider)

- Switch Social Media Profiles

- Check Google Analytics for Referrers

http://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/





@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

After Moving Day

• Update and watch Google Analytics

• Update social media accounts, profiles

• Update email signatures with new URL

• Update company themes/templates

• Contact link owners


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Moving HTTP to HTTPS Checklist

Moving checklist

http://bitly.com/move-http-https


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

Case Study – Moved BillHartzer.com

After one month:

• Sessions up 9.56%

• Users up 11.01%

• Page views up 93.91%

• Pages/Session up 76.99%

• Average session duration up 8.67%


@Bhartzer #SMX #24a

how to secure your site for google’s https algorithm

Marketing