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Switching from HTTP to HTTPS

Discussion in 'SEO Search Engine Optimisation' started by ausername, Nov 23, 2017.

  1. ausername United Kingdom

    ausername Retired Member

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    I've got a large(ish) site at the moment which isn't on https.

    Its a wordpress site and hosted with Bluehost, and they offer a free SSL and all I need to do is push a button.

    But I've got a few nice deep backlinks dotted around which obviously use the http URL.

    Am I going to mess these up / lose juice if my URL changes to https? Anybody know whether it will either automatically redirect to the https when somebody clicks through or whether I have to do this manually / perform some sort of painstaking task?

    Been putting this off a bit as I'm out my depth, stupid not to just build on https from the start but it was a minor ranking signal at the time and I think it has gained importance as time as progressed.
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. ausername United Kingdom

    ausername Retired Member

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    Some sort of rewrite in the .htaccess suffice, for people who have done this before?
     
  4. dee

    dee Well-Known Member Acorn Supporter

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    Code:
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
    
    I think....google

    I use SSL Insecure Content Fixer plug in aswell for wordpress. Works Fab !
     
  5. AlistairM United Kingdom

    AlistairM Active Member

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    I've changed a couple of sites over, didn't have any noticeable negative impact, in fact it did seem to have a little boost but might have been something else.

    I referred to the following page (there may be better) when I did it as I'm no expert. https://www.bram.us/2014/12/06/migrating-your-wordpress-website-from-http-to-https/

    Also when I did it I also used the following site to check as I had a warning and this showed me what the issues (minor) were. https://www.whynopadlock.com/

    I have the below in my htaccess to redirect http to https but not sure whether it works the same on all servers?

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
    RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
     
  6. ausername United Kingdom

    ausername Retired Member

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    Thanks guys, encouraging that you both have similar in your .htaccess and that its the same code I found when googling. May actually open a support ticket with my host to see if they have a standard reply for this, as they must get this question a fair bit.
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2017
  7. ausername United Kingdom

    ausername Retired Member

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    Finally did this on boxing day (I know, I'm a saddo!).

    What a ballache to do for an already developed site, my fault though as https was growing when I started it. Had to try and change facebook/twitter/youtube/google+ links to https etc, also have a few domains pointed for juice etc.... took me about 6 hours :D

    Annoyingly added a bit of time to page speed (made it a bit slower), although no noticeable change in traffic yet. Is nice seeing the word "secure" in the browser though.