Plans to migrate AcornDomains to HTTPS?

[dog]

Are there any plans for AcornDomains to migrate to using an SSL cert and using HTTPS?

The other major forums all use HTTPS now. Seems like AD should for security and SEO.

What do other members think?

 

[aZooZa]

Unnecessary IMHO.

 

[RobM]

Yes I think the forum loads too quickly.

 

[dog]

https://www.httpvshttps.com

Test it yourself. Site I switched loads much faster on HTTPS.

 

[RobM]

Ok you're right. The more things you do to encrypt traffic before sending and then decrypting at the other end the faster it works. My bad. I would assume everybody is running SPDY....no?...ah.
*edit* obviously I'm being facetious but, as it stands, most people will see a site slowdown unless they reconfigure their system and also dependent on the browser at the other end. However that really becomes quite irrelevant I guess because most people still link to google fonts, cdns, and anything else that can slow their site down anyway

 

[Blossom]

Google Search Console warns you now if you have a forum (or any site that requires log in) and you don't have an SSL cert for it. Think the browser warnings kick in now too.

 

[markb]

In my opinion, It Will need migrating to https at some point soon, so its best to start planning it as soon as possible, plus you will benefit slightly from an seo perspective, especially now that google is passing the same page rank when using 301s to redirect.

 

[Adam H]

There are more benefits than downfalls, just depends on a particular sites views on the downfalls....such as revenue loss ( in some niches ) as a result of majority non-ssl serving ad publishers...........but that should improve dramatically over the coming months as the uptake of SSL since Cpanel integrated Lets Encrypt is quite impressive.

 

[Admin]

We will move to https this year, probably in the next few months.

 

[mat]

I moved a few of my affiliate sites over as I noticed some competitors had and did not want to allow them to have any edge (even if there is no proven edge at the moment)

I did everything by the book when it came to redirecting and canonicals, but Google decided it would be fun to temporarily de index a few of my main earner pages for a few days while it put the new https pages in place of them. I had a few days crapping myself and lost a bit of money in the process, but the https pages came back in exactly the same places.

For my sites it did not make any noticeable difference, but I guess may help with click through rates and trust once landed on the pages.

 

[Admin]

I've done a bunch of sites. Nothing too significant on the upside in terms of organic rankings. However, its sort of irrelevant...when google is on a path there is no ignoring their will, mobile friendly, mobile first, https - they are facts of life, we play to their tune.

 

[mat]

The problem is they instruct everyone to make these changes, but you still see badly built non mobile friendly websites outranking modern perfectly made sites for no logical reason.

 

[dog]

What will happen though is that Chrome will flag pages that have a form with either a password or a credit-card field on them, on HTTP, as being "non-secure". This is planned for Chrome 56, going out end of January. If you have a login or credit-card form, make sure it's on HTTPS.

That said, the general trend towards HTTPS isn't going to go away. It'll also get easier and easier to go HTTPS, so perhaps that expensive option you were quoted will end up being just a checkmark at some point. Moving now has the advantage of knowing what's involved (and being able to help your clients when they decide to move). Setting up new sites on HTTPS from the start will probably become the norm next year, HTTPS isn't a fad that'll go away like a 90's sweatband.

-John Mueller, Google

 

[aZooZa]

If you tried to keep up with Mr G's whims and fancies, you'd never stop faffing. @mat and @admin are spot on. This has been going on for years now and a megaton of dough has been made - by Mr G.

 

[atlas]

If you tried to keep up with Mr G's whims and fancies, you'd never stop faffing. @mat and @admin are spot on. This has been going on for years now and a megaton of dough has been made - by Mr G.

Interesting you say that. I went to SeoBook.com to check what he had to say about HTTPS. I haven't been on that site for a long time. Here's his comment:

WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU SEO
Totally Arbitrary selective ex-post-facto enforcement of guidelines!
LendUp's doorway pages still rank
Monopolistic bundling.
Justification for duplicity.
Scrape-n-displace.
Endless fearmongering.
Wild algorithmic swings.
Soul-crushing uncertainty.
Responsive AMP Plus HTTPS ... arbitrary complexity to increase the chunk size of competition & defund SEO.
Ad-heavy search results driving organic listings below the fold.
"what you want to do, is sort of break their spirits." - Matt Cutts

 

[Blossom]

The problem is they instruct everyone to make these changes, but you still see badly built non mobile friendly websites outranking modern perfectly made sites for no logical reason.

It's definitely not perfect, but it's amazing considering the scale of the data.

What's interesting is that there's even less control and understanding as time goes on, because it's increasingly being run by machine learning. They're seeing outcomes they didn't expect, and have been for a long time across all their products, e.g. they never intended/coded Google Now to have a British accent in the UK, it learnt it based on language processing.

 

[TallBloke]

So, when you move a site from http to https what do you do with ads and affiliate banners sourced elsewhere than your secure hosting?

From a quick search it seems that adsense is unaffected and works as-was?

Do you have to take copies of affiliate banners and host them within your secure environment?

 

[mat]

So, when you move a site from http to https what do you do with ads and affiliate banners sourced elsewhere than your secure hosting?

From a quick search it seems that adsense is unaffected and works as-was?

Do you have to take copies of affiliate banners and host them within your secure environment?

Probably best to get into the habbit of hosting affiliate banners + masking the affiliate link as standard rather than linking out to them externaly.

 

[davedevelopment]

No brainer for me, the more SSL the merrier.

 

[Prt Panesar]

Unnecessary and minimal SEO benefit IMHO people. Just google god trying to turn the screw and force it via chrome/WMT etc !!