HTTPS
HTTPS is an extension of the HTTP protocol and was introduced to improve security by encrypting a website and user’s connection. Ensuring your site runs via HTTPS offers benefits for both SEO and user experience and is deemed a ranking factor by Google. Our Hangout Notes cover advice and best practice recommendations for HTTPS websites.
Chrome to Label HTTP Sites as Insecure
Chrome is going to label HTTP sites as insecure in the browser but Google doesn’t have any plans to do the same for search results.
Google May Choose an HTTP URL as Canonical if the HTTPS has Mixed Content
Google will try and choose a canonical URL which does not have mixed content issues from http/https. I.e. if there is an https version of a page that DOES have mixed content issues, but an http version that does NOT have mixed content issues, then the http version could be used. If however, there are very strong signs to use that https version coming from the website, (such as redirects or rel=canonicals) then Google will still use the https version even though it has mixed content issues.
HTTP and HTTPS Domain Variations Should Be Verified in Search Console
Both http and https domain variations should be verified in Webmaster Tools, but only some of the data is unique.
Verify HTTP and HTTPS in Search Console to Migrate
If you migrate from HTTP to HTTPS, you need to have both verified in Webmaster Tools and set up a redirect, but you don’t need to use the change of address tool which is only for moving between different domains.
HTTPS Migrations Can Cause Issues
Moving to HTTPS is complicated and has caused some unexpected problems.
Hreflang Should Canonicalise to Preferred HTTP/HTTPS Variation
When you have multiple language sites with hreflang, and you have http and https versions of the sites, you don’t need to worry about the hreflang for the non-canonical version. So if you canonicalise from http to https, then you don’t need any hreflang on the http.
301 Redirects Pass Full PageRank on a Site Level but Not per URL
If you redirect a full domain, e.g. www to non-www, or http to https, the full authority will be passed over, but individual 301 redirects do not pass the full authority.
Verify All Domain Variations in Search Console
In Webmaster Tools, you need to verify all combinations of your domain. e.g. www/non-www, http/https in order to see all the backlinks.