We recently switched from http to https on our new host Siteground. Siteground offers free Let’s Encrypt certificates which are valid for 3-months. After three months, you have to renew the certificate which is very easy and not a big deal. By far, the transition has been quite smooth and we didn’t have any problems. We were concerned about losing our search ranking and traffic, but nothing has happened so far. Our search ranking and traffic is intact and growing everyday. But after switching to https, a few important things need to be checked which are:
Sitemap :
Make sure your sitemap is not showing you any old http links. Any sitemap plugin you use, can easily re-create the sitemap with one click. We are using Yoast SEO and finding it great so far.
Google Webmaster Tools:
If you don’t have webmaster tools for your site, its time to sign up. We have found it to be a very good and basic tool for knowing about SEO problems in your website related to search. If you have webmaster tools for your website, send a re-index urls request to google, so that your new https urls can be indexed.
301 Redirect:
Redirect all your web traffic from http to https, this can be done through htaccess. Just add one line to your htaccess file.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R,L]
Search & Replace:
By using search/replace, find and replace all http references in your database and replace them with https.
and that’s it! Switching from http to https should be number 1 priority for all website owners at the moment. The reason for this is https gives you a boost in SEO so go for it today!!