TRAFFIC
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
FOR MOVING TO HTTPS (PART 2)
Fili Wiese from SearchBrothers.com continues with his granular guide for webmasters looking to make
the transition from HTTP to HTTPS as smooth and painless as possible
THE FIRST PART IN the previous edition
of this magazine went into how to prepare
for moving to HTTPS. This next part
explains how to accomplish the actual move.
in either the XML sitemaps and/or the
website, these need to be updated to the
absolute HTTPS URLs on the HTTPS
version. So
Copying and updating content becomes .
● ● Mobile
If there is a separate mobile website, it is
likely that mobile alternate annotations 4
may be present on the website. So
becomes .
● ● Feeds
Canonicals
Update all the canonicals to absolute
HTTPS URLs on the HTTPS version. So Alternate annotations to Atom or RSS
or JSON feeds also need updating on the
website. So
rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” />
becomes . Avoid using relative
URLs in canonicals 1 . If no canonicals
are currently present on the site, first
implement canonicals before proceeding.
Be sure to update the canonicals on the
mobile version of the website to the
HTTPS version. becomes
.
And
becomes .
URLs in Javascript files.
The following types of internal links
need to be updated:
• L
inks to other internal URLs inside the
HTML source code;
• L
inks to internal image files inside the
HTML source code;
• Links to internal video files inside the
HTML source code;
• Links to internal web fonts inside the
HTML source code;
• L
inks to internal Javascript files inside the
HTML source code;
• L
inks to other internal URLs inside the
Javascript files;
• L
inks to internal image files inside the
Javascript files;
• L
inks to internal CSS files inside the
Javascript files; links to internal CSS files
inside the HTML source code;
• L
inks to internal CSS files inside the
HTML source code;
• Links to internal image files inside the
CSS files;
• L
inks to internal web fonts inside the CSS
files;
• A
nd any other internal link.
To do this update, there are a few
options.
● ● Option 1
Switch to using only relative URLs, for
example,
home
Pagination
If pagination 2 is used on the website,
update these to absolute HTTPS URLs
on the HTTPS version. So
becomes .
Alternate annotations
There are several alternate annotations that
can be implemented on a website, and they
all need to be updated.
● ● Hreflang
If the website uses herflang 3 annotations
becomes home .
This option may conflict with internal
links to assets, especially when defined in
CSS and/or Javascript files. Also, it may
be useful to define a base tag 5 URL in the
top of the HEAD of the HTML source
code with this option: .
● ● Option 2
Change the protocol on absolute internal
URLs from HTTP to HTTPS, for example,
home
becomes home .
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/separate-urls
5
https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_base.asp
1
2
3
4
● ● Option
3
Remove the protocol on absolute internal
URLs, for example,
iGB Affiliate Issue 62 APR/MAY 2017
9