Tips to Migrating to HTTPs

As of the latest available data, the list of websites that are now secured with SSL certificate is constantly rising. If your site has not yet joined this list then this could be the high time you need to give it a serious thought and play a vital role in fortifying the internet security. However, while graduating from HTTP to HTTPS URL you need to evaluate some technical and SEO aspects to enjoy the best experience.

 

Don't Pile up the Mistakes

When you move your entire site to https there are good possibilities that you skip some key issues due to the sheer technicality of the job. Resolving those requests later- when they pile up- is time-consuming complicated and more prone to further errors. So, it is a good practice to evaluate each step of your HTTPS migration process before you move on to the next one.

You have to move multiple elements during HTTP to HTTPS migration process involving several repetitive, tedious steps. So making mistakes is not uncommon. The best you can do is to evaluate each phase of the migration process before you move to the next one. It helps you to precisely pinpoint the errors and resolve them then and there instead of messing up the things.

 

Here are the common possible errors to look out for:

• Blocking some URLs in the robots.txt
• Canonical tags pointing to HTTP instead of HTTPS
• The browsers still releasing the warnings indicating that your site may not be safe "enough" (even if it is!)

 

Resolving Speed Issues

HTTPS sites require extended communication process in order to encrypt the message before it travels across servers but this key benefit of HTTPS site also adds more milliseconds thus adding more latency to your site. Gaining security in exchange of speed is an unfair trade. Fortunately, you can make it fair.

There are tons of ways to speed up your site but most of them don’t deliver what they promise. So rely on the leader and check different legal speed boosting resources offered by Google itself. It's easy, self-explanatory and once you are here- https://developers.google.com/speed/- you are almost done!

 

For the Sites Powered by Adsense Money 

If AdSense is among your main sources of revenue, you may most possibly experience some (or significant) dip in your income when you switch to HTTPS site. The reason is that Google won't run any advertisement that is linked to unsafe HTTP sites thus cutting down the numbers. So, if you find yourself in this category it would be better to find some alternative way of earning through your site or blog to fill the gap. Some of the solutions involve paid guest posting, review articles, industry-specific content writing services, citations and content syndication. If you would like to filter the list it is safe to choose paid guest posts and content syndication.

 

Prepare a Complete Checklist Before you Start

Starting your HTTPS migration process without preparing a checklist can doom your process. Or to be less dramatic at least expose your SEO to multiple negative consequences (it still doesn't sound agreeable!) Here is the sample checklist:

• Make sure each one of the below-mentioned elements is HTTPS compliant:
• Widgets
• JavaScript
• CSS files
• Images
• Content delivery network