: Search traffic dropped with HTTPS implementation We have launched HTTPS version of site at 6 Oct. After few days (8 Oct.) Google dropped 40% of normal search traffic, and more 20% within next

@Chiappetta492

The reason this happens might be because of (amongst things) duplicate content. You know that the http and https version are the same page, but Google treats them as two pages, thus duplicate.

What you need to do is send a redirect with 301 header. 301 means 'permanent redirect', or simply put: 'dont use this url anymore, use the one I send you to:

An .htaccess example, the following snippet make ALL pages https, with 301 header:

# force ssl
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]


Another action you should take is adding (meta-)canonical tags to you page. They indicate the prefered url, as well as indication "no matter what url you're on right now, the canonical is the real/original/preferred url"



You kinda should've done your research, this drop could've easiliy been avoided. Adding a 301-header is the first and most needed step, you should've known.

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@Sims2060225

I am not having a deep knowledge of this implementation as i have not performed it yet on any of the client's site, but i think i can help you. So, here you go:

You need to make a 301 redirect on all the URLs in .htaccess
One thing that need to make sure is the sitemap of the site.You need to change with all the new URLs with HTTPS
Make sure that all the internal pages are using https protocol and no one is referred to http

This 301 redirect will actually help Google bots know that the site has been redirected to https conversion and is not the new one. Through this, all the traffic and the link juice will be given to new https version.

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