Why Move to HTTPS?

Google announced HTTPS as a ranking signal in their search algorithm and also have started indexing secured pages over unsecured pages. HTTPS has better user experience than HTTP, covering many different aspects from increased speed and potential ranking factors to secure and encrypted connections. This push towards a more secure web removes barriers to entry, such as cost. The conversion brings in efficiency, speed, and security.

SaaS applications are preferred over desktop applications because they are available on any device from anywhere. These products are usually subscription based and do not require a one-time licensing fee. HTTPS is mostly used in the websites where secured communication is required like payment gateways, banking websites, corporate sector websites and more.

The term HTTPS is an internet communication protocol that protects the confidentiality of user’s data between the user’s computers and websites.

Why HTTPS?

Google Rankings

Websites have much safer and trusted options with HTTPS. Data sent using HTTPS is secured via TLS, which provides three layers of protection:

• Encryption: The exchanged data can be encrypted to keep it secure.

• Data integrity: You cannot modify or corrupt data during transfer without being detected.

• Authentication: Proves to be beneficial to communicating with the intended website.

Statistical Analysis

HTTPS websites provides more information when it comes to the tools like Google Analytics to explore the statistics behind the visitor resources. This provides with accurate, detailed information on referrer visits rather than multitude of misleading referrals market of direct visits.

Increased Security

Websites encrypted with HTTPS have added more secure and confidential options. Also, this adds a layer of integrity above all as the data shared has been protected without your knowledge. Many of those will be deterred by an unsecured HTTP site.

Avoid These Common Pitfalls in Using HTTPS

• Expired certificates/ incorrect website names: To make your site secure with TLS, make sure the certificate is always up to date. Also check that the certificates are registered from the correct host name.
• Missing server name indication: Check to make sure that your web server supports SNI with all modern browsers.
• Crawling Issues: Don’t block HTTPS sites from crawling using robots.txt
• Indexing Issues: Allow for indexing of pages by search engines when possible. Avoid the NoIndex meta tag.
• Mixed security elements: Embeds only HTTPS content to HTTPS pages.
• HTTP status code error: Check the correct HTTP status code for accessible pages that do not exist.
• Different versions of pages showing on HTTP and HTTPS

Moving your website from HTTP to HTTPS is like migrating your website to a new URL structure, or just to a brand new domain.

Follow These Points When Migrating From HTTP to HTTPS

• Plan and have everything tested ahead of time
• Know the current state of the website for comparison purposes.
• Read any documentation regarding your server or CDN for HTTPS
• Get a security certificate and install on the server, usually a well documented process
• Update references in content, internal links to use HTTPS or relative paths
• Update references in templates, make sure references to scripts, links, images, and so on
• Update canonical tags, hreflang tags, plugins, modules, and add-ons
• CMS settings need to be changed
• Make sure you don’t miss any links
• Enable HSTS, OCSP stapling
• Monitor everything during the migration

Replace HTTP with HTTPS for an entire website to reduce existing technical debt. 

Conclusion

Most of the problems arise from poor implementation, poor planning, or poor tracking. Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS is little or no trouble for anyone now. It’s the time to make the switch.