In early August I installed Let’s Encrypt’s SSL service courtesy of their partnership with SiteGround. My organic visitation has held steady and even increased a few ticks since moving to SSL. However, Google Search Console is no longer indexing my pages, which worries me. My basic question is how do I get Google (and other search engines) to index the https pages over http?
Thank you in advance for any advice or direction you might have for me!
I’m not quite sure about indexing the https pages over http, but I can say the following will really help:
Make certain you’re forwarding http to https for ALL of your indexed content
Make certain that you are not serving any “mixed content” on ANY of your pages (i.e. no content from http sources) (https://www.missingpadlock.com)
Add a rel="canonical" tag to every unique page to indicate its proper address and ensure your are only serving from that address in terms of using https protocol and the correct (sub)domain (https://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization)
Add a sitemap.xml file to the root of your site containing the canonical addresses of the primary pages you want indexed (https://www.sitemaps.org)
Add a robots.txt file to the root of your site containing at least a sitemap line (e.g. Sitemap: https://spokaneplanner.com/sitemap.xml) (https://www.robotstxt.org)
edit: @JuergenAuer appears to have confirmed the first two items for you. His tool can give you a tremendous amount of insight into your website. I’ve confirmed the fourth item for you.
may be expected. You have to add the https url to the Google search console. The old http version is removed and not longer indexed.
So that's not a problem, it's a feature of the Google Search console. http goes down, the new added https goes up.
Add the https version.
PS: Now the check is ready, you have a very good Grade B: Correct redirects, one destination (non www is preferred), no mixed content, no Chrome warnings. So it's only a problem of the Google Search console. Check the result, some minor things (Cookies) you may fix.
PS: OT:
Writing things that are already implemented doesn't help.
First off, thanks for making such a powerful tool.
I understand I’m currently missing some icon and font files. New website turnup and haven’t finalized icon design or font selection yet.
I also understand I’m missing the HSTS header, which I want to add and brings me to my concern.
This could just be my own lack of understanding, but I believe your tool may be indicating that I should use multiple 301 redirects instead of a single 301 redirect.
I am getting this message from your tool:
Wrong redirect one domain http to other domain https. First redirect to https without new dns query, so the server can send the HSTS header. That’s fundamental using HSTS (Http Strict Transport Security). First step: Add correct redirects http ⇒ https. Perhaps in your port 80 vHost something like “RewriteEngine on” + “RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,QSA,R=permanent]” (two rows, without the "). Don’t add this in your port 443 vHost, that would create a loop. Then recheck your domain, should be Grade C. There is the rule to select one https version as preferred version.
Thank you so much for the feedback. It is much appreciated! I love simple solutions. Thanks again. I’m heading over to Search Console to fidget with it now.