3 replies to this topic

[BlueHorseradish]

I just took over a website and all pages are https, not http.

The .htaccess file specifically does this using this code:

CODE

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.DOMAINNAME.com/$1 [R,L]

The site has some ecommerce so I understand why it is used on those pages.
But why would anyone rewrite all URLs to httpS?
I guess the follow up is - any SEO impact?

When I do a Google search and find a page on this site, the URL shown in the search results is http, but then I click the link, it re-directs.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Edited by Jill, 28 September 2011 - 04:45 PM.
Added code tag

[Michael Martinez]

A common problem that occurs on sites that mix HTTP with HTTPS protocols is lazy Web designers don't encode fully resolved, absolute URLs into the internal navigation and users and search engines can find themselves in all the wrong places.

It sounds like someone decided to just "fix" the problem by forcing everything to be in the HTTPS domain.

[BlueHorseradish]

A common problem that occurs on sites that mix HTTP with HTTPS protocols is lazy Web designers don't encode fully resolved, absolute URLs into the internal navigation and users and search engines can find themselves in all the wrong places.

It sounds like someone decided to just "fix" the problem by forcing everything to be in the HTTPS domain.

I remember one site that a developer I had worked with had trouble with going back to http from https. So if the user got into the ecommerce part and bought something (in https), then went back into the site, there were problems. So yes, maybe it was a quick and dirty solution to something like that... and every page is https.

It seems like the downside is URL confusion for the search engine, correct?

A corporate IT guy I know said: "I know our web filtering software (Websense) would prevent some users from loading this page."

[Michael Martinez]

I don't know why a filter would block HTTPS pages but I guess corporate filters might have all sorts of funky rules.

The search engines don't care if the pages are on HTTPS or HTTP protocol. All they care about is what's served to visitors and can they get to it.

People who use both HTTP and HTTPS protocols should treat *ALL* internal links as if they were pointing to distinct Websites (because technically they are) and therefore every link should start with either "http:" or "https:". These are called "Absolute, Fully Resolved" links and they work just fine for both visitors and search engines. No .htaccess tricks required.