seo Question posted in
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Redesigned website: From HTTPS to HTTP – SEO

I have a friend that had a website https://example.com. In his website used to have online payments (hence SSL certificate). Now he asked me to redesign the website and omit SSL certificate since he does not have the budget and he is not going to have online payments.

So, I created the redesigned website and published it. But now we have a problem with cached Google results showing the site’s URL as https://example.com. And when someone clicks on that link it takes him to the page where it says “Your connection is not private” (message is different for each browser).

Any .htaccess changes to force HTTP, will not work, since this is something that is displayed before receiving the response from the server.

Is there a solution to this? Or do i need to purchase and install an SSL certificate after all?

Also, does SSL helps with SEO?

ps: website was created using WordPress

Thanks in advance!

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3

Answers


  1. 0

    Yes,

    You have to install a SSL certificate like Let’s Encrypt (this one is free).

    However, keep the HTTPS because Google penalyze websites which didn’t have this protocol (e-commerce or not).

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  2. 0

    By steps:

    1. On any good hosting it is enough to contact support and ask them to install Let’s Encrypt. Your friend shouldn’t worry about the budget, because Let’s Encrypt is free.

    2. Once your website is opening with https:// it is time to made all replacements in your database from http://your-domain to https://your-domain. It is enough to open phpMyAdmin tool to run those queries. If you do not know what queries, you can generate them with this tool https://rudrastyh.com/tools/sql-queries-generator

    3. The next step is to set redirect from non-ssl to ssl, you can do it in your .htaccess file, just add this lines strictly after RewriteEngine On.

      RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L]

    4. In your Google Webmaster tool add your website with https://. If it is already there with http:// then make Change Address request via this console.

    P.S. Yes, SSL is a positive ranking factor for SEO.

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  3. 0

    Last year Google announced that SSL website has benefit in SEO + if you’re using billing form on your website, your browser will show your website as unsafe.

    Let’s Encrypt is free but has limited expiration period to 3 months

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