Using 301 for permanent HTTPS redirects and the new rules for SEO
I had a client this week who forwarded me an email that they received from Google warning them that certain pages on their site would show an error in Chrome 56 on any pages that had either a password or credit card input fields on a page that is not delivered via HTTPS.
An example of this warning looks like this:
In order to avoid this error warning, the best practice is to set up a 301 permanent redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. The long-standing school of thought was that this strategy will cause your site to take a hit in your rankings. However as of late 2016 there are new rules for 301 redirects.
In recent months Google has been moving toward encouraging all websites to deliver their content via HTTPS whether they transmit sensitive data such as credit card info or not. Their goal is to make the internet more safe across the board, calling for "HTTPS everywhere"
The New Rules of 3xx Redirection: "Perhaps because of the downsides of redirection — especially with HTTPS — Google has worked to chip away at these axioms over the past several months. ... Google wants the entire web to switch to HTTPS. To this end, they announced a small rankings boost to encourage sites to make the switch."
Check out this story published by MOZ to learn more:
301 Redirects Rules Change: What You Need to Know for SEO
Is it time to rewrite the SEO playbooks? For what seems like forever, SEOs have operated by a set of best practices that dictate how to best handle redirection of URLs. (This is the practice of pointing one URL to another. If you need a quick refresher, here's a handy guide on HTTP status codes.)
To read more about Google's position on HTTPS as a ranking signal, follow this link:
HTTPS as a ranking signal
Cross-posted from the Webmaster Central Blog Security is a top priority for Google. We invest a lot in making sure that our services us...
