Are drops in Google ranking common after switching to https?

Are drops in Google ranking common after switching to https? - Google Search Console is a free application that allows you to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve any issues that Google may encounter as it crawls and attempts to index your website in search results. If you’re not the most technical person in the world, some of the errors you’re likely to encounter there may leave you scratching your head. We wanted to make it a bit easier, so we put together this handy set of tips about redirects, 301-redirect, https, to guide you along the way. Read the discuss below, we share some tips to fix the issue about Are drops in Google ranking common after switching to https?.Problem :

About a week ago I made the switch to https on one of my sites. I'm positive I did everything right. Properly setup 301 redirects from http to https versions. Added and verified https version in Webmaster Tools. Updated all internal links. Submitted new sitemap.

Despite that, many of my pages (about 40%) lost their rankings almost immediately. Those that dropped went from page 1 to nowhere. I can still see them indexed if I search for the URL, but otherwise it's like Google doesn't know they exist.

SSL Labs shows an "A" when I run their test and I have no manual actions showing in Webmaster Tools.

This is really frustrating. I don't actually need SSL, but Google finally scared me into it. Now I'm regretting the switch and contemplating going back to non-secured URLs.

Anything else I could have missed?

Solution :

Yes it is common. We get questions about it here all the time:

• Huge drop (50%) in traffic after HTTPS move


• Search traffic dropped with HTTPS implementation


• Organic Traffic down after HTTPS (SSL) move (2 months passed)


• Why my website is excluding from search results after migration to https?


• Which penalties are possible when switching from HTTP to HTTPS

We also have questions about whether Google will rank sites better with HTTPS:

• Will http to https rewrite rule affect SEO ranking?


• In terms of rankings how much 'MORE' does Google reward for HTTPS enabled websites

I recently moved my largest website to HTTPS (millions of monthly SEO visits). I did so without any problems with Google rankings. I did it in 3 stages:

1. Enable both HTTP and HTTPS with canonicals on HTTP (2 years, although this could just be a quick test)


2. Switch the canonicals to HTTPS (9 months)


3. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS

For full details see my answer to HTTP to HTTPS: Wait for new sitemap to be indexed?

It will take time for Google to merge the index listings for your old site with your new URLs. This kind of temporary drop is normal.

Keep an eye on the 301 redirects and wait for your listings to recover.

• Do you have a "rel=canonical" tag in your page that points to a HTTP url rather than a HTTPS?


• Do you have residual links inside your webpage that point to HTTP version of your webpages rather than the HTTPS version. (for instance, an <img src=http://)


• I would encourage you to check all the redirect headers and response. In the HTTP response, you should not see a HTTP either in the HTTP headers or the HTML.

If the issue about redirects, 301-redirect, https, is resolved, there’s a good chance that your content will get indexed and you’ll start to show up in Google search results. This means a greater chance to drive organic search traffic to your site.