By Jiwon Bang for #PSEWEB 2018

1. HOW TO MIGRATE TO
HTTPS AND
WIN AT SEO
(IN PLAIN ENGLISH)
Jiwon Bang
Digital Marketing Coordinator
@jiwon_bang

2. AGENDA
▹ What is HTTPS and why should
we care?
▹ HTTPS migration process
overview
▹ Impact on organic search
traffic - why and how
▹ Helpful SEO tools
2

3. WHAT IS HTTPS?
▹ HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol
Secure
▹ Secure version of HTTP, using encryption to
transfer data over a secure server
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4. WHY SHOULD WE CARE
ABOUT HTTPS?
▹ It’s safer for your website visitors
▹ Consider impact on brand
reputation/credibility
▹ Google’s algorithms give a ranking boost to
HTTPS sites over HTTP sites
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5. 5

6. A #PSEWEB
HTTPS CHECKUP
Have you migrated to
HTTPS yet?

7. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ TALK TO YOUR TECH PERSON
￭ Collaborate on putting together a master task list
￭ You don’t need to know how to actually do everything, but you should
know what needs to get done
￭ Decide your approach
￭ Check in with each other at each milestone point
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8. 8

9. “
Jiwon, I know there are a
few contact forms on the
website. I already tested
the main one, but do you
know where the others
are located?
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10. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ SET BENCHMARKS
￭ Crawl your entire website
￭ Gather search ranking stats
￭ Check loading speed
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14. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ HAVE EVERYTHING READY PRE-MIGRATION
￭ Purchase SSL certificate
￭ Set up Google Search Console
￭ Check for secure/non-secure scripts
￭ Clean up existing absolute paths where possible (e.g.
“https://ce-online.ryerson.ca/ce/default.aspx?id=3471” vs.
“/ce/default.aspx?id=3471”)
￭ Check backend integration
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15. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ TEST
￭ We decided on a small subset of webpages to test-deploy HTTPS
￭ Check for errors and loading speed changes
￭ Check if scripts and backend integrations function as expected
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16. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ MIGRATE!
￭ If possible, schedule migration at a low traffic time, and leave time to
troubleshoot
￭ Add 301 redirects to point all HTTP to HTTPS
￭ Update robots.txt
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17. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ POST-MIGRATION TASKS
￭ Crawl new HTTPS site
￭ Crawl old HTTP site
￭ Fetch and render the HTTPS site in Search Console
￭ Update Google Analytics to HTTPS
￭ Check loading speed
￭ Double-check that Google Tag Manager is working properly
￭ Reduce redirect chains
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18. HTTPS MIGRATION PROCESS OVERVIEW
▹ POST-POST-MIGRATION
￭ Consider implementing HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security)
￭ Keep an eye on search ranking fluctuations 18

19. LET’S TALK
ABOUT
SEO
How does migrating
to HTTPS impact
search rankings?
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20. WHY IS ORGANIC
SEARCH TRAFFIC
IMPORTANT?

21. THE DIGITAL MARKETING
EQUATION
21
Profit = Traffic x Conversion Rate x Conversion Value - Cost

22. 22
IMPACT ON ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC
AT THE CHANG SCHOOL
▹ Three months prior to migration:
No noticeable difference compared
to previous year
HTTPS
Migration
▹ Three months after migration:
Organic search traffic increased by
17.59% compared to previous year

23. MORE DEEP DIVE ON ANALYTICS
23
Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 vs.
Nov 2016 - Jan 2017:
+17.59%
Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 vs.
Nov 2015 - Jan 2016:
+19.59%
Nov 2017 - Jan 2018 vs.
Nov 2014 - Jan 2015:
+12.20%

24. 24
Profit = Traffic x Conversion Rate x Conversion Value - Cost
▹ 3 months after migration
(compared to previous year):
￭ Organic search traffic
increased by 17.59%
￭ Conversion rate
increased by 6.03%
￭ This means potential
25% increase in profit
▹ 8 months after migration
(compared to previous year):
￭ Organic search traffic
increased by 11.03%
￭ Conversion rate
increased by 22.63%
￭ This means potential
35% increase in profit
THE DIGITAL MARKETING EQUATION, AGAIN

25. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
25
Positive correlation
between HTTPS
and higher search
rankings
Better rankings can
lead to more traffic
Users trust secure
connections more
and convert better

26. SEARCH RANKING
IMPROVEMENTS
Average CTR
Average
position
Aug - Oct 2017
(pre-migration)
6.7% 27.5
Nov 2017 - Jan 2018
(post-migration)
8.5% 28.7
Most recent
3 months
8.1% 23
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27. HELPFUL SEO TOOLS
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28. TAKEAWAYS
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▹ Keep SEO in mind every step of the HTTPS
migration process
▹ Plan thoroughly
▹ Communicate with everyone involved,
frequently and openly
▹ Measure your successes (and failures) before
and after migration

29. THANKS!
Any questions?
Jiwon Bang
Digital Marketing Coordinator
@jiwon_bang
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