The reason why the sharing website's ranking dropped after the https transformation!

To do SEO, you need to follow the trend. Baidu search engine is the only one in the market. Baidu is promoting https transformation. Baidu's own website has also been transformed to https. Following the trend means that we should also transform our own websites. Many people found that their website rankings have dropped after the transformation of their websites. The reason is probably that Baidu search engine does not support https transformation enough, or there are problems with data delay. This article explains in detail the benefits of website configuration https/SSL for SEO and the reasons for the decline in website rankings after https transformation.

Website ranking drops after https transformation

The reason why the website ranking dropped after the transformation to https is mainly because when I first entered the SEO industry, I liked to mess around (T_T). I remember that a few years ago, when I was optimizing the corporate website, I had some free time and wanted to change the corporate website's http to https. However, after changing http to https, the ranking dropped sharply. The boss also occasionally looked at the website ranking, and without a doubt, I was called to the office for tea by the boss. Fortunately, I was smart and almost got beaten by the boss (×_×)!

Although it is frustrating to see a drop in rankings, what I want to say is that https is a trend, and Baidu’s search resource platform clearly states that Baidu supports https, and when doing SEO, it will give priority to showing support!

Baidu's support for HTTPS sites

First, two points should be made clear:

1. When the website is changed from http to https, the ranking will drop!

2. Baidu officially announced that it will increase the efforts to crawl https websites, and it is still necessary for websites to transform to https.

1. The benefits of configuring https/SSL on a website for website SEO. There are still many benefits to configuring SSL on your website. In 2014, Google considered SSL as a ranking factor. In 2017, Baidu officially recommended that websites use HTTPS. From the perspective of website security and user experience, HTTPS sites are more secure and high-quality, and Baidu search will give priority to displaying pages with better user experience when indexing. In general, HTTPS is recommended if conditions permit.

When I finished the website last week, it was “https://www.yunmajp.com/” and then I just changed it to “https://www.yunmajp.com/”.

Website transformation completed https icon

Advantages of HTTPS websites:

Security:

In the current technical context, HTTPS is the most secure solution under the current architecture:

1. Use the HTTPS protocol to authenticate users and servers, ensuring that data is sent to the correct client and server;

2. The HTTPS protocol is a network protocol built by SSL+HTTP protocol that can perform encrypted transmission and identity authentication. It is safer than the http protocol and can prevent data from being stolen or changed during transmission, ensuring the integrity of the data.

3. HTTPS is the most secure solution under the current architecture. Although it is not absolutely secure, it greatly increases the cost of man-in-the-middle attacks.

Website revenue:

1. The website is safer, and the corresponding website evaluation will be relatively higher;

2. The website is more secure, and the corresponding website landing experience is also better;

3. On the search display side, for websites that have undergone HTTPS transformation, the HTTPS display style will appear under the search transformation, and https pages will be displayed first.

Disadvantages of HTTPS:

1. Professional SSL certificates may cost a certain amount of money. The more powerful the certificate, the higher the fee.

2. Website search rankings usually drop temporarily.

3. The site needs to invest manpower costs, and the technical transformation depends on the site conditions.

Necessity of https transformation reference: Baidu's official recommendations on making websites https.

2. The reason why the website ranking dropped after the transformation to https! There are many reasons why your website’s SEO ranking may drop when you switch to HTTPS/SSL.

1. The website https has just taken effect.

When a website is converted to https, the website URL changes from http to https. Although it is only a small change, it is technically a different URL. Baidu will think it is a different page, a new page. Search engines identify web page content based on URLs. If you change from http to https, Baidu will think it is a new page. The search engine needs to crawl, judge, calculate, index and rank it again, so the website ranking will naturally decrease.

Although the http and https pages are the same, Baidu search engine will have an identification process. In fact, Baidu only started to include https sites in 2015, but until 2016, Baidu was still relatively slow in including https sites, so I think this is one of the reasons why most webmasters are reluctant to upgrade to https.

2. The SSL certificate is not set up correctly

The certificate I applied for was from Alibaba Cloud, and the space was Jing'an's Kuaiyun VPS. When I first started configuring SSL, I was also confused and didn't know where to start. I checked the information online and configured it step by step. If there is a problem with the SSL configuration, there will be two pages, http and https.

3. No 301 redirects

After installing SSL, the website URL needs to be set up with a redirect from http to https to help Baidu search engine quickly identify it. Technically speaking, Baidu search engine supports https transformation, which will restore the website ranking, but 301 redirection can transfer part of the weight, which still has some benefits for SEO.

4. Internal links are still http pages

After the website is converted to https, the internal links and image URLs are still http links, so the internal links added manually need to be changed to https as well.

5. The site map points to the http version

After changing to https, you should make sure that the URL in the sitemap is the correct https webpage, and then resubmit it to Baidu. Let Baidu re-crawl, index and include. Many people forget this step. I almost changed the website to https, but the map was still http, so check the site map!

6. Using the Worst SSL Certificate (Free SSL Certificate)

There is no free lunch in the world. There are paid and free SSL certificates. For example, as a loser webmaster, I use Alibaba Cloud's free SSL certificate. Paid SSL certificates provide more powerful functions, while free ones only provide basic functions. However, as a grassroots webmaster, Alibaba Cloud's paid SSL certificates cost thousands of yuan, which is really unaffordable. I can only use the free SSL certificate, but it is better than nothing!