SEO affected by switching from Http to https?

[laurayell]

Hi, 

I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing this same problem. I just enabled ssl on my site on july 11th. On July 14th there was a huge drastic drop in google search traffic that has continued through now (July 25th) and I think the http to https switch it probably the cause. I saw on another thread that it was not supposed to affect your SEO, but it seems like it did.  I just noticed the drop in traffic yesterday and I submitted a sitemap to google yesterday and added the new https version of my site the google search console and I am hoping that will improve things over time.  Has anyone else expereinced a large drop in traffic after making the switch from http to https? Any other tips on what I should be doing to help improve this? Thank you!

[Bernadette3]

Hi @laurayell I haven't heard of SSL causing a significant change in traffic, but it could be a possibility. Do people usually come to your site via direct link, search engine listing, or a third party site?

[laurayell · Accepted solution]

Hi Bernadett, 

Thanks so much for your response. I looked into it a little bit futher and I think it is actually okay. I saw a small decline on the weebly site stats after enabling it. Then when I looked at the Google search console I thought i was seeing a huge decline. Since adding the https version of the site to my google search console last night I just went back and checked there and now I realize that the sharp drop in traffic to my http site was just because it was all shifting over to my https version of the site..but I didn't have the https site on my google console yet so I didn't see that traffic.. Now since I added it I can see that is where my site traffic is...duh Sorry for the silly question.Thank you!  

[Adam7]

That's ok, @laurayell! It's an easy thing to miss and it could definitely confuse people, especially since Google Analytics will continue reporting just fine after enabling SSL, unlike the search console where you need add a new property.

[laurayell]

thank you!  

[John_Paul]

I could add that updating tracking in Google Search Console is one thing, but also to keep in mind and make sure the traffic from HTTP gets 301 redirected to HTTPS (worth checking manually).