Will using HTTP and HTTPS on the same domain affect SEO [closed]

Question

Will using both protocols on the same domain, serving the same website, make it indexed twice by search engines, and considered duplicate content?

If that so, what is the best way to avoid this negative effect in SEO. Should I make https on another subdomain like https://ssl.example.com instead of https://www.example.com with a different docroot? Or is it good enough to make the necessary 301 redirects from https to http for non-secure content and vice versa on the same docroot? What is the best practice here?

Answer 1

See this thorough discussion on the topic to address concerns specific to your site:

Moz Q&A: Duplicate Content and http and https?

In summary:

"Google considers https:// and http:// two different sites and may inconsistently index one vs. the other and/or penalize for duplicate content... https indexed pages that don't require https typically come from a bot entering an https required page and traversing outward (shopping cart, etc.)"

(note: Obviously if something requires https: on your site, you need to be careful about any of the following.

The easiest solution may be to use absolute canonical links in your site.

I.e: <a href='https://www.example.com/securepage/'>.. as needed or regular http:// otherwise.

Solutions

1. "Be smart about the site structure: to keep the engines from crawling and indexing HTTPS pages, structure the website so that HTTPs are only accessible through a form submission (log-in, sign-up, or payment pages). The common mistake is making these pages available via a standard link (happens when you are either ignorant or not aware that the secure version of the site is being crawled and indexed)."

2. "Use Robots.txt file to control which pages will be crawled and indexed."

3. "Use .htaccess file. Here’s how to do this:"

   Create a file names robots_ssl.txt in your root.

   Add the following code to your .htaccessRewriteCond

   `%{SERVER_PORT} 443 [NC]RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ robots_ssl.txt [L]`
   

4. Remove yourdomain.com:443 from the webmaster tools if the pages have already been crawled.

5. For dynamic pages like php, try:

   < ?phpif ($_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"]== 443){echo “<meta name=” robots ” content=” noindex,nofollow ” > “;}?>

6. Dramatic solution (may not always be possible): 301 redirect the HTTPS pages to the HTTP pages – with hopes that the link juice will transfer over.