Website Not Indexed After SSL Certificate

Server Config
1

Hey Good Folks.

I just noticed only one of my pages is indexed by Google. I’ve never had this problem, so I think it’s due to the recently enabled SSL Certificate, which changed my site from http: to https:.

I’m only guessing that this is the problem. For now I’ve updated my sitemap to reflect this change, but I don’t know if this will help. I don’t even get why the one page indexed is being indexed and not the others.

Any suggestions? Should I make changes at my hosting service?

I’m in over my head again.

2

Are the old http URLs redirecting to the new https URLs? If not, that’s your problem.

3

Have you told Google Search Console to index the https version?

4

Try this using Googke Chrome:

site:yourURL.com

5

An update:

Google Analytics shows a drop in traffic but not an absolute cessation. Google Search Console shows an absolute drop in clicks - I mean zero clicks.

I was wrong about one page being indexed. I extrapolated that from that one page having 7 back links to it. My indexing report indicates none of my pages are indexed. Zero. Previous to this I had two to three thousand back links, but now I only have the 7 linking to that one page.

6
3 Likes
7

Thanks.

I thought of that but didn’t know how to check. I would have thought my ISP saw to this when they issued the SSL certificate or reminded me to do so.

8

Thanks.

A similar strategy has been lurking amidst the chaos - remove the old URLs and fetch the new ones.

I’ve been hoping to actually figure out what happened before I go with the old try everything and anything approach.

9

Thanks John.

Did that last night and they all came back.

1 Like
10

I’m on it TB. Thank you.

11

Update:

As I now understand it, Google treats
https://drumdr.com/
as a different site than
http://drumdr.com/.

I’ve now added https://drumdr.com/ to my Search Console properties and requested indexing for the pages (maybe this is what you meant gandalf).

I’m guessing that Google Analytics has continued to track my site’s traffic because the tracking code remained despite the change to https, and that’s why it reports only a drop in traffic, but I don’t get why Google Console is unaware of this and reports an absolute drop in traffic.

And I really don’t get why one of my pages still gets credited with back links but none of the others do.

Hopefully, I’ll have some good news to report soon.

12

If the majority of your links use the non-https version of the URL, then they will not be counted as links to the https version unless you have redirects in place. The usual method is to set a redirect from http to https in your .htaccess file.

You also need to ensure you’ve followed the “change of address” procedure for Google.

13

The .htaccess file is not set correctly.

Try this to test all possible URLs and display the relevant http status codes:

https://supiet2.tk

Result:
One URL has the correct 200 return value, two URLs have 302 temporary redirection and the following link is unreachable:

https://www.drumdr.com

Edit:
Further reading.

14

Tried your nifty tool and all the pages seem to be returning 200.

15

One day after adding https://drumdr.com/ to my Search Console properties, Search Console is still reporting zero clicks to the http site but some activity on the https site. Google analytics reports an overnight increase in traffic to the http site of more than double.

I feel like I’ve made some progress, but there’s a lot more I still need to understand before I can let this go.

My .htaccess file is not readily accessible to me, so I need to discuss this with my ISP.

16

I just tried your site again and still receiving the same results?

This page still shows an invalid url.

https://www.drumdr.com/

Please supply a screen dump of the results that is showing the 200 HTTP Status Codes.


Screenshot%20from%202018-08-21%2011-12-35
Screenshot%20from%202018-08-21%2011-12-35900×733 34.6 KB


17

I guess you’re right. I was only checking the https: version. I don’t get what this all means.

My .htaccess file:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} drumdr\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://drumdr.com/$1 [R,L]

# Use PHP5.4 Single php.ini as default
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php54s .php

# Start CloudFlare:drumdr.com rewrite. Do not Edit 
# End CloudFlare rewrite.

<ifModule mod_headers.c>
ExpiresActive On
 
# Expires after 1 month
<filesMatch ".(gif|png|jpg|jpeg|ico|pdf|js|htm|html|txt)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2592000"
</filesMatch>
 
# Expires after 1 day
<filesMatch ".(css)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=86400"
</filesMatch>
</ifModule>
1 Like
18

I’m only the messenger :slight_smile:

I do know that a valid and exactly correct .htaccess files is critical to prevent all the URLs becoming Invalid.

Perhaps another user could suggest the changes required to change the Invalid URL?

19

Time to bone up on the .htaccess file. This’ll take a while I imagine.

20

I have just checked Google Chromes’s site:drumdr.com and it appears that most sites have the www. prefix.

I use LetsEncrypt and Certbot to manage all site redirection.

From bitter experience I have learnt to use a temporary 302 redirection because once the permanent 301 redirection has been activated going back is an enormous task.