Google told the insecure copy is the master
Your site tells Google the insecure version is the master copy.
How to see it yourself, in a minute
- View the page source and search for “canonical”.
- If the address in it starts with http:// on a page you reached over https://, this is the fault.
Or paste your address into the free audit, which checks this and seventeen other faults in ten seconds.
Why it matters
A canonical tag pointing at the http version tells Google to rank the insecure copy, which then carries the “Not secure” warning into the search results themselves.
A canonical tag pointing at the http version tells Google to rank the insecure copy, which then carries the “Not secure” warning into the search results themselves, and splits your ranking signals between two copies of every page.
How we fix it
We correct the canonical tags, update the sitemap, and resubmit the secure version in Search Console.
- Correct the canonical tags to the https address on every page.
- Update the sitemap and resubmit the secure version in Search Console.
- Check the redirects so the http copy cannot be indexed again.
How long: An hour.
This is one of the eighteen on the fix one thing list. How a fix is quoted, staged and signed off is on how it works; the site we run ourselves, with none of these faults, is on the proof page.
Who it costs most
On a site that carries stock, this fault is paid for on every item page, not just the homepage. It is one of the first things we check for:
- Websites for vets and animal clinics · Appointments on your own site
- Websites for plant and machinery dealers · Machines on your own site
- Websites for agricultural machinery dealers · Tractors and implements on your own site
Questions people ask about this
- Is this a big job?
- An hour on most sites. It is usually one setting left over from the day the certificate was installed.
People usually find this page by searching
- “canonical tag http https”
- “google indexing http version of site”
- “duplicate content http https”
Has your site got it?
Paste your address. This and seventeen other faults, checked in seconds.
Free, no call. The first findings come up in a few seconds and the full result in about half a minute. We load your site in a real mobile browser the way Google measures it, read your inner pages, your DNS, certificate, email records and sitemap, follow your stock list to the pages for the things you actually sell, and show you the three worst things on screen.
Or fix the lot at once
If the audit finds five or more, a rebuild is usually cheaper than five fixes. Prices are on the page.