Secure Your Website: 5 Steps to Move From HTTP to HTTPS

The University of Maryland recently shook the world with terrifying statistics—hacker attacks happen every 39 seconds. Although security systems have evolved a lot since then, cyber threats have also gotten more sophisticated, keeping online safety at the top of businesses’ and site owners’ priority lists.

Today, leveraging HTTPS for website protection is pivotal for maintaining reputation and earning/maintaining users’ trust. The only questions left are what HTTPS is and how to switch from HTTP to HTTPS.

Getting Clear on the Basics: HHTP to HHTPS

Before exploring how to convert HTTP to HTTPS, let’s start with some definitions.

One of the primary things that protect a website and its users is hidden right in their URLs. Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a protocol designed for seamless communication between a server and a browser. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a secure extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that uses SSL/TLS encryption to protect the communication between a server and a browser.

Changing HTTP to HTTPS, albeit pivotal for your site, can seem rather frustrating and challenging. Yet, it can be easy if you have a detailed roadmap to this change. In the guide below, we’ll tell you how to make this transition step by step:

1. Choose a Certificate;
2. Obtain and Install the Certificate;
3. Update Internal Links and Resources;
4. Set Up Redirects;
5. Update External Services and Maintain UX.

How to Secure Your Site With HTTPS in 5 Simple Steps

Step 1: Choose the Right SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate is a digital document that authenticates a website’s identity and allows for encrypted connection. It’s impossible to implement an HTTPS protocol without SSL, so it’s important to pick it wisely.

It comes in three main types:

• Domain Validation (DV). The most affordable, easy-to-get, and basic certificate received after a domain ownership check. It offers the lowest level of protection.
• Organization Validation (OV). This type also checks domain ownership, like DV. Additionally, it verifies the legal organization behind a specific site. It takes longer to gain it as it requires time to check your business records, yet, it offers a higher level of protection.
• Extended Validation (EV). This top-of-the-class option is the hardest-to-get and most expensive. However, it offers the highest level of protection. The procedure of acquiring it involves a domain ownership check (DV), a company’s records check (OV), and a phone call with the issuer.

In order to convert HTTP to HTTPS, pick a suitable type based on your site’s needs. Sites that require the highest level of protection, like those of banks, large eCommerce companies, and governmental organisations, should opt for EV. For blogs and smaller businesses, a DV certificate should do its work just fine.

Consider the number of domains/subdomains covered:

• Single Domain. If you only have one domain with no subdomains, the basic single-domain DV certificate will work.
• Multi-Domain. If you have multiple domains, you need a multi-domain option.
• Wildcard SSL. If your site has one domain and multiple subdomains, you need a wildcard SSL.

Pick the best type of SSL for your site based on the number of domains/subdomains and validation level. And don’t forget to check if your hosting provider supports SSL certificates and whether they have built-in SSL options.

Step 2: Obtain and Install the SSL Certificate

If you’re wondering how to change HTTP to HTTPS after you select the perfect certificate type for your site, you need to obtain your certificate in one of the following ways:

1. You can buy it from your hosting provider, which is the easiest method. All you need to do is pick the type that suits you, complete a certificate signing request (CSR), create a private encryption key with your hosting provider, order a certificate from the vendor of your choice and upload the CSR file, get through validation, and download your certificate. Lastly, you need to upload the received file to your hosting server.
   
   
2. If your hosting provider doesn't provide SSL purchase options, you will need to acquire yours directly from an issuer (Certificate Authority or CA) of your choice. There are plenty of trusted issuers (e.g., Comodo, GeoTrust, Symantec, etc.) and stores that sell SSLs—compare the options and pick the best one for you.
   
   
3. Lastly, you can obtain encryption certificates for free from initiatives like Let’s Encrypt. Fee SSLs work just like paid ones. The primary trade-offs are that there are only DV certificates supported and they are only valid for three months (instead of 1 year for paid options), which means you’ll have to renew them frequently.
   
   

Installing takes just a few steps:

• Upload it to a dedicated folder on your server;
• Restart your server;
• Test the uploaded certificate via special tools like SSL Labs Server Test.

Step 3: Update Internal Links and Resources

After you install your SSL certificate, there are a few updates you need to make:

• Replace internal links. There are two types of URLs used on your site: 1) absolute URLs consist of a full web address, and 2) relative URLs that don’t specify the protocol and even may not specify the domain. You should replace all old absolute URLs with relative links for internal links, scripts, paths to stylesheets, images, videos, and other resources (e.g., CSS or JavaScript files). If you update internal links to relative ones, the browser will add the missing protocol itself, hence, switching HTTP to HTTPS and helping you avoid mixed content issues.
  
  
• Check for hardcoded links. Leverage reliable tools like SE Ranking’s audit tool to audit your site and detect any hardcoded HTTP links. In the audit report, go to the Website Security section and check if there are any redirects or canonical tags pointing to unsecured pages, HTTP URLs in your sitemap.xml, pages with mixed content, or other website security issues. If you detect any of these issues, update old links with HTTPS URLs. 
  
  

Step 4: Set Up HTTP to HTTPS Redirects

In order to move the site to HTTPS, you need to ensure that your visitors (as well as search engine bots) are directed to the right version of your page when they try to access it and don’t switch to HTTP. To do this, you need to implement 301 redirects. These redirects will ensure that traffic from your old HTTP URLs is automatically directed toward your preferred secure URLs.

Access your web server configuration files (if possible) and write the redirect rules. The format and structure of redirect rules depend on your server.

Pro tip: When creating redirects, sometimes, you may end up having multiple redirects between your initial URL and the preferred URL. We advise minimizing these occasions as such redirect chains can cause latency, thus, affecting your site’s speed, user experience, and SEO.

Step 5: Update External Services and Remember About User Experience

After you update your website with HTTPS, some of your old HTTP pages might still rank in Google and get into your users’ way. This happens because it takes time for search engines to crawl and index the new versions of your pages to rank the new ones with HTTPS encryption.

To speed up this process, you should create a new sitemap.xml that considers your recent HTTP change to HTTPS and upload the updated sitemap to Google Search Console. 

Finally, when you move to HTTPS, you should pay special attention to user experience (UX). Some of your old users might have your past pages saved or bookmarked and may get confused or face errors trying to access them after you switch from HTTP to HTTPS. To prevent these and other errors, test which old pages are still indexed by simply entering your website’s URL with the HTTP protocol into the search bar. Then, use the “site:” operator with the HTTP URL to determine which pages are indexed.

Summary

These days, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure isn’t an option but rather a necessity for every website that strives to gain users’ and search engines’ trust. This protocol gives your site an extra layer of safety, ensuring better user experiences, which are typically rewarded with traffic, rankings, and conversions.

Now, you have a step-by-step guide on how to go from HTTP to HTTPS. Use the tips we shared with you to make your site truly safe!