HTTPS is a primary internet connection protocol that protects the data sent between the web browser and the website. It’s a secured version of the standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol. You can learn more about how
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure works and how it’s used by watching the following video by John Mueller:
If you plan on using it for your site, you can follow these tips and instructions.
Remember that it’s important to ensure that your data and the user’s data are secured and safe. If you’re still using Hypertext Transfer Protocol, it’s best to transfer to HTTPS, especially to avoid making a duplicate copy of the same page.
What Does “HTTP and HTTPS Redirect Error” Mean?
URLs using HTTP protocol that redirect to HTTPS often result in redirect errors. To start with, HTTP or Hypertext Transfer Protocol is used as the foundation of data exchange in the world wide web. It’s a client-server protocol, so the recipient or the browser makes requests. HTTPS, on the other hand, is the secured version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It’s an extension of Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is layered with SSL encryption.
This means that migration from HTTP to HTTPS results in errors in securing the data, and the redirecting fails. Generally, this can happen for many reasons, but all will result in users being unable to access the site.
What Triggers This Issue?
Issues from redirecting HTTP to HTTP can be due to the following reasons:
- Incomplete transfer or change of domain website to HTTPS
- Not updating the URLs
- Using expired SSL certificates
- The web host does not support the SSL certificate
- Not backing up the website before you convert it to HTTPS
- The server refuses to establish an SSL encrypted connection
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How To Check the Issue
Once you successfully convert an HTTP to HTTPS, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol site will auto-redirect to
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Primarily, to check if there are problems, you can test and verify the URLs yourself. Index warnings appear when there are problems. Follow these simple steps:
- Open the browser using the host computer.
- Enter the URL you specified for redirection that you want to check.
- Verify if the webpage opens in the browser.
- Repeat this process for every URL you want to forward to HTTPS.
Why Is This Important?
Search engines pay attention to website security and prompt using the protected Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure protocol. A website based on HTTP and HTTPS protocols is treated by search engines as two separate websites. For example, a WordPress HTTP domain is entirely different from HTTPS, but they generally contain the same content.
A good practice is to set 301 redirects from all Hypertext Transfer Protocol page versions to identical pages of the HTTPS version. This helps to avoid content duplication and a negative user experience.
How To Fix the Issue
If an Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure version of the website is set, it is necessary to add an option for automatic forwarding. To fix the issues encountered, various hostings can apply different options. Still, when generating an option, it is necessary to find out what kind of a server is used since servers play a significant role in redirecting.
Generally, Apache or Nginx are used. Read the guideline before starting the migration from HTTP to HTTPS.
