Using SSL only in checkout

[Sail and Ski]

Ok, so I am really looking for some reassurance on this. I want to use SSL only on checkout, login pages but I'm nervous about it changing other URLs, we cannot afford to lose our rankings if any other pages change from http to https.

I can see how this can be done through Sellerdeck, however when I spoke to our web hosts they said they can't see how it is possible to use SSL only for certain pages as they apply it to a whole domain. Support have said that it is possible and won't change any other URLs but the conflicting advice from our host has got me worried. Has anyone actually done this and can confirm that other URLs will be changed? Also a colleague of mine posted about this last year and a robots.txt file is needed to stop https pages being linked to from google, do anyone have this as I can't see anything about it on the forums?

Cheers,
Ben

[saucysal]

We have ssl in checkout and login only, using that option within Sellerdeck, and it has not changed any other page names.

Sarah

[Mike Hughes]

AFAIK:

1. Your web host is correct. HTTPS will be available across the whole domain.

2. No page names are changed. Sellerdeck just uses https for the links to the checkout pages instead of http.

3. Google actually applies a boost to pages that are hosted securely after concerns for security and privacy. If they find a relevant https page that will be tend to be the one they show in the serps (and they will find them just by crawling your website.)

4. If you don't like it you can use a canonical link on all your pages to tell them to use the http version of the page.

There's not much more I can think of to add. As with anything you have to make your own decision on the pros and cons of any change but I have to admit I can't see any real benefit to using SSL on the checkout pages these days, even though I do still have it on my checkout pages.

[peblaco]

Your original post from last year is here. If you want to stop login and checkout being listed in search results you'd need a blockif to check for those page types and add a noindex meta tag.