A question about google and web address forwarding

[Mookistar]

Here's a weird one

Our site

Www.jjwoolandcrafts.co.uk in error, used to automatically take the user to https://shop.jjwoolandcrafts.co.uk
As our site was set to SSL on checkout/login only our RTS didn't appear on the products

So, set the whole site to SSL whilst I arranged for the web address issue to be sorted.

Now it's sorted, RTS works on the http:// side of the site, but not on the https:// side ( that's how it should be)

However ALL of our search results on every engine, directs the user into the https side of the site and subsequently they see no RTS

Is there any way of forcing the search results to update? Or do I just need to give it time?

I don't want to set the whole site to secure as the results will never update

Only without RTS sales drop by 80%

Thanks in advance

Mook

[Mike Hughes]

Hmm. Not sure I believe the 80% drop without rts. I'd be interested to hear more about that.

You can't force pages out of the serps. They'll stay there until google decides they're no longer valid. To do this you need to show a 404 error page so the search engines know to remove the pages from the index.

At the moment your ssl link (and googles ssl links) appears to redirect to a non secure page so you appear to have sorted the rts problem. I can't see ssl on checkout but this may be a side effect of what you've done to fix the ssl link problem.

Mike

[Mookistar]

Hmm. Not sure I believe the 80% drop without rts. I'd be interested to hear more about that.

You can't force pages out of the serps. They'll stay there until google decides they're no longer valid. To do this you need to show a 404 error page so the search engines know to remove the pages from the index.

At the moment your ssl link (and googles ssl links) appears to redirect to a non secure page so you appear to have sorted the rts problem. I can't see ssl on checkout but this may be a side effect of what you've done to fix the ssl link problem.

Mike

I've just set the whole site back to SSL, becasue, quite honestly, without RTS, we get lots of emails asking if we have an item, but very few follow up sales. After finding and fixing the propblem last week, sales shot up, but that may be the nature of the trade.

I'm sort of stuck ATM. 80% of my traffic comes from google, 20% from direct address entry. If i set the site up correctly, the google results go to the wrong place.

Surely I can't 404 the whole http:// side of my site bar checkout pages?

Mook

p.s. the insecure pages may be casue by the twitter feeed (see other thread, lol)

[Mike Hughes]

TBH I haven't a clue what you're doing.

If I follow either of the links in your first post I get taken to a page that isn't on ssl (no padlock) and there's no rts on the pages either.

Something is messed up.

Mike

[leehack]

Multi-million pound actinic turnover sites do not need SSL, why do you, any specific reason? You're using SSL which creates more problems than it solves and with limited knowledge, it's even worse. Switch it off, save a bit of money, reduce hassles and have a site with one less link in it that can break. You can then focus that time on getting extra sales, instead of fixing the security issues that the security product is causing.

[Mookistar]

surely we need SSL for checkout?

[Duncan Rounding]

No - You are using Actinic Payments - their server is secure for the card details.

[leehack]

I can't recall one site i have designed in past 4 years needing or indeed having an SSL certificate, your chosen PSP provides all the security required, unless of course you are collecting card details on your site, which was supposed to have stopped over 4 years ago.

[Mookistar]

ok, i am beyond confused now

when we set up the site, we used our own hosting. When we set it all up we set up, seperatly an SSL certificate. I assumed this was normal, and when speaking to actinic support, they didn't indicate that it was anything out of the ordinary.

so what you are saying is all i need is to have a bog standard http: hosted site, and the checkout pages will automatically go to https becasue of actinic payments.

regardless of ANY of the above, google is directing to https which is wrong in any event. is the only way to kill this direct by killing the https side if the site all together?

mook

[leehack]

To be frank Mike, you've gone into a really important area with limited knowledge and most likely made some bad decisions. You wouldn't get advised not to use one, because you can if you want, it's just largely pointless and can totally screw things up as you are seeing. Your site is unusable in its current state.

Switch SSL off, get the site working correctly and normally, Google will catch up over time, you will not be able to accelerate that process, the best you can do is to fix things ASAP.

In the future if you are not sure and cannot afford professional advice, ask on places like this before you do anything, you could save hours if not days of work and affected business.

It's one of those 'awkward' situations where you are doing things yourself i presume to save money, but unless you do it correctly, you can cause so much damage and delay that the saving you made is a very false one.

Just ask us before next time, not after.

[Duncan Rounding]

...and the checkout pages will automatically go to https becasue of actinic payments....

Not the checkout pages as such just the payment pages when you are transferred to Actinic Payment's servers.

Your delivery address details don't need to be SSL. Some (very few) site owners use SSL on their delivery entry pages (checkout pages) but it's not necessary.

[Mookistar]

I appreciate that Lee. Trouble is my brother runs an ISP and is very experienced with computers, and i think perhaps he's just gone a bit overkill on the setup. Perhaps Actinic is more strightforward than he thought.

so

turn off the ssl server, and Actinic will STILL forward to https when paying. Will i need to adjust my security/server settings?

[Duncan Rounding]

You should be able to just uncheck SSL but run a network test to make sure all is well then then do a site refresh.

[Mookistar]

unchecked SSl and you are right, it runs http until confirm order is clicked then it switches to https and actinic payments

so, assuming that is the optimum configuration, do i now need to turn off my ssl server, so it starts giving a 404 error to google, and will google automatically find the http version? becasue at present it still links to https which has no RTS function

thanks

mike

[Duncan Rounding]

Look into creating an htaccess file to permanently redirect all https to http on your domain.