How to switch to https in webmaster tools?

Question

We will be trying to add SSL to our website pretty soon , in the demo server we achieve everything perfect, the thing now is not to loose the traffic.

With Google Analytics we are able to change HTTP to HTTPS, but in Webmaster Tools is quite confusing trying to change or add another domain with https.

I check this post from @CP30 , https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/a/90829/61395

Sound very logic to do that, but what are the steps? before adding the ssl , should we add a https domain to webmaster tools and then Follow the steps above?

What else do you suggest we can do before we change everything?

Answer 1

Referring to the @CP3O's Answer in the linked question, Here's the sequence you should follow:

1. Make the HTTPs website live to the domain.
2. Redirect HTTP robots.txt to HTTPS robots.txt.
3. Place a new HTTPS sitemap in the robots.txt, and remove the HTTP sitemap URL from robots.txt.
4. Make sure that the old HTTP sitemap was intact, and made sure it was still existing in our HTTP property in the Search Console.
5. Change all canonical URLs to HTTPS.
6. Make sure all 301 redirects were in order and a one to one mapping was intact for all HTTP -> HTTPS.
7. Submit a New HTTPS Property in Search Console
8. Submit the new HTTPS sitemap in the HTTPS property in the Search Console.
9. Make sure the HTTPS sitemap was the only sitemap being updated with new URLs. (Stopped adding new URLs to the HTTP sitemap after the redirects.)