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I did a migration from http:// to https:// for a big site with more than 2 million of URLs indexed on Google.

As others have mentioned I'm also experiencing a bit of fluctuation on organic traffic (-10% as measured by Google Analytics).

Things i did so far:

  • 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS URLs
  • Added https://www and https:// versions of the site on Google Webmasters Console.
  • Submitted new sitemaps with the new URLs and left other sitemaps with old http:// URLs

I'm now considering implementing HSTS and including the site on the HSTS Chrome preload list to increase security, however since HSTS makes all traffic going to http:// redirect to https:// with a 307 Internal redirect, wouldn't that prevent Googlebot to see the 301 redirects?

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    Any change from HTTP to HTTPS represents a major disruption. This is normal and it will take a while for the HTTPS site to rank properly. The good news is it will rank the same as the HTTP site. As for the 307, I am not sure. The 301 redirects will at least preserve any back link to HTTP, however, I am not sure about 307. I will let someone address that with experience. It may be best to wait till Google has a good handle on the change from HTTP to HTTPS before making any other changes. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 0:04
  • I am kinda confuse from this, this and this resource.
    – Goyllo
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 17:47
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    HSTS is fine. Search engines will still check & see the redirect, browsers (who know about the HSTS) will go directly to HTTPS. However, I'd really only set up HSTS once you're sure everything else is working correctly.
    – John Mueller
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 19:13

1 Answer 1

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HSTS affects the browser connections to the application but Googlebot still follows rules defined in the htaccess file. Googlebot doesn't work based on the preload list so you won't have any issues.

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