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I recently started serving all my pages over https instead of http. I did so using this rewrite rule:

  <rule name="force https" stopProcessing="true">
    <match url="(.*)" />
    <conditions>
      <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" ignoreCase="true" />
    </conditions>
    <action type="Redirect" redirectType="Permanent" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
  </rule>

Will this not cause me to lose link juice or affect my Google indexed pages negatively?

2 Answers 2

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Yes, it will. The http and https version will be seen as individual pages and thus also create duplicate content.

The solution is to use a 301-permanent redirect, which your code does. This will transfer the juice to the destination of the redirection, so you're good. Also, adding a canonical tag to indicate which is the prefered url is good practice.

There are some rumours that a redirect will cost you some value, but just the tiniest bit, nothing to worry about.


Might be worth mentioning that https has more effects on SEO. Because of the increased security you'll get a higher authority rank, which could positively effect your ranking.

https sites are theorically slightly slower, but in practice you will not notice this. Your implementation influences has much more effect on how much (e.g.: decrease number of resources).

Another factor will be your users. The users might trust your site more and stay longer because of that. More time on your website (often) equals a better ranking.

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  • "HTTPS is slower" is a myth. Using HTTP/2 more than negates the SSL setup. May 11, 2017 at 11:44
  • This answer is two years old. It was not much, but a notice amount. I shall update the answer to more current results
    – Martijn
    May 11, 2017 at 13:09
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Google has said they they want sites to move to HTTPS and they will even give a slight rankings boost to sites that do so. Your redirect rule looks like a fine way to migrate your site from HTTP to HTTPS.

Some webmasters have migrated to HTTPS recently have found that that rankings have suffered as a result. There is certainly some SEO risk with the switch.

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