Does Google Follow https Redirects Without an SSL Cert?

[baldidiot]

Mainly curious about this as we always put ssl in place on a redirected domain, and of course there's the user issue if there is no certificate, etc..

But hypothetically if there was a domain with links pointing to the https version and we redirected without an ssl certificate for the domain would google still treat it the same as if we had ssl in place?

[Former Member 29]

Tested this a few times myself, Google definitely picks up the backlinks and passes them onto the new domain (https or not), but there's a chance that by not using an SSL, you can dilute the authority being passed over from backlinks pointing to the https version of the redirected domain.

[LinuxGam]

Mainly curious about this as we always put ssl in place on a redirected domain, and of course there's the user issue if there is no certificate, etc..

But hypothetically if there was a domain with links pointing to the https version and we redirected without an ssl certificate for the domain would google still treat it the same as if we had ssl in place?

It could…. But I doubt it would in the respect to indexing (tho it might as its nosey about everything) and it would highlight that this is a forwarded domain with little upkeep…. You are better off hosting the domain on a low cost server(or yours if you have that access) using free certs and a default 301….. My gut feeling is at best it neutral as it is, at worst, its slight bad signal.

[universal4]

Unless I am mistaken, I do not think the intent of the original question was about link benefit, but about the follow of the redirect and how the domain is treated without the ssl.

The answers given both imply the link benefit or lack thereof.

Yes I think the redirect is treated the same, and if the links found point to the https, google expects the server to answer for such domain or page on port 443, and as long as that handshake takes place, then the links are treated as correct.

As the others have mentioned though, which were very good points, I do agree with them in that the seo benefit of the "page/site" may be reduced due to not having the certificate, but seo benefit of the links will still exist.

Also agreed that you should be able to fix the lack of the certificate fairly easy no matter what host the site is on. There are a lot of options for the certificate itself, so that portion should not be the big concern, (a fact I am guessing you already know)

Rick
Universal4

[LinuxGam]

Unless I am mistaken, I do not think the intent of the original question was about link benefit, but about the follow of the redirect and how the domain is treated without the ssl.

The answers given both imply the link benefit or lack thereof.

Yes I think the redirect is treated the same, and if the links found point to the https, google expects the server to answer for such domain or page on port 443, and as long as that handshake takes place, then the links are treated as correct.

As the others have mentioned though, which were very good points, I do agree with them in that the seo benefit of the "page/site" may be reduced due to not having the certificate, but seo benefit of the links will still exist.

Also agreed that you should be able to fix the lack of the certificate fairly easy no matter what host the site is on. There are a lot of options for the certificate itself, so that portion should not be the big concern, (a fact I am guessing you already know)

Rick
Universal4

You are right, but I was basing it on my experience and trying to give people some input. My personal thoughts are I would not have a domain thats got no cert redirecting. Being as it’s not difficult for google to work out 301s anyway, I was pointing out that I think it would be generous to say that was a neutral signal. My point is , now or in the future might be seen as not great.

[baldidiot]

Totally agree with your points and we always put ssl on a redirected domain as a precaution - we'd want it for any users visiting the old domain anyway so just makes sense to do.

It was more out of curiosity as it's not something I've really seen discussed before.

Actually being totally honest I was nosing at a competitors sites backlink profile and noticed they had some domain redirects that didn't have ssl certs and it got me wondering.

[whitebox]

of course, the presence of an ssl certificate does not affect the redirect, only the number of redirects affects, no more than 5 pieces