Google recently indicated that HTTPS will be a ranking factor. That started some discussion with folks as to whether that would be enough of an incentive for people to change. I think it’s a good move on Google’s part, but not sure it will move the needle. I think making the move is something to investigate. I thought this would be a good challenge for me. Will it be easy for me to move to HTTPS, or will I find it cumbersome?
I’ll share my thoughts and learnings along the way. Hopefully this will help you if you choose to make the move. Keep in mind that this site is simple and doesn’t offer the complexities of many sites. As a result, there may be things that never hit my radar because I’m flying low. (Yes, dragons have been known to fly.)
At the top of my head, here are some questions that come to mind that I need to answer. They aren’t in any particular order.
- Where do I get a certificate and what’s the cost?
- Does my web host support SSL?
- Are there special concerns with WordPress?
- Do I need to do anything with my CDN and cached assets
- What do I need to do for my security service?
- What other 3rd party services do I have that might be impacted?
- What’s the best way to redirect links?
- How do I test this so I’m not going to hit unsecured content errors?
- Who has already done this and what can I learn?
- Do I need to reconfigure 3rd party scripts like Google Analytics, Google Tag manager etc.
- How should I benchmark pages to judge performance?
Do I need approval from the Dragon Lady?
Stay tuned.