Amy's Newsletter Articles

Your website could be "down" and you don't even know it...

I have a link checker that looks for bad links on the AuthorsXP.com website — most of which are bad links to author's websites (book sites and personal sites) in the AXP library I use to promote books for various events and read and review. 

The biggest problem? Sites that don't start with HTTPS instead of HTTP. Google has made it clear it wants all websites to start with HTTPS  — not just HTTP  — or the site won't be indexed. In addition, many sites fail if the person going to it doesn't HAPPEN to type in HTTPS instead of HTTP, or if they stumble on an HTTP version of your link. Chances are old links to your website on many sites (not just mine) start with HTTP.

 

What can you do about these outdated links to make sure your site doesn't fail when readers search for it?

  1. Make sure your HTTPS link is active (your site has a security certificate). If you don't, talk to your web host. Many times you can use a free auto SSL certificate (though places like Godaddy won't tell you that---they want to sell you a yearly certificate!)
  2. If you can get to your site using HTTPS, great! You're halfway there. Next, try your site without it. What happens when you go to HTTP://yoursitedomain.com? It should redirect to the HTTPS version (the lock should lock). This makes it so any old links out there aren't a problem. Go ahead and try to go to HTTP://authorsxp.com - You'll see the little lock locks anyway because I have my site set to turn any request for HTTP to both HTTPS and the non-www version of my address.
  3. Google sees www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com as two different addresses (which dilutes the power of your link on searches). WWW is unnecessary. So, ideally, you not only want to make sure your site goes from HTTP to HTTPS, but also strips the www out of the address.

How do you make sure everyone goes to the same address? https://yoursite.com ?

A little code in a file called an htaccess file on your server space can fix everything. 

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} yourdomain\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://yourdomain.com/$1 [R,L]


Ask your web person to add that to your site and that should solve your problems! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for about $15 (I'll have to make sure it is possible, troubleshoot, etc.).