TRAFFIC
Geotargeting If the website is not a common country top level domain , chances are that the international targeting in Google Search Console has to be / was set manually . Verify the old primary HTTP property in Google Search Console if any international targeting is present for the primary HTTP property and changeable with a pull down , and if so , go to the primary HTTPS version and change the international targeting to the same region ( see Figure 8 ).
Figure 5 : Example of a Manual Actions notification in Google Search Console
Figure 6 : Example of preferred domain settings in Google Search Console
Figure 7 : Example of crawl rate settings in Google Search Console
Figure 8 : Example of International Country Targeting settings in Google Search Console
URL parameters Go to the URL parameters tool in the old primary HTTP property and check if any URL parameters are crawled . If so , download the table of URL parameters and its settings ( see Figure 9 ).
Now go to the URL parameters tool in the primary HTTPS version and add and categorise one-by-one the downloaded URL Parameters from the old primary HTTP version . Completing this step may assist Googlebot to focus its limited crawl budget and prioritize the important URLs when crawling the new HTTPS version of the website .
Verify manual actions Before anything else , double check there are no manual actions holding back the migration of the website by going to the Manual Actions Overview in Google Search Console for the old primary HTTP version ( see Figure 5 ).
If there are any manual actions present , hire some trusted Google Penalty Consultants to help address these Google penalties as soon as possible . While this process is started , continue to the next step .
Preferred domain settings To make sure the preferred domain is set 16 correctly , go to the primary HTTPS property in Google Search Console and click on the gear icon ( upper right ) and click on Site Settings . Verify that the preferred domain is set to the primary version , for example , see Figure 6 .
If not set , update the setting with the primary version .
property in Google Search Console , by clicking on the gear icon ( upper right ) and click on Site Settings . If this does not say “ Let Google optimize for my site ”, then remember the current setting and go to the primary HTTPS property in Google Search Console , click again on the gear icon and Site Settings , and change the crawl rate to the equivalent on the HTTPs property ( see Figure 7 ).
When unsure if anything needs to be changed , check with the IT team of the organization . Keep in mind , ideally , from an SEO perspective , this setting is not to be changed unless absolutely necessary .
Removed URLs To prevent sensitive URLs of the HTTP version being reindexed and served as a search result in Google Search , go to the URL removal tool in Google Search Console for the old primary HTTP version and check if there are any URLs submitted for temporary removal . If any are present , then write these down and go to the URL removal tool for the primary HTTPS version and add each pattern one-by-one ( see Figure 10 ).
Note : The effect of the URL removal tool is just temporary . If certain URLs need to be permanently removed from Google
Crawl rate Most SEOs do not change this setting in Google Search Console , but if anyone with access has changed the crawl rate Crawl Rate in Google Search Console in the past for the HTTP property , then this may also need to be updated in the HTTPS property .
Check in the old primary HTTP
Figure 9 : Example of URL Parameters settings in Google Search Console
16 https :// support . google . com / webmasters / answer / 44231
17 https :// support . google . com / webmasters / answer / 93710
16 iGB Affiliate Issue 62 APR / MAY 2017