When possible wait & don't migrate. Let others expose the bugs and pitfalls. From my perspective there is little to gain and there is a significant risk of making a mistake when migrating. I do not like the current risk/reward ratio so I am not rushing to do this myself. I would guess that will probably change in a year.


Here are some things you might want to include in your checklist:
-Make sure the certificate is the correct one
-Prepare a complete map so nothing is overlooked
-Pay attention to load time, improved security can impact usability
-Be careful with your ads & affiliate content
-Use 301 not 302 redirects
-Make sure your analytics can handle the switch
-Check everything works after moving

Thanks goodroi, for the useful input

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread by aakk9999 - 7:07 pm on Oct 1, 2014 (gmt 0)

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How I destroyed my site with SSL certificate

I own a site which was on the first page of Google's SERPs for a very useful search term. A couple of months ago I converted all the pages to HTTPS with an EVSSL certificate. Last week the whole site virtually fell out of the SERPs. What had gone wrong?

Firstly, all the links pointing to the site were to the HTTP version, not HTTPS. I got round this by redirecting all HTTP calls to HTTPS using a RewriteRule in .htaccess.

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago I accidentally overwrote the .htaccess file with an older version. The first time I suspected this error was when Webmaster Tools told me that the site had only one incoming link, when it should have had over 200. I put this right straight away by reloading the correct .htaccess file. A couple of days later I had a message in WMT suggesting that I registered the HTTPS version of my site as well as the HTTP (thank you, Google); I had forgotten that G could see them as two separate sites. It then transpired that the HTTPS version had defaulted to being pointed at the USA and not the UK; something I had never foreseen and I hurriedly altered. I am now sitting back waiting for developments.

The morals of this tale? Firstly, there is more to HTTPS than many of us realise. Secondly, even an experienced old trooper like me can make silly little mistakes which can have a disastrous outcome.

[edited by: aakk9999 at 8:50 am (utc) on Oct 2, 2014]
[edit reason] Merged two threads [/edit]

@superclown,

Your experience is a great addition to HTTP to HTTPS checklist, especially the WMT geotargetting aspect.