Canonical URLs in WordPress and HTTPS: What You Need to Know

This is the full transcript for Episode 124. For the show notes and audio, see LNIM124 Show Notes.

Listener Question: Surprise HTTPS Switch

Listener Gil Horton noticed something strange. His search results suddenly started showing as HTTPS instead of HTTP, even though he had not done anything to make that happen. The HTTPS versions were working, but he experienced a temporary drop in rankings for one key page during the transition.

How Did This Happen?

Most likely, Gil's web host proactively enabled HTTPS across their platform. This is an increasingly common practice as the push toward universal HTTPS has gained momentum, especially with Let's Encrypt making SSL certificates free and widely available.

How Did Google Find the HTTPS Pages?

Even though Gil was not linking to HTTPS versions and no external backlinks pointed to HTTPS, Google found them anyway. Google prefers HTTPS so strongly that it actively tests whether both HTTP and HTTPS versions of a page are available. When both work, Google will prefer the HTTPS version. This likely caused the temporary ranking disruption as Google switched its preferred version.

What to Do About It

Contact your web host to understand why HTTPS is now enabled and confirm it is working correctly.
Check every page, especially pages with dynamic elements like image sliders, for mixed content issues where some resources are still loading over HTTP.
Set the canonical URL to HTTPS using the Yoast SEO plugin. Navigate to the canonical settings and force HTTPS as the preferred URL structure.
Complete the HTTPS migration properly following the steps from Episode 114, including updating Google Search Console and ensuring all redirects are in place.

Internet Marketing Fortune Cookie: Don't Oversleep

“Tomorrow will be a productive day. Don't oversleep.”

Two lessons from this fortune cookie. First, tomorrow is a new day. Today may have been terrible, but if you decide tomorrow will be productive, you have a much better chance of making it happen. As I tell my 10-year-old about baseball: if you say you can or you say you can't, you are right.

Second, don't throw away your shot. Don't oversleep on opportunities. For those of us building businesses in the margins, on nights and weekends, every small action adds up over time. Things I did seven years ago still generate income today. That compound effect of consistent small efforts is what makes this work.

SEO Priorities: Quick Wins and Big Projects

Based on an excellent article by David Freeman on Search Engine Land, here are SEO priorities worth tackling:

Quick Wins

Log into Google Search Console and read what is there. Fix crawl errors, check mobile usability, and review HTML improvement suggestions.
Do a content gap analysis. Tools like Ahrefs have built-in content gap features that show where competitors rank and you do not. Use this to build an editorial calendar for the year.

Big Projects

Switch to HTTPS if you have not already. See Episode 114 for details.
Enable Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to improve mobile page speed and search visibility.
Ensure your site is mobile-friendly with a fully responsive theme. Google's long-term plan is to switch to a mobile-first index.

Celebrating Six Months of Consistency

This episode marked six months of consistent weekly podcasting, a milestone after years of starting and stopping since 2009. Three things made the difference:

Excitement level at 11 out of 10. I was more fired up about this business than ever before. Necessary but not sufficient, because I had been excited before and still quit.
A production process. I created a checklist-based workflow in Ulysses where I work on multiple episodes at different stages simultaneously. Tuesday nights are always editing night. Having a system removed the guesswork and made consistent output possible.
Accountability from my mastermind. The biggest factor. The thought of explaining to Ray Edwards, Cliff Ravenscraft, and the rest of my Green Room Mastermind why I missed an episode was more painful than doing the work. Find an accountability partner who understands what you are trying to accomplish and will hold you to it.

Key Takeaways

Google actively prefers HTTPS and will find your HTTPS pages even without links pointing to them
Set your canonical URL to HTTPS using the Yoast SEO plugin
Log into Google Search Console regularly and fix what it tells you to fix
Use content gap analysis to build a year-long editorial calendar
Consistent small actions compound into significant results over time
Accountability and a production process are more important than motivation for consistent output

What's Changed Since This Episode

Mark recorded this episode in January 2017. HTTPS is now effectively mandatory. Google Chrome marks all HTTP sites as “Not Secure” since July 2018. Most web hosts provide free SSL certificates through Let's Encrypt, and HTTPS is a baseline requirement rather than an SEO bonus.

Google switched to mobile-first indexing. As Mark predicted, Google completed the transition to mobile-first indexing, meaning the mobile version of your site is what Google primarily crawls and indexes. A responsive, mobile-friendly site is no longer optional.

AMP has been largely abandoned. Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages project is no longer required for top search positions. Core Web Vitals (loading speed, interactivity, visual stability) replaced AMP as the standard for measuring page experience. Focus on fast, well-built pages rather than AMP specifically.

Google Search Console has been completely redesigned since 2017, but Mark's advice to log in and read what Google is telling you remains the single best free SEO practice available.

Ahrefs remains one of the top SEO tools and its content gap analysis feature has only improved since this episode.

Resources Mentioned

Google Search Console
Ahrefs — SEO tool with content gap analysis
Let's Encrypt — free SSL certificates
LNIM114 — Switching to HTTPS
SEO Priorities for the New Year by David Freeman

Related Episodes

Listen and Subscribe

Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts or subscribe at latenightim.com/internet-marketing-podcast/. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.

Canonical URLs in WordPress and HTTPS [LNIM124 Transcript]