Recently we switched our pages to all HTTPS from HTTP because Google announce that pages served via HTTPS will get a small boosts in ranking on its search result pages.
The news didn’t even settle and I jumped right on migrating all my pages to HTTPS. If you look in your browser, you’ll see that this begins with HTTPS followed by the page URL.
At first this seemed like an easy decision to make. So, I started migrating my pages without a backup plans. No plan B. I just got me an SSL certificate and installed it right away.
Now, I am beginning to regret the decision. I am regretting because I depend on advertising here, particularly Google AdSense. AdSense advertising helps us pay the bill and keep the site running.
We don’t carry other ads from other networks. We only carry Google AdSense.
Surprise, Surprise, after switching to all HTTPS, our AdSense income started falling of the cliff. The next day after the switch, we saw 10% drop, followed by additional 20% drop in revenue the following days.
We’re shocked. As I say, we didn’t have a backup plan and didn’t think of switching back to normal HTTP traffic.
The main reason behind the migration was primarily a boost in traffic. Well, we haven’t seen it yet, but it might just be because we’ve just switched. We’re hoping that our traffic will increase in the coming days.
No traffic boost and falling AdSense income. This is not good.
I started looking around the web for answers and came upon this page about AdSense support for SSL. Well, it’s clearly written that Google AdSense code has been updated to support HTTPS pages.
Read it:
We’ve updated the AdSense ad code so that it now supports secure ad serving through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) on Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) web pages. This means that publishers with secure sites, i.e., sites that are served over the HTTPS protocol, can now use AdSense ad code to serve SSL-compliant ads.
AdSense code now supports SSL, however, not all Ads are SSL-compliant. It appears that majority of the ads in the auction are not SSL-compliant. So if a website switching to all HTTPS, all those non-HTTPS ads are removed for that website and only ads the support HTTPS traffic are shown.
Read it:
If you do decide to convert your HTTP site to HTTPS, please be aware that because we remove non-SSL compliant ads from the auction, thereby reducing auction pressure, ads on your HTTPS pages might earn less than those on your HTTP pages.
Suck!
So, if you depend on AdSense income, then you probably want to wait before migrating. If AdSense income doesn’t play a big role in your strategy, then you should go and switch.
Anyway, that’s my story. I am living with no traffic boost and declining AdSense income for the past week. Hope you read this and understand the impact switching to HTTPS will have on your site.
If you feel differently, don’t hesitate to comment below. Your comments are valuable on this site and our users will appreciate them.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you again.
Enjoy!