Why I Switched From HTTP to HTTPS – Outsourcing Experience

Last updated on November 29th, 2018 at 11:01 am

My blog is now officially 4 months old. If you’ve been following along you know that when I published my very first blog post, my blog was setup on http. I’ve read so much about Google making the push towards https and decided it was time. So I switched from http and https and couldn’t be happier, however, my first outsourcing experience was NOT that great.

In this blog post, I am going to share with  you why I switched and what I learned from my first outsourcing experience. I truly believe this all comes down to a personal choice. If you’re not ready to switch from http to https, that’s cool.

Either way I am NOT trying to convince you one way or the other. I just want to share with you why I did and my personal experience from outsourcing it and what I could’ve done better.

FYI

After debating on whether or not to name the company I outsourced this task to, I decided to go ahead and do it.

Why?

Well, this blog was started to help you learn how to start a successful blog. My experiences either good or bad will help you make better decisions than yours truly did.

So I felt obligated to tell you about my personal experience of outsourcing my task. My hope is that you never have to deal with something like I did.

Now I am NOT bad mouthing anyone. So don’t think that you’re going to get a ton of trash talking. That’s not what I do.

You’re going to hear about my personal experience. There’s nothing negative to say, because all’s right in my WordPress world. If you need to learn more WordPress, check out my tutorials.

Why I Switched From HTTP to HTTPS

If you are on HTTP then you know that Firefox and Google Chrome are letting your visitors know that their connection to your site is not secure.

Now, I am not sure if that scares regular visitors. As someone who makes a living dealing with WordPress, I understand what it means.

As long as you’re buying anything or entering sensitive information, all’s good. However, the average Jane or Joe who visit your site may not understand what it means. You could end up losing a customer or subscriber before they have a chance to read your amazing content.

I personally got tired of seeing that and wanted my visitors to feel secure. So I decided to switch for HTTP to HTTPS.

Not sure if this will make a huge difference in my bounce rate or anything like that. At least I know that my visitors are not like “crap get me out of here.” Only time will tell and since I have Google Analytics setup on my blog, it won’t be hard to tell. If you still need to set up your Analytics, read this.

Why I Outsourced The Process

As you know, I stay pretty busy with growing this blog, creating videos, working on WordPress sites for clients, offering WordPress Services on this blog and eventually, I’ll be creating my own products..

I didn’t have the time to switch my site from HTTP to HTTPS. Plus all my images at the time were hosted on Amazon S3.

Now I’ve switched sites to HTTP using the Free Let’s Encrypt. If your images are hosted on WordPress, all you have to do is flip the switch.

Well there’s a little more involved than just flipping the switch. Here’s a great tutorial for you to follow if you do it yourself.

So What Happened to My Images That Were On Amazon S3?

I am not blaming anyone and I would use WP Fix It again. I am just writing this in case your images are hosted elsewhere and not on your blog.

Make sure you let your outsourcer know before you switch from HTTP to HTTPS. Make sure they understand that your images are not hosted on your WordPress blog.

Otherwise, you may end up with the same broken image issue. (I don’t want you to have to deal with that)

My images were stored on Amazon S3. I told them that when the site was switched to https, I wanted my images to show as https as well. Somehow the communication about where the images were stored got lost?

Long story short, when the site was switched to https, my images broke. I had over 400 broken links on my blog. Thank goodness I only had 30 live posts on my blog at that time.

I went into panic mode and ended up moving all my images from Amazon S3 to my WordPress blog.

Before migrating my images, I tried to find a tutorial online that would show me how to make my images on Amazon S3 https. I couldn’t find one.

I ended up staying up till midnight fixing all my broken image links on my WordPress blog.

Why I Moved My Images To WordPress

They switched my site from http to https in one day. (very quick service) When they finished, it was around 6pm EST. I didn’t even eat dinner because all I could think about was getting my blog back to working order.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get a good night’s sleep if I left my site with a bunch of broken images. This is how it looked.

As you know I write a ton of step-by-step tutorials with pictures.

This switch resulted in over 400 broken links. So I did what any rational person would do after recovering from panic mode.

I migrated my images from Amazon S3 to WordPress.

Two Weeks Plus Later

It’s now been over two weeks since I outsourced the process and made the switch. I can’t really tell you if it has helped my traffic.

My blog is still fairly new, less than 5 months old. My visitors no longer get the “connection to your site is not secure” anymore.

I am glad I made the switch while the blog was still new. I would’ve hated to have 100 posts and then deal with with this issue.

I’ve been keeping an eye on my https site in Google Analytics and Google Search Console to make sure that everything is good.

So far, everything looks great. Plus my site passes the “Why No Padlock” test. Time will only tell if this actually helps my site get better rankings?

Some people are reporting that more than 25% of the top rankings in Google are sites with https. That would be great, but I don’t expect ranking results because of making the switch to https.

All I know is that I didn’t make my decision based on SEO rankings and https statistics. If you’re considering making the switch because you think it’s going to help you rank better.

Think long and hard about it before you actually do it.

Who I Outsourced it and Why?

You might be wondering who I outsourced this task to and it is WP Fix It. As I mentioned they did a fabulous job on the switch.

I outsourced this task because at the time I was working on a WordPress site for a client. I didn’t have the time to do it myself.

My client work keeps me pretty busy, that’s why I set this blog up. My goal is to move away from client work and grow this blog so I can offer digital products.

Plus as I mentioned my images were hosted on Amazon S3 and I didn’t want to fool with it.

Would I Use Them Again?

Yes I would use WP Fix It again. They have a ton of great reviews on Facebook groups. My site was never down during the process and the turnaround was extremely quick.

In fact, I have used them again for my freelancing business and they have done a fantastic job. I used them to remove some malware from a website a client of mine kept having issues with.

So based from my experience with them, I would definitely recommend them if you’re wanting to make the switch from http to https and don’t want to mess with it.

If you’re looking to make the switch and want it to be hands off, then I would highly recommend them. Just make sure your images are hosted on your WordPress blog.

If it wasn’t for the image issue, the process was completely hands-off. Besides resubmitting the HTTPS version of my site to Google Analytics and Search Console.

As I mentioned this blog post is NOT meant to blame anyone or trash anyone. I just wanted to share my experience with you. I’m very glad that I switched from http to https and now I don’t have to worry about Google’s push.

Final Take Away

Outsourcing tasks to others can be a good experience. You can’t do everything by yourself.

There’s going to come a time when you have to outsource something. Make sure both you and the person you hire are clear on what you need. Don’t make the same mistake I made.

Don’t assume that they understand what you’re talking about. Ask them more than once to see if they truly understand your scenario. Don’t be scared to ask them again, it’s your money and your blog!

If you take the time to communicate everything then you shouldn’t run into any issues. Don’t be afraid to ask around and get reviews of the person you hire before using them.

WP Fix It came highly recommended from a Facebook Group I am a member of. They did a fabulous job and if you’re ever needing anything WordPress related, then contact them.

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Have you ever outsourced anything for your blog? Were you happy with it? Would you recommend them to your readers? Let us know below by commenting.