A month ago I purchased an SSL Certificate for my website/WordPress Blog. However when I search for whysun.com or Whycal’s Blog I still get sent to the old HTTP address.
The actual purchase and implementation via GoDaddy and their C Panel was simple and a check by typing the new URL into the address bar confirmed that it activated immediately.
However using the search bar continued to bring up the old HTTP site.
I recall reading that it can take between 4 days to 4 weeks for Google and Bing “crawlers” to index the change. So after about a month I thought I would look into it further.
As a first step I logged into the Admin of my WordPress blog and under Settings / General I noted that the change to HTTPS had to be altered manually in the sections for
- WordPress URL, and
- Site Address URL
Then I went to my GoDaddy C Panel and under Web Applications / WordPress /My Applications / View Edit Details (wrench icon) /Files and Tables, I found again that I had to manually amend the box for “Location URL”. (Don’t forget to click “Save All” which is hidden right at the bottom of the page.)
I checked every day for a week or so and there was still no change when using the search bar at least for the home page. Although my “About” page plus a number of individual posts show HTTPS.
A Google search for a solution turns up a number of suggestions but most involve actions in areas that I don’t fully understand so I decided to continue to wait.
However I ran across this YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ulj7DBMyGo
The author “Jakson” suggests a very simple solution using a WordPress plugin to insert an XML Sitemap.
This is a very well made video and no further comment is needed. I have installed my sitemap so I will check daily to see if it works and report back.