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Couldn't you have both, and wait till the https version starts to approach parity with the original? I'm imagining google would favor https over http in ranking, so over time it should rise

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2 separate pages with the same content is penalised by Google. They are quite clear about that. I will switch on HTTPS tomorrow if Google make it so that a protocol change does not affect search indexing. My business depends on this. Do a Google search and see all the people whose websites have been demolished by dropping out of the Google rankings after implementing HTTPS. Absurd!

There are a few well documented methods to counter that penalty: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en. The easiest method is probably to configure your webserver to start sending 'rel=canonical' in a Link HTTP header, but it can also be done with a meta-tag.

You should only ever have a single canonical version of your content. Serve your stuff on one path and one path only, and everything else redirects to it.

The solution here is to serve on https and redirect http to it.

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