Mixed content is a problem that can occur on websites that are using the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. It can cause security issues and affect your website’s SEO rankings. In this article, we will discuss what mixed content is, how to avoid it, and what steps you can take if you have already been affected by it.
What is Mixed Content?
Mixed content occurs when a website loads both HTTP and HTTPS content. This can happen when a website has mixed protocol links, or when it loads resources from HTTP while the rest of the page is served over HTTPS. This can cause problems because it means that some of the content on the page is not encrypted, and can be intercepted by third parties.
How Does Mixed Content Affect SEO?
Mixed content can affect your website’s SEO in several ways. First, Google may mark your site as “not secure” if it detects mixed content. This can lead to lower click-through rates, as users will see a warning message when they try to visit your site. Additionally, mixed content can cause your site to load slowly, as the browser has to request both HTTP and HTTPS resources. This can lead to a lower ranking in Google’s search results, as they take page speed into account when determining where to rank sites.
Passive vs. Active Mixed Content
There are two types of mixed content: passive and active. Passive mixed content is content that is not essential to the page, and can be safely displayed without causing any security issues. Active mixed content, on the other hand, is content that could be used to attack visitors to your site. This includes things like scripts and form submissions.
How to Fix Mixed Content Errors?
There are a few things you can do to fix mixed content errors on your website. First, you can try to load all resources over SSL by changing the protocol in your code from HTTP to HTTPS. This may not always be possible, depending on where the resources are coming from.
You can crawl the website with a tool such as ScreamingFrog, Ahrefs or SEMrush. Take a look at the list of pages that have HTTP links. Fix these by adding an ‘’s’’ to HTTP and upload the pages with the updated information.
Something to keep in mind is that you should pay attention to the menu and footer. HTTP links can remain there, so you should make sure to update the website so that all links have SSL.
If you’re using WordPress, there are plugins that can help with this. Alternatively, you can also serve all mixed content over HTTP, but this is not recommended as it defeats the purpose of using SSL in the first place.
Finally, you can also choose to block mixed content altogether. This will prevent your site from loading any mixed content, and is the most secure option.
How to Avoid Mixed Content Errors?
The best way to avoid mixed content errors is to only use SSL-encrypted resources on your website. This includes things like images, scripts, and stylesheets. You can also use a plugin or script that will automatically convert HTTP links to HTTPS.