301 Redirect or Remove Pages?

Would appreciate some advice here.

I have a site that was built entirely behind an SSL certificate (don't get me started), and I just had a new developer remove non-secure pages from behind the certificate. Only pages that capture customer information are behind the SSL.

My question is... when you type the url in, all pages still appear under BOTH the http:// and https://. I'm assuming these are duplicate pages? Should I set up the https:// pages as 301 redirects to the http:// pages since so many of them are indexed and ranking? Or should I delete them and 'hope' the replacement http:// pages will take their place?

Thanks!
Stephanie

 

why not use link rel="canonical" meta to tell the BIG G

 

Would you mind explaining a little further? I've never used it...

 

read these google's official guides:
htt-p://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394
htt-p://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

 

You don't have to delete your pages at all, just use the canonical meta to tell google your unique page url.

 

Thank you so much for the resources. That Matt Cutts video was just what I needed!

 

Hi,

I think there might be no such redirection since as you have known that http and https are only 2 version of protocols for the same domain name. Just upload your new pages and let search engines to index new version of your site would be OK, IMO.

all the best,