Root domain registered in search engines, inbound links to www sub-domain. A problem?
-
I just discovered that our site is registered with the major search engines without the "www" sub domain. Both domains resolve directly to our site, which I need to get corrected. I had planned to have the root (honestabe.com) forwarded to the sub (www.honestabe.com). However, I then found that the sub-domain is not listed with the search engines.
Of course, naturally almost all of our inbound links include www. Does Google differentiate between links with and without the sub-domain? In other words, if I forward the www address to the root, will I still get the SEO benefit of those inbound links using www?
I'm trying to figure out how to approach this. I'm hoping someone is going to make me feel really stupid for asking this and say it's no big deal. However, I have a feeling this could be a mess.
-
I just recently realized Google was indexing both www and non-www. I changed the settings in Google WM Tools and put in the 301 redirect to www. That was a couple weeks ago. Google is still showing non-www even though www has a higher PR. About how long will it take for Google to switch over to www, or is there something else I may need to correct?
Best,
Christopher -
Thank you for taking the time to write this up Blenny. I think this will also help with my duplicate page content issue. Most appreciated sir.
-
Great feedback. Thank you Gianluca!
-
Hey Josh,
Goog does differentiate the two in terms of applying link juice, but unless for some reason they deliver different content, it's not a major problem. My website has had this issue for awhile due to issues with our CMS system. There is an easy fix though. Try incorporating the rel canonical tag into your pages. Lots of great write-ups on SEOMoz and elsewhere on the usefulness of this tag - essentially tells Google which version of the url to credit the link juice and to keep in its index.
Then, as you said, I would change the internal link structure to reflect the "www" or "non-www" dependent on which one has the most links (Keep the one most people have linked to determined by a OpenSiteExplorer report from SEOMoz) so as to maintain consistency from that point forward. Ideally, you'd be able to 301 the less-linked version to the other since you lose a fraction of link juice with a 301.
Done correctly, you may actually gain engine authority since both non-www and www versions would "funnel" all of their link juice together.
Good luck!
-
no its not, you do lose a little from 301 redirect but very little
-
Doing a search with www.honestbabe.com Google revolves with this serps: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=www.honestabe.com&pws=0&pbx=1&oq=www.honestabe.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=1345l1345l0l1954l1l1l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=9441c9e3bb40875d&biw=1920&bih=955
As you can see from the sitelinks, Google has picked up some urls with www. and some without. This is surely caused by the fact that both versions are crawlable.
The best thing to do is to redirect 301 the root domain name to the subdomain www.honestbabe.com, if this is the version of the site that owns the highest % of backlinks
That way Google (and users) will be redirected always to the www. version and index just that one. Don't worry about the backlinks eventually existing and linking to the not www. site, because the link juice from those links will pass almost entirely to the www. linked page version.
Previously today I answered to a similar question: http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-content-joomla
I suggest you to check it, also because there's the code you have to add to your .htacces file (if you are running on a apache linux enviroment).
-
Thanks for the quick reply Alan. The redirect to the root is what would work best in my situation, but I was concerned that I would loose the influence of inbound links to the www being redirected. I'm hoping this shouldn't be a concern?
-
I prefer the non www, as www is not nesasary, but that aside.
Yes they do differentiate
just 301 redirect one to the other, and you will be ok.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
links
Hi, in our Google Search Console account, all of our links, built up over a long time have disappeared. they just vanished. it was for a Cardiff demolition company, we work for. any idea why links would just vanish?
Link Building | | sarahwalsh0 -
Inbound link is follow link but we put no follow link back - is it beneficial for rankings?
Dear Moz Community, We are operating in a niche market, where there are not so many content marketing options. What we are left with are link exchanging with relevant sites that are on the same topic but to not directly compete with us. Now we know that if we link back to site A and site a links back to us - for google this is not a very good link. But, some of the sites we are exchanging links with, do not know the term follow vs no follow links. My question - if your link is to site A is a no follow link but they give us a follow link - does it mean thats a better option than a follow vs follow. Thanks for help!
Link Building | | advertisingcloud0 -
Will short linking to my site affect SERPs attribution of inbound link?
Some brand partners are using their short links to link back to our site (like bit.ly but they have their own). They have a high domain authority and trust so we want that link back to be read by Google. When I downloaded all inbound links from Moz, this brand's site was not listed, making me worried that the inbound link isn't being seen or considered! Haven't been able to find any info on this...
Link Building | | PAC31350 -
Inbound Spam Links
We've held Local listings at "A" for over a year. 2 weeks ago we dropped down to below the fold. I ran several reports and our backlink report shows roughly over 10,000 and it's growing every day along with new domain referrals with inbound spam links all using the same core anchor text term. One domain is responsible for over 2,000. These sites have Nothing to do with our industry and several in foreign languages. All these links are "NoFollow". My question is. Although "nofollow" is known to protect you, I'm wondering with over 10,000 of them coming from 345 sites, ALL using our one core term as an anchor text has red flagged us? If so,I'm planning on using Google disavow at the "domain" level. We are a local resort and until this happened we only had around 15 referral sites that are industry related. Hotels.com type sites and local tourist related sites. These new inbound spam links are so blatant and yes they're "nofollow", but I'm starting to wonder IF this off the wall inbound spam link pattern IS indeed affecting us? Any thoughts?
Link Building | | capekeysgal0 -
Better to redirect domain or to link from home page?
Hi, I have a niche directory and sometimes clients remove themselves because they have discontinued their business practice. If they sometimes provide me with their own website (as they will no longer use it either), is it wiser for me to: a) directly point their URL 301 to my own directory b) keep their website as is, and add a url link to my directory in their homepage c) keep their website as is, and add an anchored link with the industry keyword to my directory Thanks! D
Link Building | | Demosthenes0 -
Do links to blog.domainname.com help the www.domainname.com subdomain?
Hi, Do links to pages within the blog.domainname.com subdomain help the rankings of pages within the main www.domainname.com subdomain? (where "domainname" is the same of course). Thanks.
Link Building | | geoffh0 -
Inbound Links from Web Pages Based in Other Countries
I have noticed that some of my competitors have in-bound links to their sites from high PageRanked websites. But when I investigate the websites, they are based overseas, to be mainly used for linking. Does it hurt them that the sites are based overseas despite the high Page Rank?
Link Building | | findachristianjob0 -
301 Redirect Domains with old links
I came across a nice discovery of about 20 old domain names that each have many root domains and a bit of DA. I want to know the best way to utilize them without any type of penalty. Currently, (as of an hour ago) I am 301 redirecting all of them to the most relative pages on a single domain. Will i get the majority of the link juice from the domains? I'm excited to see what will happen here. Thanks in advance, Daniel
Link Building | | seoninja200