Verify all versions of site in Bing Webmaster Tools
-
Hello,
We recently migrated our site to a new shopping cart, https, and from www to non-www, and it's been a rough transition. We've lost a lost of traffic particularly in Bing. All the versions of our site are verified Google WMT, sitemaps are submitted correctly, etc. Unfortunately, this was not done for Bing. Currently only the new version of our site (https, non-www) is verified in Bing WMT. Do we have to verify all versions of our site in Bing, the way they are in Google WMT? Also, now that it's been a few months since the switch, should we still submit a site move to Bing WMT or is it too late?
Thanks in advance!
-
We had the exact same issue! I had the developer fix the 302 redirect that I found, but I am sure there are more errors in the redirects, so we are in the process of getting a full technical audit done so that we can fix any other errors. After you fixed the 302 redirects, how long did it take for the search engines to correctly index your site? Was there anything that you did that helped speed up the process?
-
I had the same thing happen once, we had developers put in 302s instead of 301s it took awhile to get corrected.
-
We had a drop in Google as well, but the more drastic drop was in Bing and Yahoo. I know that part of the issue is that there are errors with our redirects, and we are working on fixing them, but I am trying to make sure we have all our bases covered and that everything else is done correctly.
-
Bing has dropped but Google has been ok?
-
Thank you! I wish there was a way to verify them all and do the site move, because the traffic has really declined and I can only think that it's because Bing hasn't recognized the full site move...
-
Thank you for your response!
All of the redirects are working and I am on top of the backlinks, but when I try to add the other versions of the site (www and http) to Bing nothing happens. It just loads, and takes me back to the version of the site that is already verified. Would you know why it's not allowing me to add more versions of the site?
-
When I was moving to https I ran into a similar problem and this was the response I got back from Bing
"I understand that you've switched your non SSL website example.com to a secured website https://www.example.com and you want to verify that version in order to use the Site Move feature.The reason you are being redirected to the dashboard is because Bing Webmaster Tools will identify your site thru the domain therefore the SSL and non-SSL version of the site is basically the same in Bing Webmaster Tool. If you already have 301 redirects set to your pages then there's no need to use the site move feature. The permanent redirect that you've placed should already be sufficient for Bing to change your site to http to https."
This explains https but not the www to non www. I just went to one of my sites in Bing Webmaster Tools that I currently have verified as www and tried to verify a version without www and it wouldn't let me, it exhibited the same behavior as when I tried to verify https.
As long as your current Bing Webmaster Tools is working I wouldn't worry about verifying all of your versions.
-
Hi there
I would submit the site move in Bing and make sure your sitemap has been submitted. I would all make sure the following is taken care of:
- Make sure all non www URLs 301 redirect to www URLs
- Make sure all http:// 301 redirect to https://
I would also check your internal links and sitemap to make sure that URLs are listed correctly there. Remember, traffic takes a little while to come back sometimes, so don't be completely discouraged. Make sure you covered all of your bases.
Another thing I would do - check your backlinks and make sure you update the valuable ones to the new URL structure and remove any spammy or irrelevant ones. This can help build back the equity.
Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!
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
-
If I want clean up my URLs and take the "www.site.com/page.html" and make it "www.site.com/page" do I need a redirect?
If I want clean up my URLs and take the "www.site.com/page.html" and make it "www.site.com/page" do I need a redirect? If this scenario requires a 301 redirect no matter what, I might as well update the URL to be a little more keyword rich for the page while I'm at it. However, since these pages are ranking well I'd rather not lose any authority in the process and keep the URL just stripped of the ".html" (if that's possible). Thanks for you help! [edited for formatting]
Technical SEO | | Booj0 -
Webmaster Tools Manual Actions - Should I Disavow Spammy Links??
My website has a manual action against it in webmaster tools stating; Unnatural links to your site—impacts links Google has detected a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to pages on this site. Some links may be outside of the webmaster’s control, so for this incident we are taking targeted action on the unnatural links instead of on the site’s ranking as a whole I have checked the link profile of my site and there are over 4,000 spammy links from one particular website which I am guessing this manual action refers to. There is no way that I will be able to get these links removed so should I be using Google's Disavow Tool or is there no need? Any ideas would be appreciated!!
Technical SEO | | Pete40 -
Cache Not Working on Our Site
We redesigned our site (www.motivators.com) back in April. Ever since then, we can't view the cache. It loads as a blank, white page but the cache text is at the top saying: "This is Google's cache of http://www.motivators.com/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Jul 22, 2013 15:50:40 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more. Tip: To quickly find your search term on this page, press Ctrl+F or ⌘-F (Mac) and use the find bar." Has anyone else ever seen this happen? Any ideas as to why it's happening? Could it be hurting us? Advice, tips, suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Technical SEO | | Motivators0 -
Webmaster Tools - Clarification of what the top directory is in a calender url
Hi all, I had an issue where it turned out a calender was used on my site historically (a couple of years ago) but the pages were still present, crawled and indexed by google to this day. I want to remove them now from the index as it really clouds my analysis and as I have been trying to clean things up e.g. by turning modules off, webmaster tools is throwing up more and more errors due to these pages. Below is an example of the url of one of the pages: http://www.example.co.uk/index.php?mact=Calendar,m1a033,default,1&m1a033year=2084&m1a033month=3&m1a033returnid=59&page=59?phpMyAdmin=xxyyzz The closest question I have found on the topic in Seomoz is: http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-content-issue-6 I want to remove all these pages from the index by targeting their top level folder. From the historic question above would I be right in saying that it is: http://www.example.co.uk/index.php?mact=Calendar I want to be certain before I do a directory level removal request in case it actually targets index.php instead and deindexes my whole site (or homepage at the very least). Thanks
Technical SEO | | Mitty0 -
Unnatural links in webmaster tools
Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links to my site.I download latest link from google webmaster tool and decided to remove links from last four months.I also got several links from directory sites and i want to remove the links, how to delete links from directory sites ? I f there is no way to delete directory link , please let me know other option to get rid of this issue.
Technical SEO | | Alick3000 -
Suggested crawl rate in google webmaster tools?
hey moz peeps, got a general question: what is the suggested custom crawl rate in google webmaster tools? or is it better to "Let Google determine my crawl rate (recommended)" If you guys have any good suggestions on this and site why that would be very helpful, thanks guys!
Technical SEO | | david3050 -
Google Webmaster Tools reports 404s for plain text. Should I create those URLs and 301 them to actual pages?
IA few years back I noticed that Google Webmaster Tools returns 404s from regular text containing a URL, but no anchor tag. I came accross this again today. Is it worthwhile to create those URLs and 301 redirect them to proper pages.
Technical SEO | | Svetoslav0 -
Moving Duplicate Sites
Apologies in advance for the complexity. My client, company A, has purchased company B in the same industry, with A and B having separate domains. Current hosting arrangement combines registrar and hosting functions in 1 account so as to allow both domains to point to a common folder, with the result that identical content is displayed for both A & B. The current site is kind of an amalgam of A and B. Company A has decided to rebrand and completely absorb company B. The problem is that link value overwhelmingly favours B over A. The current (only) hosting package is Windows, and I am creating a new site and moving them to Linux with another hosting company. I can use 301's for A , but not for B as it is a separate domain and currently shares a hosting package with A. How can I best preserve the link juice that domain B has? The only conclusion I can come up with is to set up separate Linux hosting for B which will allow for the use of 301's. Does anyone have a better idea?
Technical SEO | | waynekolenchuk0