301 Not Allowed...Other Solutions?
-
A client's site where both the www. and non-www. versions are both being indexed. The non-www. version have has roughly 1000 or so links where the www. version has over twice as much pointing back to the site. In addition, the www. version has higher domain authority.
Their programmer has suggested that they can't implement 301's permanent redirects across their site for a few reasons.
My question is, what would be the best alternative to block/redirect the non-www. version from being indexed yet still pass link-juice?
-
Hey James - I am curious as to why you think a 'canonical tag' wouldn't be a "long term fix"?
-
Thanks for the responses everyone. Everyone seems to be in agreement that a '301' is the proper course of action and should be explained that way.
I just have never run into a developer opposing the idea. So, thanks again for the feedback!
-
1st of all if the developer says he won't use the 301 then he's one very strange developer it's the basic of frontend development. But that being as it is, 301 is the best and most viable option but you do have a few other:
- tell GWT your prefered domain.
- have the devloper make a dynamic rel canonical, something like this (in php)
' ?>
in the above situation he of cause would have to make a function called checkURL to test for if the url begins with http://www and returns the right formatted version. and tell GWT what domain you prefer.
But again the only right way is a 301 and it's ridiculously simple to make.
-
If you properly communicate why 301 Redirects are the only proper solution, and you continue to run up against a dev who makes up pie in the sky technical "reasons" why they can't, then the question is whether they respect you enough, put enough value in your view, recommendation.
Setting that aside, the canonical tag, coupled with going into Google Webmaster Tools and setting the www version as the preferred version will help, but as has been pointed out, not in anything close to resembling an ideal way.
For long term sanity, I highly recommend you explore why you're getting the resistence. Is it because the dev feels threatened, or doesn't want to do the work? Setting up server-wide 301 Redirects is NOT that difficult or time consuming for anyone who knows what they're doing. So you may want to provide them links to the "how-to" for their particular server configuration.
If they are lazy, you'll need to find a way to show the decision maker(s) that failing to implement them is costing the company revenue.
-
My Advice is to make a deck/ business case for the programmer show him the problems with having two versions of the website indexed. I have encountered a few developers who are not really in tune with the whole issues around duplicate content and SEO. I think the best idea is to act on the same page, show the developer some respect, show him the design is good but then also educate him about SEO.
If you do a cononical tag, sorry to say but it is not going to be a long term fix, it will just be a short term fix.
Try and push for the 301's.
-
I have never encountered a developer who resisted using a redirect for the non-www URLs to the www form. If you have access to the server, the change should be able to be made.
If you decide not to use a 301,use a canonical tag to identify the correct version of the page. I would also use both Google and Bing Webmaster Tools to indicate which URL format you wish to use.
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
-
(Urgent) losing traffic after 301 redirect
We face a seo problem of losing traffic after 301 redirect.We have used 301 redirect from a sub-domain url to main domain, after a few month, we discovered that the traffic in google is dropped 40% as well as yahoo dropped 50% without reason, we have updated sitemap already, but we cannot find any reason for the traffic dropped till now..The original url (more then 5000 links)https://app.example.com/ebook Redirected Urlhttps://www.example.com/ebookThank you for your help!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | yukung0 -
Unintentional wildcard 301 Redirect?
I have migrated a client's site to a new domain. I used Yoast tools to add 301 redirects for all active site pages from old domain to new domain in the .htacces files as neither the client nor I have access to hosting server via FTP (long story). Redirects are working as I intended, and we didn't lose too much in our rankings. Unfortunately, as soon as I saved the .htaccess file in Yoast, old-domain.net/wp-admin began redirecting to new-domain.net/wp-admin. I can no longer login to the wordpress site on the old domain. I did not enter a redirect for /wp-admin. Any thoughts on how this is happening or if there is some other way to get back in? Without server access, I'm pretty stumped. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | c_estep_tcbguy0 -
Penguin and 301 redirects...
Hi, I have several questions about starting a new domain due to Penguin. The site is: http://bajajlaw.com. Quick backstory: This site was hit every time Penguin rolled out. No clean-up was done until October 2015. At that time, I took over the project. My efforts include: (1) Remove'em, (2) manual removal, (3) and the Disavow Tool. The HP went from being at around #50 for the target KW (San Diego criminal defense attorney) to about #25. Never really moved higher than that. However, I redid the content for the internal pages (DV, Theft Crimes, etc.) and they are all ranking fairly well (first page or top of 2nd). In short, the penalty only seems to affect the HP, not the internal pages. Instead of waiting for Penguin to roll-out, client wants to move forward with new domain. My questions are as follow: 1. Can I use the same content for the internal pages and 301 from the old internal pages to the new? 2. Should I 301 from the old to the new domain for the HP, or not? 3. If I do a 301 from an internal page to a new internal page, does that have the same effect of doing a 301 from the old HP to the new HP? I have read various opinions on this topic. I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who has experience doing this sort of thing. Thanks. P.s. I'm inclined to wait for P4 to rollout, but given that nobody seems to know when that might be, it's hard for me to advise client to keep waiting for it.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mrodriguez14400 -
Canonical vs 301 - Web Development
So I'm having a conversation with the development team at my work and I'm a little tired today so I thought I would ask for other opinions. The currently the site duplicates it's full site by having a 200 show with or without a trailing slash. I have asked for a 301 redirect to with the trailing slash. They countered with having all the rel=canonical be the trailing slash, which I know is acceptable. My issue is that while a rel=canonical is acceptable, since my site has a very high level of competition and a very aggressive link building strategy, I believe that it may be beneficial to have the 301 redirect. BUT, I may be wrong. When we're talking hundreds of thousands of links, I would love to have them directly linked instead of possibly splitting them up between a duplicate page that has a correct canonical. I'm curious to what everyone thinks though....
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mattdinbrooklyn1 -
Persistent listings or 301 redirects better for SEO?
Imagine these 2 scenarios for an ecommerce listing. 1. A listing that only closes once stock runs out 2. A listing that relists every 7 days assuming stock has run out and doing a 301 redirect to the latest version of that listing (imagine it relists several times) You might ask why on earth we would have the 2nd scenario, but we are an auction site where some listings can't be bid on. In other words those Buy Now only listings are also part of the auction model - they close after 7 days. For me it is a no-brainer that scenario 1 is better for SEO, and I have my ideas on why this is better for SEO than the second scenario such as age, SERP CTR, link equity not being diluted by 301 redirects not changing every 7 days when the listing relists multiple times etc. I was wondering if someone could articulate better than I possibly could why scenario 1 is better for SEO, and why scenario 1 would rank better in the SERPS....would it? Many thanks! Cheers, Simon
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sichristie0 -
Do allow or disavow, that is the question!
We're in the middle of a disavow process and we're having some difficulty deciding whether or not to disavow links from Justia.com and prweb.com - justia.com alone is giving us 23,000 links with just 76 linked pages. So, to allow, or disavow? That's the question! What do you think guys? Thank you. John.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Muhammad-Isap0 -
How to decide on which site to 301 redirect
Hi there I'd like your opinions please! My client currently has their website at not-very-good-url.it which has a really good link profile they also have duplicate sites at: much-better-brand-name-url.it and much-better-brand-name-url.com but both these other sites have only a handful of links in. How important do you think a better brand url is? And therefore do you think it would be better to 301 to a better brand URL and take the risk that the link profile will get hit? Or leave the main site where it is and 301 the other two to it? Many thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chammy0 -
301 redirect for ip address in SERPs
Hi, I've recently had the misfortune of my site's ip address being crawled and indexed by Google, which is causing some duplicate content issues. Due to the nature of the site we're not able to implement a canonical tag to fix this at present. Would a 301 redirect do the trick, and if so, could someone point me to what I'd need to add to our .htaccess file? Many thanks Chris
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChrisHillfd0