Google WebMasters Tool - Preferred Domain
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I just added Google Analytics to my wordpress site with Google Analytics by YOAST. I then added Google WebMaster tools through via verify through google analytics account. I then tried to set a preferred domain. I chose the non www. version; however, google wanted me to verify ownership of both versions in order to set a preferred domain. I then added the www. version of my domain. I was able to set the non-www. version to my preferred domain. Now, there are two example.com's in my webmaster tools. I have 10 sites. I intend to replicate this process on all of my sites.
Do I have to leave the non-preferred version of my sites in the google webmaster? Can I delete it after I have set my preferred version? If I delete the non-preferred version will it delete my setting on the preferred version because it is now no longer verified (saved)?
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I hope I have achieved the forward properly.
I went into my godaddy account and forwarded www. to http:pensacolarealtors.com. When it asked me the name of the subdomain, I typed "www." I didn't type www.pensacolarealtors.com because it had a blank line then .pensacolarealtors.com. I was assuming I just needed to add the www.
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Hi Joseph,
It's best to leave both versions in Webmaster tools.
That said, if you have Wordpress (or hosting) set up correctly to 301 redirect all www to non-www, then this is a minor point as Google will generally display only the URL that it has indexed.
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thanks Joseph, much appreciated.
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Yea, I suppose. I am concerned with so many domains on my webmasters tool that I might one day click the wrong domain version.
I am very new to webmaster tools (today) so I don't know what I could mess up by going into the wrong one.
Thanks for your help on this thread and the other ones SEO5, you get the good answers!
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i would not recommend deleting it. If you have already verified the preferences, then no harm leaving the other domain in the account.
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I have done that. That was not the question. Allow me to clarify.
I now have webmaster tools open. I am looking at the example.com and the www.example.com in my webmaster tools. Can I delete the www.example.com from webtools? Will this cause my example.com to NOT be the preferred domain anymore? I
I had to verify both domains in order to get the webmaster tools to let me set a preference.
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Google's official response on the issue below:
Once you've set your preferred domain, you may want to use a 301 redirect to redirect traffic from your non-preferred domain, so that other search engines and visitors know which version you prefer.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=44231
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