Google WebMasters Tool - Preferred Domain
-
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)?
-
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.
-
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.
-
thanks Joseph, much appreciated.
-
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!
-
i would not recommend deleting it. If you have already verified the preferences, then no harm leaving the other domain in the account.
-
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.
-
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
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
-
Different statistics in Google Analytics
Hi! A client of mine is having some trouble on his Google Analytics overview. When he checks the yearly report with number of visitors, new visitors, returning, ... he gets statistics that doesn't match mine. Also, he gets a notation from Google that no hits were fired, although the script is still there. On the other hand, I (logged in with another account) am seeing all statistics correctly. FYI: no filters were installed, nor segments, ... Why does the client see different and incorrect statistics? There should be a setting or something I'm overseeing. Hope you guys can help.
Reporting & Analytics | | conversal0 -
Google Analytics Custom Alert For Goal Completions?
Hi currently setting up custom alerts for a website. I want to do a custom alerts for when goal completions decrease or increase by a certain % e.g. 20% as shown in the third example from this Moz Article back in 2012 - http://moz.com/blog/7-essential-google-intelligence-custom-alerts-that-keep-me-sane However when i go into my GA account the only options seem to be for when the goal completion conversion rate % drops. I could use this, but i rather do just based on completions rather than %. Any ideas on how i can do this? Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | MBASydney0 -
Weird Google Analytics tracking question
I have a client that has a market place site, where people list goods and sell them, think something like Etsy. Instead of developing a system to show the users page views and things like that, does it sound reasonable to let them enter a Google Analytics property on the pages they list on, then let them monitor through GA? Does anyone see any fatal flaws in this thinking?
Reporting & Analytics | | LesleyPaone0 -
What are some good SERP visibility tools?
With keyword data from Google on its way out, we're losing our ability to discover what keywords a website is ranking for (you can do ranking checks, but only if you already know what keywords the site is ranking for). What are some good SERP visibility tools? (i.e. you enter the domain name, and the tool lists which keywords the site ranks for organically, etc.) I know SpyFu offers this, but they seem to be PPC focused and perhaps not very accurate. I know other companies offer it, but I'm blanking on which ones.
Reporting & Analytics | | AdamThompson0 -
How come de results from the old Google Keyword Tool are so different from the results from the keyword planner?
When I insert the keyword 'IT jobs' with Belgium as country and Dutch as the language, there is a huge difference between the results in the keyword planner and the keyword tool. Keyword tool says 1,000,000 local searches per month Keyword planner says 590 local searches per month This is a really big difference and I don't know which results I should trust. Can anybody help me with this?
Reporting & Analytics | | Murielleu0 -
Google Analytics - Tracking a Goal from 1 Domain to Another
Hi there, been combing this page for some answers - https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSite but can't seem to figure it out. Scenario - Site A Site B Currently have 2 different GA accounts set up on each. Is it possible to Track a Goal that happens on Site B, that comes from Site A - In Site A Reports? So say, Site A has a Newsletter, directing them to Site A but promoting Site B - i'd like to track the effectiveness of the newsletter. Site A is running a white label of Site B service. Thoughts? Cheers
Reporting & Analytics | | IsHot0 -
Set up Google Analytics by product category
Does anyone know if it's possible to set up Google Analytics data by product category? We sell roughly twenty product categories on our ecommerce site. We can look at our analytics performance for the site overall and drill down to specific pages, but what we really want to see is our performance by product category. Our product categories can include up to 5000 products. Any pointers on how to do this?
Reporting & Analytics | | ironpac0
