Www vs nonwww domain
-
Since about 5 years out site was launched as "www.example.com" but last June 2012, we relaunched new design but somehow went without www subdmain - "http://example.com".
We didn't check that time but now find duplicate pages and very confused what next. Please answer:
-
Do search engines penalize for the change of domain name? www.example.com vs example.com?
-
How can go back (or, should we really?) to www.example.com?
-
I did redirect .htaccess rewrite from nonwww to www - but now our site is launched as without www.
-
Confused so Please advise ASAP.
Thanks a Million
-
-
my domain.com/sitemap shows all without www but I had .htaccess rewrite on and forwarded all nonwww to www just about 2 days back.
Ranking didn't seem to have affected much as of now - please help.
-
Going back may not solve anything, given that enough time may have passed that enough content has been indexed and the "damage is done" so to speak.
The 301 redirect is a good step - search engines don't penalize, the issue is just that you essentially confused things and you have to now untangle, like with the duplicate pages and content.
You #3 - I'm not sure I am following, so getting back to the redirect, if you were previously "www" and now are without, then the "www" pages should redirect to the without URLs. It sounds like there may be a risk of a redirect tangle going on that needs to be fixed?
Once the redirect situation is taken care of, pull together a site map for the "www" (if you can) and upload it to Webmaster so Google knows to index those pages and then can make the association that you changed domains.
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
-
Do the sub domain backlinks count for main domain and increase authority?
Hi all, I just wonder if the back links for different sub domains will be counted and considered to rank the main domain better or they are just limit to sub domain pages? There are many websites which has got multiple sub domains which receive backlinks? So the backlinks to main domain and sub domain weigh same at Google? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Domain Migration Question
Lets say there is a brand that has one primary product type at different optional tiers. (Think something like SMB/Enterprise/Individual) Lets also say that 1 year ago this brand migrated from having everything under 1 domain (Domain A) to moving 2 of their product tiers to another domain (Domain B), a new domain. They have done some initial SEO work on this domain and had a pretty successful migration but it has also been decided that they are going to no longer offer one of these product tiers and they intend to eventually migrate everything back under the 1 domain (Domain A) They just are not sure whether they should do this now or later.
Algorithm Updates | | DRSearchEngOpt
During this next year or so there is also going to be some likely re-branding/design, etc...stemming from this decision, on the domain, meaning content changes and all that fun that goes into a migration/re-design/re-branding strategy. The timing of this has not been fully decided on. Here is the question: Should they a) Migrate back to Domain A first and then do the re-design or b) Keep 2 separate domains for now, figure out the re-design/re-branding, make content changes and then migrate Site A over in a year or so after all changes have been made? My concern with option a) is that they migrated a little less than 1 year ago and will be migrating back which I feel could have a negative impact on the content and the domain. The positive side I see here is that this impact could be just as large even if we waited so doing this now might be a better, more efficient use of our time if we can migrate and make content changes fairly close together or concurrently.
My concern with option b) is that the tier they no longer offer makes up the majority of that sites business and traffic, leaving us with not much in terms of content that ranks well and garners much traffic. Trying to optimize for the remaining product tier by itself on it's own domain could be quite hard and then having to migrate it in a year or so back to Domain A could negatively impact any small organic impact I can make on applicable pages/domain. Does anybody have any input here? I am leaning towards Option A and but wanted to get some other opinions. Thanks Everybody! Edit: So far, this has received a lot of views but no input. I am hoping to have a bit of a dialog on this so any ideas or input is welcome.0 -
Directories and Domain Authority
I read all the time about how directories have very little weight in SEO anymore, but in my field, a lot of our competitors are propped up by paying for "profiles" aka links from places like martindale-hubbard, superlawyers, findlaw, nolo, Avvo, etc (which are essentially directories IMO) yet all those sites have very high DAs of 80 and above. So, are links from these sites worth it? I know that's a vague questions, but if Moz's algo seems to rank them so highly, I'm guessing that's reasonably close to what google thinks as well...maybe? Thanks for any insight, Ruben
Algorithm Updates | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Google domain search
Hello all, I'm a newbie to SEO, so you'll have to bear with me. I just started a website LangleyHomeSaerch.com a few months ago and am having trouble ranking with google. When I search "Langley Home Search" with Yahoo or Bing, it comes up on the first page. However when I search it with google it doesn't seem to rank even in the first few hundred pages. The only way I can get a match from google is if I search "Langley HomeSearch" or "LangleyHomeSearch". I know due to google's newer algorithms that there is less importance put on domain name matches, but is this normal, or is there anything I can do to improve it? Thx, Colby Langley, BC
Algorithm Updates | | colbygedak0 -
Keyword rich domains
Can you share your experience about Keyword rich domains; do they still hold same value as before?
Algorithm Updates | | ShashankGupta0 -
Domains dominating SERPs w/multiple listings
I know Cutts addressed this as a potential future update to the Google algo but it's driving me bonkers.. My primary targeted keyword has one of our competitors listed 4 times in a row on the top of page 2. Some of the pages have duplicate page titles and the content is relatively thin. The site has a PR of 2 and a DA of 35. Why on earth are they able to suck up a whole half of a results page?!?!?! I don't know that there's anything anyone can tell me that will help, but if there's something I missed about this update please let me know. 'snot fair. 😞
Algorithm Updates | | jesse-landry0 -
2 Domains With Same Name But 1 With A Number
We have been marketing a website for a client with a domain name example2.com. Their main site example.com is used to post information about their services and example2.com is their eCommerce site they use to sell their products. After the Google Penguins update, we have lost all rankings for example2.com. We did not do any unethical, black hat SEO and I am pretty sure its wasn't just mistakenly blocked. We use the same strategy for our other clients and they have not been impacted. Do you guys think the domain name has anything to do with it? Whats odd it example.com is now ranking for some keywords that example2.com used to rank for. We have never marketed that website or anyone else for that matter. I have been scratching my head over this one for the past week and this is the only feasible problem I can think of.
Algorithm Updates | | ArgosSEM0 -
How is important domain age now?
Just as topic states, how important do you think domain age is? Do you think getting old domain for the new website will do any difference? Lets say website A used to sell apples... went out of business after 5 years of business. If I would get that domain and will star selling apples again can I expect some extra boost because of the age? Cheers
Algorithm Updates | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0