Www vs non www - Crawl Error 902
-
I have just taken over admin of my company website and I have been confronted with crawl error 902 on the existing campaign that has been running for years in Moz. This seems like an intermittent problem. I have searched and tried to go over many of the other solutions and non of them seem to help.
The campaign is currently set-up with the url http://companywebsite.co.uk when I tried to do a Moz manual crawl using this URL I got an error message. I changed the link to crawl to http://www.companywebsite.co.uk and the crawl went off without a hitch and im currently waiting on the results. From testing I now know that if i go to the non-www version of my companies website then nothing happens it never loads. But if I go to the www version then it loads right away.
I know for SEO you only want 1 of these URLS so you dont have duplicate content. But i thought the non-www should redirect to the www version. Not just be completely missing.
I tried to set-up a new campaign with the defaults URL being the www version but Moz automatically changed it to the non-www version. It seems a cannot set up a new campaign with it automatically crawling the www version.
Does it sound like im out the right path to finding this cause? Or can somebody else offer up a solution?
Many thanks,
Ben.
-
Glad to hear thats all fixed! Though i will say thats a very slow response time for any development / hosting company typically i would expect a maximum response time of 8 hours.. We try to keep it under 2 heh.
But yes, glad thats working for you now
-
The problem was as you anticipated, after spending a few days chasing the party who actually look after it im pleased to say i checked this morning and all is working as expected.
Thanks very much for your help Toby!
-
Thanks Toby, Ive emailed off, I expect a reply to be a couple of days away (what it normally take them) Thanks for the help thus far and ill message back when they do!
-
In that case that would probably be the best place to start. If you want any evidence for a missing A record, heres a DNS checking tool (it currently throws an error because it can't find an A record).
Let me know what they say
-
I dont have access to the DNS, my access is limited to the Magento CMS, and ftp access to the root folder.
I guess its a case of popping an email off to the guys who built the site and control the web space and getting them to address the issue?
-
Ok, so the file is working, thats a good start!
Looks like we need to go back a step in the request process then. Do you have access to the DNS settings for the http://atp-instrumentation.co.uk domain? If so, please could you check if there is an A record set for it? (looks to be registered through Civica UK Ltd - Whois Report)
What i suspect might be the case is that you're missing an A record for atp-instrumentation.co.uk but that there is one set for the www.atp-instrumentation.co.uk.
I've run a couple of tests against the domain DNS and i get nothing back for the non-www address, which is what suggests that we're not even making it as far as your servers.
To set the A record, you'll be looking for something in your control panel for 'DNS settings' or maybe 'Host Records', you should see in there ether an option to select A record settings, or perhaps a dropdown with things like A, AAA, CNAME etc. You need to:
- select 'A'
- In the domain box type: atp-instrumentation.co.uk
- In the IP box, type: 82.118.110.42
Hopefully that makes sense. If your at all unsure, let me know and i'll do what i can to help more specifically. Domain control panels are so different for each provider its difficult to provide direct instructions without knowing what your panel looks like
-
I added the line and it did indeed break the website, got internal service error etc
So it seems the file is working
-
Just a note here, the Redirects do seem to be working, so it looks like the .htaccess file IS being loaded.
Please check anyway, its possible that the redirects are comming from another location if they have been set elseware as well. From a (very quick) look, the file seems to be formatted correctly so no obvious reason for the www redirects to not be working...
-
Hmm ok,
before i do anything else, we need to make sure that the .htaccess file is actually being loaded. To do that, we need to break it for a second.
at the top of the htaccess file, put something like (specifics dont matter here)
THISisInValid666
What we're trying to do is put some invalid text into the htaccess file so that the site breaks when it loads. The idea being that we can confirm that the .htaccess file is actually being used. So if you put that in and the site throws a 500 error (when navigating to it with or without www) we can confirm that changes we make should work.
If the site continues to load without issue then we know that the .htaccess file isnt in use so we need to look at server configureation directly (specifically the AllowOverrides settings)
Once you have confirmed if it does / doesnt break, remove the line again
-
Thanks Toby, here is the entire HTACCESS file with your fix implemented. Doesn't seem to have worked if i go to
http://atp-instrumentation.co.uk with no www it still fails to load
Edited out to shorten convo
-
You're correct, you can make it a little more generic though, without seeing all of your .htaccess file, try this:
Replace:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^companyname.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.companyname.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]With:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www. [NC]
RewriteRule ^ http%{ENV:protossl}://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]This is what could be called a wildcard redirect in that a direct copy paste should work for you with no need to edit. (you dont have to manually add in the correct domain name)
What it does:
- First it checks to see if the requested url has a www in it
- if it does -not- it then runs the rule, otherwise it ignores it.
- The rule first checks for http or https. Then adds in the www. followed by the domain and tld, finally adding the URI (/somepage/page for example).
- the L in square brakets means do not process anything else in the htaccess file
- the R=301 means that it will be a 301 (perminant) redirect.
If that still doesnt work for you, paste up your full .htaccess file, or you can send it to me directly if you'd rather and i'll take another look
-
Thanks Highland,
How do I go about changing this? I believe its to do with the .htacess file.
The website was developed in Magento via an external company who monitor it. Looking in the root folder I can see the htaccess file but it contains a lot lines of code and rewrites that I dont fully understand.
These lines are the one I think could be relevant so far.
############################################
enable rewrites
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^companyname.co.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.companyname.co.uk/$1 [L,R=301]Then there is lots of category pages etc that are 301 redirected
Follow by
RewriteRule ^home http://www.companyname.co.uk/ [R=301,L]Then some more redirects for pages
I know this is specific but is this editable a different way in Magento? Thanks for any help offered i know this is getting more technical
-
You're 100% right. You should have one 301 redirect to the other. While there are some SEO reasons for this (mainly with duplicate content), the best reason is that it's just less confusing to end users to only have one URL to use. If your non-www has trouble loading I would say you need a 301 to the www version.
Moz restricts Top Level Domain (i.e. domain.com) and crawls accordingly. I have some set up with www.domain.com and some with just domain.com. The 301 to the www forces the issue but Moz is smart enough to crawl the proper pages.
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
-
Personalized Content Vs. Cloaking
Hi Moz Community, I have a question about personalization of content, can we serve personalized content without being penalized for serving different content to robots vs. users? If content starts in the same initial state for all users, including crawlers, is it safe to assume there should be no impact on SEO because personalization will not happen for anyone until there is some interaction? Thanks,
Technical SEO | | znotes0 -
Specific vs. Home Page Backlinks
So, I'm getting ready to start a campaign to get some backlinks. Pretty sure this is a silly NOOB question, but what is better: To get backlinks directed to my home page To get backlinks directed to she specific product/topic being discussed in the backlink. Thanks in advance for any help. My GUESS on the whole topic is that linking to a specific product page from a backlink with anchor text is best practice. It will boost the Page Authority of that page while boosting the overall Domain Authority . . . a win win.
Technical SEO | | damon12121 -
Google Crawling Issues! How Can I Get Google to Crawl My Website Regularly?
Hi Everyone! My website is not being crawled regularly by Google - there are weeks when it's regular but for the past month or so it does not get crawled for seven to eight days. There are some specific pages, that I want to get ranked but they of late are not being crawled AT ALL unless I use the 'Fetch As Google' tool! That's not normal, right? I have checked and re-checked the on-page metrics for these pages (and the website as a whole, backlinking is a regular and ongoing process as well! Sitemap is in place too! Resubmitted it once too! This issue is detrimental to website traffic and rankings! Would really appreciate insights from you guys! Thanks a lot!
Technical SEO | | farhanm1 -
How to solve this merchant error?
Hello All, In my google merchant suddenly lots of warning appeared i.e. 1) Automatic item updates: Missing schema.org microdata price information 2) Missing microdata for condition Can you please tell me how to solve this errors? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | varo
John0 -
CNAME vs 301 redirect
Hi all, Recently I created a website for a new client and my next job is trying to get them higher in Google. I added them in OSE and noticed some strange backlinks. To my surprise the client has about 20 domain names. All automatically poiting to (showing) the same new mainsite now. www.maindomain.nl www.maindomain.be
Technical SEO | | Houdoe
www.maindomain.eu
www.maindomain.com
www.otherdomain.nl
www.otherdomain.com
... Some of these domains have backlinks too (but not so much). I suggested to 301 redirect them all to the main site. Just to avoid duplicate content. But now the webhoster comes into play: "It's a problem, client has only 1 hosting account, blablabla...". They told me they could CNAME the 20 domains to the main domain. Or A-record them to an IP address. This is too technical stuff for me. So my concrete questions are: Is it smart to do anything at all or am I just harming my client? The main site is ranking pretty well now. And some backlinks are from their copy sites (probably because everywhere the logo links to the full mainsite url). Does the CNAME or A-record solution has the same effect as a 301 redirect, from SEO perspective? Many thanks,
Hans0 -
What could be the cause of this duplicate content error?
I only have one index.htm and I'm seeing a duplicate content error. What could be causing this? IUJvfZE.png
Technical SEO | | ScottMcPherson1 -
Microsite on subdomain vs. subdirectory
Based on this post from 2009, it's recommended in most situations to set up a microsite as a subdirectory as opposed to a subdomain. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites. The primary argument seems to be that the search engines view the subdomain as a separate entity from the domain and therefore, the subdomain doesn't benefit from any of the trust rank, quality scores, etc. Rand made a comment that seemed like the subdomain could SOMETIMES inherit some of these factors, but didn't expound on those instances. What determines whether the search engine will view your subdomain hosted microsite as part of the main domain vs. a completely separate site? I read it has to do with the interlinking between the two.
Technical SEO | | ryanwats0 -
Page that has no link is being crawled
http://www.povada.com/category/filters/metal:Silver/nstart/1/start/1.htm I have no idea how the above page was even found by google but it seems that it is being crawled and Im not sure where its being found from. Can anyone offer a solution?
Technical SEO | | 13375auc30