Need Help with www and non-www redirect
-
Hi everyone,
I've been looking around the forum and found some similar topics but none of them have solved my problem.
Anyway, I'm new to SEO and found that when I use Open Site Explorer for the www version of my site I see the links directed to my page, but none of my twitter stats show up. When I do the same for my non-www version. I see my twitter stats, but no links. Facebook seems unchanged. Also, the Page Authority is much higher for the www (I assume because of the links)
It is my understanding that it doesn't matter which version of the domain is used, I just need to pick one and stick with it (on Google Webmaster Tools, etc.). And that I also need to do a 301 redirect for the version that I'm not using.
The issue now is that I have a 301 redirect, and when I type in my url in any version (http, https, www, non-www) it all redirects in the browser without issue. So i know users are getting to the right page, but the Open Site Explorer still sees them as 2 different sites. My concern is that if Open Site Explorer sees it this way then Google may see it this way as well and I could be missing out on potential rankings.
I'm currently doing the redirect in the .htaccess file. The redirect looks like this:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://mydomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]Any Ideas on what I need to do to properly 301 redirect the site so that my preferred version can get credited with the links,twitter, and Page Authority stats?
Also, I'm using wordpress and it has the URL set to the non-www version of the site. However, I think I would like to change this to the www version because most of the links are directing to www, and I also think people are more familiar with that format.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
-
Thanks everyone this was very helpful. I think I have it straightened out now. I've set my preferred domain in Google Search Console, and have changed many of the links to match this domain as well. Thanks again.
-
To Peter's point, I wouldn't worry too much about Twitter share counts since those are going away anyway. You mention what OSE says about links to the two versions of your sites, but what does Google Search Console say? Is it recognizing inbound links to your site?
If your URLs are redirecting to their correct versions, you're likely not losing too much link juice, and if you've made all the necessary changes in Search Console to set your preferred domain, Google should understand and count those links as all pointing to the same domain. OSE will continue to report on links to the www- and non-www versions separately because of how it reports on subdomains, but Google should get the picture loud and clear.
The biggest thing you can do to show Google "this is the real version of my site" is to start building new, high-quality inbound links. Over time, the volume of inbound inks to the preferred version will overtake the volume of links to the old version, which will reinforce for Google what the correct version is.
-
Try to get as many links changed to the page you've redirected to. Not all juice is passed threw a 301 redirect. I'm not certain on the social metric issues. I haven't seen them to be 100% accurate for any page.
-
Today Twitter make changes and implementing new button so shared will be lost.
OSE count non-www and www as different because bot need to crawl all pages to catch 301 redirect. This isn't real-time or quick so you need little patience. Please check canonical on your WordPress and change all of them to new host (www.example.com). You need to change host in WP -> Settings -> General and in Google SearchConsole preferred domain.
For social buttons - there are few ways how they get URL for sharing. Long story short - with site move you will lost all of your sharing statistics except G+ pluses. There is no way to recover them except if you use data-url for them. But you will share different URL then.
IF you wish to keep number of social shares then you need to 301 www to non-www. Within time OSE will catch this 301 and links will push DA higher there.
Anyway - look messy answer but i know this situation. When you make site one of first job is to check www and non-www also http and https. This make 4 checks (and few more with strange domains as ftp.example.com; mail.example.com) totally just to be sure that site can be seen only in one host. Because later 301 can broke something. And delaying this 301 make things more and more complicated.
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
-
Open Site Explorer produces better results for www.50campfires.com than 50campfires.com
Our website url is 50campfires.com and www.50campfires.com redirects to 50campfires.com Look at the Open Site Explorer results for the two and www.50campfires.com has better results. Does google have an issue with this or may it be confusing them? We have redirects in place. How would I go about fixing this? More on what strategies would improve Page Authority and Page Rank. Thanks in Advance. 79JtBKA.png lrHwsOU.png
Moz Pro | | revonick0 -
SEO and page redirects from a high ranking site quandary
We are launching a site on a new domain that is taking the place of a group (subset) of pages in an existing domain. BUT The pages on the existing domain have really good SEO rankings in a very competitive category and we want to leverage the traffic it gets today in the best way, so.... Which of the following would be the best practice in this case (in regards to SEO)? Modify the existing pages' content so that there are prominent calls to action that lead the users to the new domain. Create permanent redirects for the existing pages for their counterparts on the new domain. This is more direct for the user but we don't know how it will affect the current ranking. Something other than the above. Many thanks for you help Gary
Moz Pro | | gazza10 -
How long for authority to transfer form an old page to a new page via a 301 redirect? (& Moz PA score update?)
Hi How long aproximately does G take to pass authority via a 301 from an old page to its new replacement page ? Does Moz Page Authority reflect this in its score once G has passed it ? All Best
Moz Pro | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan3 -
Keyword stuffing on a shop Brand Collection Pages - would schema.org Microdata helps?
I'm setting up a Shop for a customer and have few questions about Brand Collection Pages in General. I create collection pages for the main Vendors & Designers and since I add their Brand Names on their products I have more than 40 times the Brand name on one Collection Page. When I run Moz On-Page Optimization I get a „B“ classification since Keyword stuffing for the Brand name. I put the Product Informations (brand-name, product-name, product-price) into Schema.org - Microdata and I‘m just curious what is the best practice. Don‘t using the Brand name when using Brand collection pages, using Microdata only on the product page since there starts the conversion, using Micordata whenever it is possible, doesn't matter since the overall sense of a Collection Pages is to have a lot duplicated Brand names per Page. I honestly have no idea but I just believe that Google or other search engines would appreciate if I categorize it as a Product including Brand-name and price. The other Point is, on the Collection Page I just show the Product Details when the User hover over the Image. As far as I understand, Microdata should be visible. Just showing something when hovering over an Image is that visible or not ? Or in other words, does it makes sense to use Microdata in this case? I just guess Yes since it is not totally hidden. This particular Band Name in my case is „L‘Agent“. For whatever reason Moz don‘t understand the apostrophe in L‘Agent and I get the recommendation to use the exact Keyword in the Title, what I already doing. Is there any trick or work-around on apostrophes? Here is the collection Page http://petit-paris.me/collections/l-agent-by-agent-provocateur Thanks Siggi
Moz Pro | | Siggi130 -
Wiped from Google Top 50 and Need Diagnostic Help
Hey All, On the 4th of January our site (http://spotcolorstudio.com) Webmaster tools showed a massive drop in the number of impressions we're getting from Google. We went from over 500 to around 100 and we haven't recovered. That week's SEOMOZ keyword report showed we were wiped from the Top 50 for everything we were tracking except our branded terms. I've seen no indicators to why this might have happened. Our Domain Authority hasn't changed. I haven't received any malware notices in Webmaster tools. GetListed.org displayed our Google Places listing as not present despite being able to click through and see our listing displaying as "active." Is it possible there's something wrong with the DNS that I'm missing? What could cause a complete wiping like this that wouldn't trigger an alert in Webmaster tools? Any help, guidance or suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Craig
Moz Pro | | SpotColorMarketing530 -
Need help with Opensite explorer
Hi, Every time i try to create an advanced report with Opensite it will get to around 4-6k links and then start to finalize the report, however it says i have 750k links aiming at my root domain. I have not used any of the page/domain authority filters, any ideas on why this could be cutting me off? Kyle
Moz Pro | | kyleNeedham0 -
Drastic Difference between Ranking in Seomoz Keyword Ranking and non-personalized Google US Search
Hi everybody, for some of our keywords we saw a huge drop in ranking in the Seomoz Dashboard, yet when performing a non-personalized Google US search we still hold our old positions. Now, I am worried whether this is an upcoming Google penalty or just some bug in the latest crawl. Did anybody ever experience something similar and how could we find out if we were indeed penalized by Google (as we did some major linkbuilding campaign for these keywords recently)? Cheers and a major thanks for your suggestions, Tobias
Moz Pro | | space560 -
How can I update On Page Optimization Reports following 301 redirect?
A few weeks ago I ran the SEOMoz On Page Optimization Reports for one of my sites. At the time, the site homepage was duplicated .com/ and .com/index.html (I know!). The On Page Optimisation Reports I ran at the time obviously included both as individual pages. I've now corrected the duplicate issue with a 301 but the On Page Optimization Reports are still looking at the rankings for .com/index.html and therefore showing "not in top 50" for keywords where I'm actually ranking 1st - any idea how I can get the reports to update so they don't continue to look for .com/index.html? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | trbaldwin0