When choosing GWT preferred domain its asking for re-verification?
-
Trying to set a preferred domain in GWT, and the site is verified via Google Analytics and meta tag in the code, but still asks:
Part of the process of setting a preferred domain is to verify that you own http://site.org/. Please verify http://site.org/.
Tried looking for answer to no avail, am I missing anything?
-
Thanks again Devanur, same to you!
-
Understood my friend. By propagation, I meant the propagation of the sitemap.xml file for newly added preferred-version of the site and yes, you are absolutely correct. It takes a while for Google to get the stats for the preferred version. Yes, I knew you would be having a 301 in place already, I mentioned about it just in case
Wish you good luck for all your endeavors.
Best,
Devanur Rafi
-
By propagating I meant all the statistics currently up, not in a sense of DNS propagation, it takes a while for Google to crawl and the stats to the GWT dashboard. But its not really hard to re-set that up, just dont really see a reason now that the old profile shows the preferred choice selected.
Yes, 301 perm redirect set up
-
You just need to add the sitemap for the preferred version and refresh the page. All your sitemap info will be readily available. Here we don't need to bother about it propagating or anything of that sort. As the sitemap.xml is still there where it was (in the root folder), nothing has changed for Google.
If you have not done this already, you should go in for a 301 permanent redirection from your non-preferred of your site to your preferred-version.
-
Hmm, I actually did. and it is still there under my original profile, and with my preferred selection. Its just that I have to add the sitemap to the new account and wait until it propagates with all the info and crawl stats/errors.
Ill wait a few days and see if it changes. Or is it a bad idea?
-
Good to hear that my friend. Please do not delete the newly added non-www version of your website as you will not be able to set the preferred domain without it. Just leave it as it is.
You can access your preferred domain by clicking on it to get all the stats in GWMT account.
Best,
Devanur Rafi
-
Great worked like a charm... Now I just delete the new profile that I had just created as the initial profile states my correct preferred domain now, correct?
Many Thanks Devanur!!
-
Hi Vadim,
Yes you need to get both the non-www and www versions of your website verified in GWMT account to be able to set the preferred domain. Its as simple as adding your site without www to the account and hit the Verify this site option. That's it. As you would have your www version already verified, getting the non-www version of your website doesnot require to go through the verification process like uploading the html file or adding the verification meta tag.
Just add your site without www by clicking the ADD A SITE button and click the Verify this site option and you should be good.
Best,
Devanur Rafi
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
-
Trash Domain Or Redirect it (unmaintained)
We have an old website with an old domain that has not been maintained for a few years; it now has a DA of 14 and a spam score of 24%. Our current domain (same business) within a few years has a domain authority of 21 and page authority 29 spam score 1%. (Yes, this domain should have been redirected from the get-go) The question is what do you do with it now? Toss it. Or redirect it. That domain has existed for years but still not sure what its value is from an SEO perspective. I would love to hear your feedback. Is there any benefit to redirect the old domain to the current domain. Or is it a negative and what impact?
Technical SEO | | MyBambooSEO0 -
Spam flags for sub-domain
Hi Moz Community, I am reviewing our website via MOZ and found the following issues: http://shopwindowcleaningresource.com/ 1. No Contact (please refer to the attached image). However, we have an up to date contact info on our website. We have social buttons at the footer, our telephone number is at the top and we have a contact us page. Any idea, why we are being rated as such and how to resolve it? Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance. 327M9Fc
Technical SEO | | Shop-Sq0 -
Google Not Recognizing Domain Name Change
It has been over a month since we have switch https://www.iwdextensions.com
Technical SEO | | lsujoe
to
https://www.iwdagency.com/extensions/ Yet Google is still ranking the old domain name in their search results. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=iwd extensions Are we doing something wrong or does it take Google more than a month to update their results for this type of change? We have 301 redirected the old url to the new one and submitted a domain name change in GWT. Let me know your thoughts!0 -
Moving to New Domain - Ranking impact
I understand that when migrating to a new site, even if done perfectly (page level 301s etc) that rankings will drop in the short term and each site will be impacted differently. I picked up the following comment and was wanting to get a few experts thoughts on whether I can quote this to my client: "In our experience, even when 301's are correctly executed, we see a short term fall back (7-30) days and then about a 90% carry through after that period for about 90 days and then back to full strength. "
Technical SEO | | steermoz80 -
Moving a website from one domain to another
Hi Guys, I figured I'd investigate this fully before potentially ruining a client's traffic. The rundown:Two websites; one is an ecommerce store and the other is just a brochure website which has references to the ecommerce store. The ecommerce store is hosted on a server we control whereas the brochure one isn't, the URL for the brochure store is nice and simple which is the reason for the switch, as the ecommerce URL is very long and hard to remember. Now from an SEO point of view will it be a case of 301 redirecting every URL from the old domain name to the new one one or is there an easier option? Any tips or links to more information would be much appreciated. Thanks, Dan
Technical SEO | | Sparkstone0 -
Domain Switch - With lost control of original domain.
Hey all, A client finally sold a domain name after being harassed to sell for many years, without talking to us about it first. They moved the site to a new domain, and the purchasing company took over the original domain. Then they called me, wondering why the site is no longer showing up in Google. I've done some initial research, and everything I find for advice assumes that you have control over the original domain. We don't. I'm hoping someone here has some creative advice, so we don't have to start from the beginning, and/or painfully update links we've acquired. My only thought was that the new company may be kind enough to post 301's for us if we provided them.... Any thoughts / advice / life rings will be greatly appreciated! 🙂
Technical SEO | | KBK0 -
Multiple Domains for One Site
We are building a site for a new miniature golf course. They have a long name, which they don't want me to mention, but it's equivalent to a name like Golden State Golf and Putt. They also have a restaurant with its own name and brand that will be a part of the mini golf course and its website, much how Hotel websites have their restaurants on their sites. Before becoming our client they purchased golfandputt.com and want to go with this domain for simplicity sake. In addition to this domain name they purchased 7 others that contain the bussiness' full name in some way, such as: goldenstategolfandputt.com goldenstategolfandputt.net, goldenstategolf-guitar.com etc., As well as: 3 variations of the golfandputt.com domain 3 variations of the restaurants name They wish to have all of these redirect to the main website or the restaurant page to "help with SEO," as they told me. From what I have researched on SEOmoz it seems better to simply optimize the website for Golden State Golf and Putt and the restaurant page for the restaurant's name. Additionally, I'm worried that redirecting the domains to the site will actually hurt them in rankings. If someone can shed some light on what the best practices for this sort of situation are I'd be much appreciative. Apologies in advance for the lengthy explanation but its a bit of a unique situation.
Technical SEO | | TVI0 -
Subdomain and Domain Rankings
I have read here that domain names with keywords might add a boost to your search rank For instance using a completely inane example monkey-fights.com might get a boost compared to mfl.com (monkey fighting league) when searching for "monkey fights" There seems to be a hot debate as to how much bonus the first domain might get over the second, but leaving that aside for the moment. Question 1. Would monkey-fights.mfl.com get the same kind of bonus as a root domain bonus? Question 2. If the answer to 1 above was yes would a 301 redirect from the suddomain URL to root domain URL retain that bonus I was just thinking on how hard it is to get root domains these days that are not either being squatted on etc. and if this might be a way to get the same bonus, or maybe subdomains are less bonus prone and so it would be a waste of time Thanks
Technical SEO | | bThere0