Sitemaps: www.domain.com vs domain.com

[searcher]

Hi all ~

searcher is actually a beginner on overload and taking on water!... :o
added both www.domain.com and domain.com (both same site) and get two entirely different results. Totally confused since verification is in one root. Can somebody please explain ??? :confused:

Also do not understand all the threads regarding www.domain.com versus domain.com (refered to as con-something...?) Please define difference or should I even care?

[CaliforniaGirl]

When you set up a site on a server the DNS will resolve whether you use www.mysite.com or mysite.com (this is also referred to as canonical URL's). Now to you there is no difference - one set of content.

However, Google sees two seperate domains with the same content - duplicate content!

This is becoming more of an issue since Jagger. What you need to do is set up a permanent 301 redirect:

mysite.com -->Perm 301-->www.mysite.com

This will stop the engines indexing duplicate sets of content. If you do not do this you will probably be hit with a duplicate content filter. This filter will decide which page it thinks should be indexed - I call this de-duping.

And, it is not just the non-www issue either. Some companies buy multiple domain names:

www.mysite.com
www.my-site.com

which serve the same content. Add the non-www factor and you have:

www.mysite.com
mysite.com
www.my-site.com
my-site.com

Now there are 4 domains serving the same content. A 301 would be good here too!

My two cents!
CaliGirl

[searcher]

Thank you so much CaliGirl...

So even though the bulk of my link backs are mydomain.com (w/o www.) I should aim 301 at the www.mydomain.com. am I going to lose my PR?

Doesn't a noindex, nofollow effect say a page name change?

....I don't have two index pages, just one (one for mydomain.com and one for www.mydomain.com) so how do I make a 301 redirect from mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com? :confused:

I truly appreciate your help.

[CaliforniaGirl]

"So even though the bulk of my link backs are mydomain.com (w/o www.) I should aim 301 at the www.mydomain.com. am I going to lose my PR?"

As stated Google see two domains - so you will lose he PR for the non-www because the 301 says this domain has permanently changed to www.mysite.com. The back links will still work but at the moment are not counted towards www.mysite.com.

"Doesn't a noindex, nofollow effect say a page name change? "

No, this says the page is not to be indexed and the links on the page are not to be followed.

"....I don't have two index pages, just one (one for mydomain.com and one for www.mydomain.com) so how do I make a 301 redirect from mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com? "

There is heaps of info type "301 redirect" into Google. You usually do this on server-side or an .htaccess file depending on the platform. Apache does it one way and IIS another.

Hope this helps,
CaliGirl

[Jeff Martin]

To clarify here, I think CaliforniaGirl was trying to say that backlink value from site.com WILL be passed to www.site.com. It is a best practice to only have one domain name publishing your web content.

Here is what Matt Cutts had to say about it:
The proper procedure (assuming that you want www.domain.com to show up) is to make domain.com do a permanent (301) redirect to www.domain.com. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bacon-polenta/

[searcher]

Thanks Cali Girl ~ I'll have to do some research, as I know just enough html to keep my head above water.

Hi Jeff -
Not being a pro at this, I did not even know they were considered as two sites. And judging from most links I see - not many use the www. I thought they were one and the same, 'equal'.

Glad to hear I will not lose my PR.

Can you point me to a beginners "How to make 301 redirect to point to www.domain.com?" :confused:

Thanks and best wishes to both of you. I don't have time to hang out in forums, and most of what I read is usually over my head. Jagger hurt us, but I am sure if I can get the 301 redirect done, we'll pop back into #1 position.

...and thanks for taking time to reply. One of the other forums never even bothered to reply to 2 questions posted. Seemed kind of clicque-ish (?sp) :rolleyes:

[Jeff Martin]

Searcher - what web server do you use?

[searcher]

Unix...? It's at http://simplecom.net - does that help? :confused:

[Jeff Martin]

Are you running Apache on a Unix server?

If so then one of he Apache guys can tell you technicaly wat needs to be done.

[searcher]

Hi Jeff ~

Thank you for all your help. I finally got my site set up with the 301 re-direct to www.domain.com. My main page did not lose PR, but a secondary 'lead' page went from 4 to 0 (actually one day it would be 3, next day it would be 4), today it is zero. Is google still settling from Jagger?

Cannot believe I went from #1 to 10 or gone depending on keyword. watched competitor doing things to title like keyword / keyword / keyword and then when Jagger had stopped, changed all titles back to norm. It's too bad jagger cannot recognize that kind of blackhat ----!:mad: