My domains are being indexed without the www

[sarasayshi]

I have been using Google's webmaster tools for all of my websites and the last few sites that I have built have that warning message in webmaster's tools saying that my "site is indexed as www. mydomainname .com instead of http://www.mydomainname.com". I have checked all of my links on my site and even my main index page all reflect that the www should be in the URL.

All of my back links I have used show the www too so I don't know what is going on and how this will effect current back links.

Is there anything that I need to do like try and get the site reindexed with the www in the URL? Also webmaster's tools says that if I want to see the data I need to add the www url site, I have added it and the warning message still displays that I need to add it. *sigh*

[askloz]

personally i wouldn't rely on google webmaster tools, it's not very accurate, but it's good to see where they are messing up and play their game to rank higher.

all sites are indexed as www, or non-www, depending on your .htacess file, but dont worry, you'll be just fine

and in all honesty you want your site to be indexed as non-www... prominence is much higher

[Fernando Veloso]

That happens with fresh installs of WordPress - by default it sets non www sites.

Is that your case Sara?

[sarasayshi]

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

That happens with fresh installs of WordPress - by default it sets non www sites.

Is that your case Sara?

No, they are static HTML sites built in Dreamweaver.

[sarasayshi]

Originally Posted by askloz

and in all honesty you want your site to be indexed as non-www... prominence is much higher

Really? Interesting I never heard of that. I guess I won't freak out about it then.

[dburk]

Hi sarasayshi,

You are right to be concerned with the issue of canonicalization. I believe if you add the proper 301 redirect to your .htaccess file it should resolve your issue.

Here's a link that explains it pretty well:

301 Redirects and www/non-www Canonical Problems

[sarasayshi]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi sarasayshi,

You are right to be concerned with the issue of canonicalization. I believe if you add the proper 301 redirect to your .htaccess file it should resolve your issue.

Here's a link that explains it pretty well:

301 Redirects and www/non-www Canonical Problems

Thanks so much for that!

Anyone have any ideas how I can prevent this from happening again?

[dburk]

Hi sarasayshi,

Since you cannot control what other webmasters do you can never totally prevent it from happening. By using a permanent 301 redirect in your .htaccess file it will allow the search engines to pass all the link juice to your chosen canonical.

You need pay close attention to your own linking methods because that will take care of most issues. You can also use the canonical meta tag and set your preferences in Google Webmaster Tools.

Here's a link that explains more options:

About rel="canonical" - Webmasters/Site owners Help

[kkchoon]

Originally Posted by sarasayshi

I have been using Google's webmaster tools for all of my websites and the last few sites that I have built have that warning message in webmaster's tools saying that my "site is indexed as www. mydomainname .com instead of http://www.mydomainname.com". I have checked all of my links on my site and even my main index page all reflect that the www should be in the URL.

All of my back links I have used show the www too so I don't know what is going on and how this will effect current back links.

Is there anything that I need to do like try and get the site reindexed with the www in the URL? Also webmaster's tools says that if I want to see the data I need to add the www url site, I have added it and the warning message still displays that I need to add it. *sigh*

I would recommend a 301 redirect from mydomainname.com to www.mydomainname.com, and you should backlinks to one of the domain only - www.mydomainname.com

If you backlink to both, you are wasting your effort to one of it.

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi sarasayshi,

Since you cannot control what other webmasters do you can never totally prevent it from happening. By using a permanent 301 redirect in your .htaccess file it will allow the search engines to pass all the link juice to your chosen canonical.

I agree, a permanent 301 is a must! Wordpress platform done that for you, that's why I love to build my site on wordpress

[sarasayshi]

Originally Posted by kkchoon

I would recommend a 301 redirect from mydomainname.com to www.mydomainname.com, and you should backlinks to one of the domain only - www.mydomainname.com

If you backlink to both, you are wasting your effort to one of it.





I agree, a permanent 301 is a must! Wordpress platform done that for you, that's why I love to build my site on wordpress

I've only been back linking to the www.mydomainname.com so that is why I was startled to find the site being indexed as a non-www.

I'm glad I asked about this so now if it happens again I will know to put up a 301 right away.