www doesn't show in SERPS ...

21 replies
Folks

When you do a search on Google, you often see some listings with and without the www prefix for example.


thebestdomain.com

www.coolstuffy.com

Anybody know why it shows the www prefix for some sites but not others?
#serps #show #www
  • I think you can just set it up either way you want. Most sites work either way, but if your site is not I think you can fix it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
      Anybody know "why" this is and how to "fix it" ?
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      • Profile picture of the author jaaproos
        I dont know why. But if you implement the Google Webmaster Central to the site you can change your settings there in the tab : site configuration.
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      • Profile picture of the author Skyrider
        Originally Posted by SimonHarrison View Post

        Anybody know "why" this is and how to "fix it" ?
        Newb asks: Anyone know what SERPS stands for?

        thanks,

        ~Sky
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        • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
          Originally Posted by Skyrider View Post

          Newb asks: Anyone know what SERPS stands for?

          thanks,

          ~Sky
          Ooh, your lazy Sky :-)

          Search engine results page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

          Thanks Quentin..
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          • Profile picture of the author Skyrider
            Originally Posted by SimonHarrison View Post

            Ooh, your lazy Sky :-)


            Thanks Quentin..
            Well . . . not entirely lazy. When I tried to reply to you with your quote of Wikipedia I received this message on SUBMIT:

            To be able to post links or images your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 6 posts.

            Please remove links from your message, then you will be able to submit your post.


            As you can see, I don't have enough posts yet to qualify to play with the big boys. There's a bit of method to my madness.

            ~Sky
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        • Profile picture of the author scottgallagher
          Originally Posted by Skyrider View Post

          Newb asks: Anyone know what SERPS stands for?

          thanks,

          ~Sky
          SERP
          Search
          Engine
          Result
          Page

          We 301 the non-www to the www version in our control panel of the domain registrar. You can check your site by typing in the website w/o the www and if it forwards to the www version, you're golden. If you can view your site with both the www and non www version visible in your browser, get it fixed. This is a must for any site, always.
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          • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
            Originally Posted by scottgallagher View Post

            You can check your site by typing in the website w/o the www and if it forwards to the www version, you're golden. .
            And vica versa presumably ?
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            • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
              Originally Posted by SimonHarrison View Post

              And vica versa presumably ?
              No.

              I must be only in one direction. If you decide to use example.com then the www version should ALWAYS be redirected to the url without www. In this particular case the example.com should NEVER be redirected to the www variant.
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              • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
                Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

                No.

                I must be only in one direction. If you decide to use example.com then the www version should ALWAYS be redirected to the url without www. In this particular case the example.com should NEVER be redirected to the www variant.
                I think you misunderstood or I am misunderstanding you.

                I'm not talking about 301 both ways, I'm saying OR.

                The "AND" statement was in reference to being golden if it's vica versa.

                So if we wanted to use domainname.com , is it ok to forward the www variant to it?

                As opposed to what Scott does for his sites:

                We 301 the non-www to the www version in our control panel of the domain registrar.
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
    You need to decide what you want (if google has already indexed a version, go with their selection)

    If you choose to go with www, make a 301 redirect from the non www ot the www.

    For google, and the other search engines, www and non www is two different websites, so if you have half of your links pointing to www and the other half to the non www you are vasting a lot of linkjuice and also having duplicate content.

    If you use a 301 redirect, the links to the non www will also count as links to the www.

    Google for how to do this.
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    • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
      Originally Posted by MisterMunch View Post

      You need to decide what you want (if google has already indexed a version, go with their selection)

      If you choose to go with www, make a 301 redirect from the non www ot the www.

      For google, and the other search engines, www and non www is two different websites, so if you have half of your links pointing to www and the other half to the non www you are vasting a lot of linkjuice and also having duplicate content.

      If you use a 301 redirect, the links to the non www will also count as links to the www.

      Google for how to do this.
      But how initially is Google choosing non www over listing it with a prefix?

      That's what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.
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      • Profile picture of the author drew3806
        I had this same problem where I was building my links to my domain as a www but Google has all my sites indexed as http://mysite.com. My links were not showing up on my indexed sites.

        This has to do with Canonical URL's. A 301 redirect from the one that is not www to the one that is will fix it.

        If you are a War Room member you can find a more detailed explanation by searching the War Room for "Canonical URL".

        Hope this helps out,

        Andy
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
    I see. I think it depends on how they find you.

    If you get discovered through an article that has the www, they will use the www. This is only guesses btw.

    I also believe that they go after what you have on your website. So if your header is clickable and links to the www version, they will pick that.

    Basically they have to choose one, so the version that is best seo'ed will get the attention.
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    Ok, thanks all, I think I'm heading in the correct direction.

    It's the first time I've seen it with my sites.

    Almost all the backlinks we did to this site are prefixed with www.

    We are ranked NO1 for our search term.

    It's ranked with no prefix at all.

    Go figure..
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
    Kind of dangerous playing with it if you are ranking number one for you keyword. You will suddenly get a lot of links if you do a 301 redirect. If you are ranking no 1 and have no goal of ranking for more keywords, I would be carefull.
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    It is all controlled in your htaccess file.

    If your site provides a www and no wwww then the serps actually see two domains and all your efforts are diluted as they divide between the two domain.

    Create a .htaccess file and choose the one you want to be your domain with or without and redirect the other to the one you choose.

    .htaccess tricks and tips.. part two: url rewriting with mod rewrite.

    Quentin
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    Oh, sorry - yes!

    You can decide to use either of those... just stick to it once the decision has been made.
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    • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      Oh, sorry - yes!

      You can decide to use either of those... just stick to it once the decision has been made.
      Yep, for sure.

      Here's the frustration.

      On Bing the site is without prefix
      On Yahoo with the prefix.

      Both have excellent rankings, between 1-3.

      What a mess, going to have to decide which side of the fence to sit on.

      This could hurt, whichever way I go.

      This is the only site I have on very old hosting, registered 2001.

      Never run into this problem before, I've checked a half dozen of our other sites and they all autoforward from the non www variant to the www.

      I'm guessing it's a default when with namecheap or Godaddy as I've never conciously done this and I must own nearly 100 domains in total.
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    Just a quick note to say thank you to all who assisted in this thread.

    This had completely slipped under my radar.

    Absolutely helped me resolve the issue.

    Thanks.
    SH
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