Need help with backlinking issues

by 15 replies
18
Hello,

I'm a newbie in the Internet Marketing world and I need your advice pertaining to backlinking issues.

I've just created a simple review site (for learning purposes and wanting to familiarize myself with wordpress) and if I want to rank the website for a particular keyword (e.g. keyword 1), how do I go about into doing this correctly?

The confusion that I'm facing right now is this;

When I typed in the url of my review site (e.g. review-site.com), it shows up in the internet as usual but when I typed in the url as www.review-site.com (example), it shows up as I expected. That is good.

But the point here is, if I want to rank the website for a particular keyword (e.g. keyword 1), which url should I put in the html format? Should I put it like this, <a href="http://www.review-site.com">Keyword 1</a>, or do I put it like this, <a href="http://review-site.com">Keyword 1</a> ?

Question 1 : Which is the right thing to do? Should I include the www, or just the url without the www?

Question 2 : Even if the url seems alike (one is with www while the other is not) and is pointing to the same site, does the search engine sees it as the same thing or sees it as 2 different address?

Question 3 : Eventhough I typed in the url as http://www.review-site.com, when the site shows up, the www seems to disappear and the url would appear as http://review-site.com. Why is this so?

I need help from you guys to help me clear the clouds within my mind, before I start doing some backlinking to my site as I wouldn't want all my efforts to go to waste. Please help. Thanks in advance

Didi
#search engine optimization #backlinking #issues
  • Banned
    The www. part does not matter in backlinking, go to google search and type in this exactly "yoursite.com" that will show you all the backlinks to your site that google has indexed.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hello Dawson,

      I didn't know that typing the url within google search will be able to help me check the backlinks google has indexed. I'll write that down in my notebook. Thank you for the note.

      Didi
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Normally your host will forward one or the other (www.site.com or site.com) to the other one, so that no matter which you type in you end up at the same place. This is good, as it is possible to end up with split backlinking if you don't have forwarding set up. It doesn't actually matter which one you go with - there's no difference to the search engines. I would say that when you do your linking, you always want to link to the same one. So if you choose to do the www, then always use it whenever you link back to your site.
    • [1] reply
    • Hello Ben,

      This is one useful tip. I will take note of this when I do backlinking. Thanks.
  • Hi Didi,

    What is the indexed URL in the Google(for your domain)? If it is www(dot)ex(dot)com, I would suggest you to do the redirection(301 Re-direction moved permanently) from ex(dot)com to www(dot)ex(dot)com

    Depends upon the Google index status finalize the correct domain and do the redirection at the earliest and start the process.

    I hope this suggestion would be useful for you.

    Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hello Agnel,

      I'm still a newbie when it comes to redirecting issues. But nevertheless, your suggestion is a good one. I will take note of that. Thanks Agnel.

      Didi
  • You need to add this to your .htaccess file:

    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursite.com [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [L,R=301]

    This will cause your site to have the 'www' prefix always regardless of what is typed in the browser. All pages will get indexed with it. Google will only see the www version of your site. The non-www version of your site will cease to exist.

    This IS important. If you don't do it, Google will see two sites, one with the subdomain 'www' and one without a subdomain (yes, 'www' is a subdomain...) and your link juice will get split over two domains.

    As far as finding all your backlinks, don't expect Google to show them any time soon. In my experience G will never show more than 10% of your backlinks and often less than 2%. They just don't want you to know...
    • [1] reply
    • [DELETED]
    • Hello Peter,

      That is one important note. I'll write that down in my notebook. Thanks Peter
  • 1. Including WWW is always good for marketing and beter SERP purpose.
    2. Search engine will see it as different address sometimes and will create canonical URL issue (duplicate sets) so we need to be careful. For this, you need to setup G webmaster tools on your website and there is a setting for creating any preference about www or non www.
    3. You need to set 301 permanent redirection in the htaccess file, located on your server. More technical info can be found here on - 301 Redirect - How to create Redirects
    • [2] replies
    • I did some research on the www. and not www. thing a few months ago.

      I went to google webmaster tools and chose the option to have www. as the default domain and to drop the http://

      Result!

      Both the www. and http:// still came up in the search engines after 3 weeks so I went back to google webmaster tools and selected them both again.

      Make of this what you will but I found no difference what so ever by choosing one over the other.
      • [1] reply
    • Hello Andre,

      I remembered while trying to do a bit more research for a better understanding about backlinking issues, I did came across a site (which I can't recall) stating that Google view the sites (one with www and the other without the www) as 2 different sites. That's when I became unclear and unsure as to how the backlinking process should be done.

      Thanks to the warriors' advice (including yours), I have a better understanding about this whole thing. The '301 Redirect link' that you gave is very useful especially for newbies like myself. To tell the truth, I'm a bit lost when it comes to the 'Redirect' thing.

      As a newbie, this is very interesting. I need to go and find out more about that 'Redirect' thing. I believe this is one important issue that I must not overlook. Thanks for the advice and the link
  • Search engines see www.site.com and site.com as different pages. You need to tell google via webmaster toools what you are using, and also set up redirect as suggested above. Google is getting better at recognising www and non www, but its not 100%, thats why we give our members a tool to turn on/ff the www prefix in their accounts for example.
  • Hi Didi,

    Everyone who said you need to pick one www or non- www is correct. You MUST choose which one. I always go with the www . site . com because that's what google does. When you type in google. com you get redirected via a 301 redirect to www . google . com. If it's google's preference then it must be the best choice.

    Open a google webmaster tools account and specify your prefence to use the www . version.

    Set up an htaccess 301 redirect for any incoming traffic to your non www so that if someone types in yoursite. com it redirects them to www . yoursite. com


    Doing this will also help your pagerank and search engine rankings.
  • [DELETED]
  • iblbuilder & Designerplus,

    I've never used Google Webmaster Tool before. But I'll get to work right away. Thanks for the important tips guys

    Didi
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