Googlebot and non-www 301s

Do they ever stop asking for them?

[Mokita]

I installed 301 redirects for non-www to www about 18 months ago. Plus, as soon as Webmaster Tools made the facility available in August, I nominated www as the "preferred domain".

But still, approximately once a month, Googlebot asks for all the pages it used to have indexed as non-www (and of course gets a 301 redirect to the www version).

Does there ever come a time when Googlebot accepts that 301 really means permanently moved?

[theBear]

If there are any non-www links that get picked up from off site (and/or elsewhere on your site) you will continue to see them being asked for.

[Mokita]

As far as I know (having searched very carefully and often - especially in Yahoo which reveals links that Google hides) there aren't any non-www links pointing at the site. Most of the many pages giving 301s to Googlebot have never had any ICLs.

[theBear]

"Most of the many pages giving 301s to Googlebot have never had any ICLs."

That you have been able to (not) locate, that doesn't always account for all of the links that Google has seen, you are also forgeting the links from your very own site that google may still know about.

But hey I haven't a definative answer since I don't know what to look at.

I just know that Google has a very good long term memory, and when one expects things to happen relatively quickly they can get dissapointed.

I'm also speaking from having seen non-www entries stick in the index for a long time, since links to the non-www form got effectively broken so there was no reason for Google to know about them until it did its every 12 month or so check around and clean up.