Canonical issue

Will Preferred domain on Google Webmaster tools fix the problem?

[lakr]

Dear all,

I did set the preferred domain on Google Webmaster tools, and the PR is equal between www/non-www, all URLs on my site are absolute and point to the www.

My question is: if I set preferred domain on Google Webmaster tools, will Canonical issue be fixed?

I am worried about this issue because Dmoz seems to be banned by Google when I even Type "dmoz" on the search box, Dmoz.org was found nowhere on the SERPs.

Any way to fix this problem? if my site is hand-written HTML and use Windows platform.

I appreciate your help.

Lkr

[Quadrille]

It may be fixed for Google searches, but not necessarily for other SEs.

Much better to fix the problem using 301s - that covers ALL bases.

I'm not sure what you are saying about odp and how that links with your problem, but you need to be aware that odp is 'migrating' from dmoz.org to www.dmoz.org - a whole new set of 301s. See this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: Quadrille at 9:24 am (utc) on Sep. 24, 2007]

[lakr]

Quadrille, thank you very much for your reply.

I'm not sure what you are saying about odp and how that links with your problem

Here is post by Rand at SEOmoz:

[seomoz.org...]

He said:

They do have the issue of duplicate content with the Google Directory, but all the searches I run for them - ODP, Open Directory, www dmoz org, dmoz.org, etc. come up with serious relevancy problems. I could be wrong, but this looks pretty new - maybe they did get some kind of penalty along with the other directories above?

I think that it links to my problem, the duplication between www/and non-www.

[Miamacs]

...

Of course you know that setting the preferred domain only changes the way your URLs are *displayed* on Google SERPs?

Meaning doing only this, and not issuing redirects will not solve anything. Considering you won't be able to track the different versions of your URLs in Google anymore ( both www, and non-www will be *displayed* as www ) it's for the worse.

Issue a sitewide 301 redirect from non-www to www, if you want your site fully indexed on either,... until then half of your stuff will be here, half will be there. And that's still the best you can manage, for dupe content could ( have ) mess(ed) up both.

...

I don't get why you care whether the transition from dmoz.org to www.dmoz.org goes smoothly or not... or how would it be connected to your problem... unless all of your links are from them.

Besides, not sure what the right word is, it may not be 'banned'. Duplicate content usually makes Google drop all but one URL with the same content, so... as soon as dmoz.org goes offline / gets a redirect / the redirect gets picked up ... www.dmoz.org will be back.

Considering the size of ODP it's just that this may take a while.

[lakr]

Miamacs, I am thankful to your help.

Your reply makes me worry more about the issue. Please tell me how to redirect them when I am using Windows platforms and my site is HTML.

Note: I am a marketer, not a technical guy, I can only use Dreamweaver software to edit pages.

Thanks.

Lkr

P/S: please forget about the ODP, may be I am getting wrong with it. :)

[mslina2002]

In addition to a 301 redirect from non-www to my www domain,

I also redirected my index.htm to the www root as well.

Uploaded a new sitemap to Google with the preferred www links

[mslina2002]

This is what I placed in my .htaccess file for a 301 redirect.
Just replace your domain name with example.com:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301]

[lakr]

Mslina2002, thanks for your help, however, I am afraid that the .htaccess file will not work for Windows platforms.

Tks.

Lakr

[tedster]

If you can access the Internet Services Manager, here's how to do the canoncial fix on Windows IIS servers

1. In Internet Services Manager, set up both
www.example.com and example.com as websites.

2. Select the example.com website in Internet Services
Manager and go into the properties.

3. In the Home Directory tab, change the option button
"When connecting to this resource the content should
come from" to be "A redirection to a URL".

4. In the "Redirect to" box, enter http://www.example.com$S$Q
(A note about the variables used here:
$S retains the requested URL's full filepath
$Q retains any query string present in the request.)

5. Check the checkbox that says "A permanent redirection
for this resource." This is a key step, or else you will
create a 302 redirect rather than a 301.

[g1smd]

Has anyone tried this?

Set up a site-wide 301 redirect from non-www to www and then tell Webmaster Tools that the canonical version is the non-www.

What do they make of this conflict?

What happens if you set up a site-wide 301 redirect from www to non-www and then tell Webmaster Tools that the canonical version is the www.

What will they make of that?

Is there any difference in doing this for a new site as for an already listed site?

.

For an already listed site, is there any difference in making the on-site redirect contradict the already listed URLs, while using Webmaster tools to confirm to keep the already listed URLs, as opposed to the reverse situation of making the redirect fit the already listed URLs, while making the webmaster Tools settting contradict the already listed URLs.

What does that do for the indexing of a site?

Has Google got an error routine to warn you of the conflict, or do they disregard one instruction? If they disregard one, which one is it - the physical redirect or the webmaster tools setting?

.

Bonus question. What do they do if each page also has a base tag that contradicts either the redirect or the Webmaster tools setting?

[Miamacs]

Please send the correct answers until the 15th of November to the following address:

Belgrave House
76 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9TQ

London Sales & Engineering Office, Google
( write '3rd party test of your indexing capabilities' on the letter in red, and be sure to also include at least one drawing of your own on the theme "The internet and me, in 2010" )

...

The lucky winners might receive a £5 AdWords credit from an independent sponsor ( me ), depending on a hundred or so factors*.
...

After all...
They're going to need it.

...

* - Of which, one is whether I want to give it to you or not.

[edited by: Miamacs at 1:45 pm (utc) on Sep. 25, 2007]

[lakr]

Hi Tedster, I appreciate your help.

I have found this and place on my page (HTML) but it did not work:

<quote>

Place the following code above your <html> tag or <!DOCTYPE>, if you have one:

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
response.status="301 moved permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location", "http://www.domain.com/file-location.html"
%>

</quote>

Any help?

[tedster]

AFAIK, that should work on classic ASP for redirecting just a single page. But your URLs have a .html extension - are they being parsed as ASP on your server?

If you are on the ASP.NET platform and not classic ASP, then I understand there's a slightly different script:

<script runat="server">
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.example.com/new-page.asp");
}
</script>

Again, I believe you must be sending .html extension pages to the .NET handler on the server, and the above should be the first and only code served on the old url.

This is getting out of my area of certainty and also away from Google Search proper. If you need further support, I'd turn to the folks in our Microsoft ASP.NET forum [webmasterworld.com] to be of more help.

[lakr]

hahaha, I got headache with these codes...wish I was a webmaster.

Thank you all for your help, especially, you, Tedster.!

Let the Canonical issue be. I do hope that I will never get problems with it, because I do not understand anything you said. hic hic.

Best,

Lkr

[g1smd]

You need to wrap your head around this topic and master it.

Even authorative sites like the ODP can fall foul of it, losing several hundred thousand pages out of the index (well, actually, re-indexed under an incorrect sub-domain) in just a few weeks.

[Quadrille]

Don't worry about mastering the remedies; they''ll always be someone technical somewhere - but you really do need to understand the problem - and the consequesnces of not taking action at all.

Especially as the remedies, once correctly applied, cure the headache once and for all :)

[lakr]

Hic, thank you all for your encourages, What I should do:

- 301 redirect homepage only or every page on my site, because all URLs on my site are absolute.

Great thanks to you.

Lkr

[lakr]

Dear all,

I have just read the official words from Google, saying about the duplication between www and non-www:

Use webmaster tools to tell us how you prefer your site to be indexed: You can tell Google your preferred domain (for example, www.example.com or http://example.com).

[google.com...]

So maybe I think that by setting preferred domain on GWT, the problem may be fixed.

Cheers,

Lkr