WMT sitemaps shows www and non www sitemap.

[backdraft7]

I have noticed that my sitemaps shows a www and non www version of some of my sites.
I originally entered the www versions and my preference is set to www.domain.com.
Google appears to have added the non www site map on their own.

Should I add an .htaccess 301 directive to point visitors from the non www to the www?
Can I then delete those non www site maps?
Will there be any negative repercussion?

Thanks!

[tedster]

It's always best to use a 301 redirect to your preferred canonical URL, rather than depend on Google to do it right.

Are you seeing a second Sitemap in Webmaster Tools that you didn't generate, and it's not on your server? That would be very strange.

[backdraft7]

@tedster

From the webmaster tools "Home" page, I show the "www.domain.com" site entry, which I placed there.
I also show a "domain.com" site entry, which I DID NOT put there. It looks like Google added it for me.
They did this on four other sites I manage under the same account.

Should I be alarmed or should I just be sure to set the redirection on my site and then delete the Google added non www entry?

I am also thinking that because I did not have the redirect in place (in .htaccess), that when Google added this setting, they figured they'd make the assumption for me. This must have been prior to the "Preferences" setting for adding sites as they are discovered by Google. They must think that the non www is another site and perhaps this is why I've had so many problem with traffic since early summer.

The "preference" was set to "Ask me for each new site" - they never asked. I have changed it to "Never add sites". My site config was set to "display URL's as www.domain.com".

Some older sites like mine might be getting clobbered due to the evolution of these webmster tools. If you don't understand them and haven't made adjustments along the way, then Google might place new settings in a condition that is not advantageous to your site. Is that a fair assumption?

If this is the case, it kinda rubs the "do no harm" concept the wrong way.

Things have gotten so bad lately that I don't think any changes can make my situation any worse.

So far today is looking like another May 18th.

[scooterdude]

in my case i added both www and non www in order to be able to set the preferred domain , cos wmt said I have to prove i own both


so i set www as preferred

so i set a 301 for non-www to www

yet, i have wmt recording links from www to non-www even though extensive searching show no sign of non-www in google index

should i be deleting one of these profiles ?

[tedster]

backdraft - I don't know for sure that it's the source of your problems, but I'd say a 301 redirect for the no-www URLs on your site to be an essential step. Then you know googlebot cannot get a 200 OK response for any of those URLs. That eliminates one big source of potential trouble.

[backdraft7]

@scooter - this has always been one of those gray areas for me. I'm sure tedster can advise better than I, but since I am now using a 301 redirect (which tests out fine), I have deleted the redundant and now obsolete non www site entries. Be careful that the 301 doesn't clobber some other working area of your site, like a CMS script whose setting might specify the non www domain.

Coincidentally (or not) less than an hour after deleting the non www site entry, my 24 hour traffic blackout seemed to open up again, with two sales within 10 minutes. My audio doorbells for key pages are now banging away. Weird!

I'll let you know if this has any lasting effect. I'd be willing to bet that many other webmasters are experiencing similar erratic problems due to something as simple as this.

I don't expect any downside to this redirect change...it's something that should have been done from day one.

BTW, how can you own www.domain.com and not own domain.com? Friggin goofy Google!

[bwnbwn]

BTW, how can you own www.domain.com and not own domain.com? Friggin goofy Google!

Google is correct these are two different domain name just the same name. I can have one site in animals on the www and one site on fishing on the non www.
having deleted one of them WM area has nothing to do with the return of traffic. I have Google wanting me to claim my non www but there is no way for me to verify ownership since I have had it set up to 301 for 11 years now.

[backdraft7]

@bwnbwn - Yeah, I know you can do that but why would you have two different owners of the one domain? I myself have never seen a domain registered under two different entities. It's just common sense (to me at least) to assume the same party who registered the domain owns (or should I say is responsible for) the domain and associated sub domains.
This seems contrary to my obviously thin understanding of what Google expects of us. Is the 301 redirect the right way to go or not? They tell us we should do one thing, then ask us to do the impossible (as in your case).

As far as any return of traffic, yes, I agree...this is not the reason because as quickly as it came, it's gone again. My traffic and sales numbers are so out of whack this year that I have nowhere else to turn but to shear speculation. It sucks. I'm hesitant to make any drastic site changes becuase I've been burned before. The minute I try falling into the blackhat bin with all the "currently successful" scrapers, dual site operators and top ranking, link buying MFA sites, they'll finally do a crack down.

Happy Holidays...

[bwnbwn]

backdraft7 not just you on the wacky orders we are so far down it isn't funny. as far as taking ownership of both in WM area that is a question for me as well because I can't get rid of them in the suggested domain I own. I just leave them there.
The 301 is the right way to do it no question about it. If you can't verify ownership as I can't then just don't worry about that.

I would hunker down do and link check, linking to a bad site, check all outgoing links, broken links, service problems, site speed, duplicate content, everything. Go over the site with a fine fine tooth comb. Leave no stone unturned. Take at least a solid day of checking the site. Check incoming links there maybe someone working against ya.

[backdraft7]

@bwnbwn - exactly what I started today...a "from the ground up" site evaluation. When the site's running fine this task always get's neglected. Maybe it's Google's way of forcing us to spruce up our sites.

Our numbers are also dismal and comparing them to last year is worrisome. I wish everyone luck however this ends up.