Redirecting domain that was removed in Search Console

[markovald]

My friend have 2 domains, that are pointing to the same website. So there are much duplicated content.

I suggested my friend to resolve this issue by doing this:
1) Use canonical so Google will understand where is the original content
2) 301 redirect of the domain two to the domain one
3) Transfer website using the "Site Transfer" feature of Search Console.

Now it happened that the customer removed of domain B the site from the Search Console...i think i should reindex for passing its value (he has some links), but when you remove a site and then reindex it, its value decrease?

[Walt Hartwell]

If I understand correctly, your friend has two domains, one of which has an active site on it (A), the other is a duplicate(B).

301 of B to A would be my choice.

Search Console doesn't control indexing. If there are links to B, Googlebot will find those links, follow the 301 and attribute the link value (partial) to A.

[lucy24]

pointing to the same website

What does "pointing to" mean? My first thought was that you've got the DNS for two different hostnames pointing to the same physical space-- but that wouldn't be "much" duplicate content, it would be all duplicate content. Or did you mean that one hostname redirects, page-for-page, to the other?

[Walt Hartwell]

I interpreted "pointing to" as meaning there were two sites with duplicated content. In my normal usage, I might buy a domain name and "point it" to an existing site using a 301 redirect.

I still remember reading posts where I had no clue what people were talking about with 301/302, tags and elements. To this day, I'll still read lucy24 posts and sometimes say WTF because I'm not clear on the concepts being discussed. That's a good thing as it expands my horizons.

I'll admit that I got lost with the OP where the customer evidently removed domain B from Search Console, but I pretty much skipped by hoping someone else would address it.

[lucy24]

To this day

Awright, come clean. What aren't you telling us? ;)

[Robert Charlton]

To this day, I'll still read lucy24 posts and sometimes say WTF

That's been known to happen under a variety of circumstances ;)

What does "pointing to" mean?

I know precisely what lucy24 means here, though. "Point," "pointing", etc can be one of the vaguest words in all of seo. I try to avoid it when possible, unless I can modify it with some kind of precision. But I'm not always facile with the exact technical lingo either....

In this case, instead of...

My friend have 2 domains, that are pointing to the same website.

...I might say something like two domain names whose A-records are addressing the same IP... or maybe pointing to the same IP and both return 200 OK header responses.

I always wonder, though, whether there's some shorter and still precise way of saying this, without listing all the A-records and header responses.

Lucy, how would you say it, assuming this is the OP meant, which I think it is?

[lucy24]

how would you say it

I'd use more words.

But then, I always do anyway :(

[Robert Charlton]

I'm with Walt Hartwell's suggestion of using a 301. But, there's another part to the question, which I think the 301 covers, but which is perhaps not yet explicitly answered....

Now it happened that the customer removed of domain B the site from the Search Console...i think i should reindex for passing its value (he has some links), but when you remove a site and then reindex it, its value decrease?

OK... now we get into the question of what do we mean by "removed". There is a feature Google offers called the "Temporary URL Blocking tool". As I'm reading this, it seems that the customer has perhaps used this tool to "remove" (?) or block Site B. Is this the case?

The tool isn't really intended for this purpose, and as markovald notes, it was a mistake for the client to have done this. The question is about what the consequences may be of trying to do a 301 on blocked content.

Here's what Google says about the tool....

Block your website content from Google Search results
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663419?hl=en [support.google.com]

This article describes how to use the Temporary URL Blocking tool, which we have created to help you address urgent content changes that need immediate attention in Google Search results. The tool does not actually remove content from either your site or the Google index, but blocks older, sensitive content from search results until we discover and index the updates to your site. Typically, a successful request blocks content for approximately 90 days from approval.

So, what happens if you try to 301 something while it is blocked from search results?

When you 301 a site, you are redirecting urls of the old site, and also requests for those urls. The site itself ceases to exist.

My assumption is that the links to the old site (site B), as Walt suggests, will get redirected, and the fact that site B itself is not displayed doesn't make any difference... but there's still perhaps a question in the OP's mind of what else Google might be doing behind the scenes.

I don't think there should be any concern. If links to site B have been dropped by the linking sites because the site has been blocked, I think it would make sense to contact them and request they link to site A. But, if they've already dropped those links, getting site B to be visible again isn't going to change that.

[Walt Hartwell]

"to this day" means I don't quickly comprehend a lot of apache type things others consider fundamental. You know a lot of things which others may find helpful and I'd put myself in that "others" category. Thanks.

Robert,

...I might say something like two domain names whose A-records are addressing the same IP... or maybe pointing to the same IP and both return 200 OK header responses.

I always wonder, though, whether there's some shorter and still precise way of saying this, without listing all the A-records and header responses.

That's hard for a lot of people to digest. Many people won't know what an A-record is, or header responses or possibly even an IP address. Less technical and more conversational discussions often help me understand things I'm not comfortable with.

[Robert Charlton]

Walt, I am by no means an Apache expert, and will hire a programmer for anything complicated. I have an odd combination of a math, physics, and electronics background, coupled with a liberal arts education and a fine arts background that moved me into commercial filmmaking and marketing for many years... but absolutely no IT training beyond what I picked up here at WebmasterWorld. I'm still not facile with some technical terms... thus my question to Lucy above.

I will say that certain basic concepts are absolutely essential, though, even if you don't know how to code. Setting up a DNS control panel with your registrar, eg (that's where the "A-records" come in), is extremely basic and not very difficult, though there are nuances that come over time.

If you don't recognize a term, I suggest trying a combination of site search, full web search, and then asking questions on the forum. The trick is to have sufficient vocabulary to ask relevant questions, but you should feel no shame in not knowing something. Ask.

Members here have greatly varying levels of proficiency... and an expert coder might not know how to write an article or structure a site. There's so much to know that the ideal is to pool information... that's one of the beauties of the forums here, when we're all pulling in the same direction. We've had some slam bang discussions here nailing down extremely basic concepts, like why you shouldn't use robots.txt exclusions in combination with the meta robots noindex tag.

Questions of "secret sauce", though, are often not discussed too widely... because of the competitive element, and in part because overusing a common technique can make it ineffective, perhaps even turn it into spam.

Finally, there are many different approaches to SEO... and I feel SEO at its best is something of an art form, which often can get quite personal. But there's also a correct and incorrect aspect to many beliefs and statements. Be careful not to believe all you read on the forums.

I hope this isn't too far off topic... but it is important that we have a sense of what we're communicating when we discuss things.