searches on 'www' version of domain dropped

[scorpion]

Anybody know if there is a technical issue to setting up your server that explains this phenomenon:

type in: 'mydomain.com' --> no results
type in: 'www.mydomain.com' ---> site found.

My site just shows an updated version but it does not show up for the version without 'www'. Other competitors show up fine.

This leads me to suspect it might be the way the server is configured.

I use a .htaccess file in the root and rewrite *.mydomain.com to /mydomain/ subdirectory.

[rfgdxm1]

Server issue. You are doing something seriously wrong and have broken things.

[drewls]

Well, maybe you broke something, but whatever it is, it isn't very difficult to fix.

Usually this problem is caused by a lack of a proper serveralias in httpd.conf.

OR...you may have done something screwy in your .htaccess that is causing this. If you remove all your mod_rewrite stuff from .htaccess, does it work with www. then?

[vincevincevince]

use samspade or similar and check the headers

[Seattle_SEM]

If you type 'mydomain.com' into your browser, does it work? That would be one quick way to test things out ;-)

[Newman]

When I looking for www.mydomain.com on Google I get information:

Google can show you the following information for this URL:

Show Google's cache of www.mydomain.com
Find web pages that are similar to www.mydomain.com
Find web pages that link to www.mydomain.com
Find web pages that contain the term "www.mydomain.com"

That’s OK

When I looking for mydomain.com on Google I get information:
Sorry, no information is available for the URL mydomain.com
?

When I looking for mydomain without .com on Google I get all pages with my domain in text, but my site are #2 on listing.
?

Site has link on Google directory!
Where is a problem? Only update or something else?

[scorpion]

Here is how I am rewriting each site in my local .htaccess file:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} [^.]*sitename\.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}!^/sitename/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /sitename/$1 [L]

Can anyone tell if this could be causing the google not to return any results for the version without the 'www' in the search box?

[Newman]

When I search some other domains I get the same things.
You can find a lot of domains on Google with the same problems - when you search for domain.com

Something is wrong?

[edited by: Newman at 9:33 pm (utc) on June 19, 2003]

[tschild]

If you type 'mydomain.com' into your browser, does it work? That would be one quick way to test things out ;-)

That's the relevant question here. What is the answer?

[Newman]

NO

Result is
Sorry, no information is available for the URL domain.com

[scorpion]

well of course it works if you type 'mydomain.com' in the browser - I assume you mean in the address bar. I mean, it is being rewritten by the code I posted in my previous message since it uses a wildcard for the prefix (*.).

[scorpion]

I have one theory, not sure if its true.

My theory is if you use a wildcard, it "thinks" that you are rewriting the non-www version to the www version thus google sees it not as a redirect to the correct version with the prefix, but as a rewrite, and thus a "duplicate" entry.

[Newman]

I don’t talk about address bar.

When I search on Google for some domain.com I get OK result, but for some domains I get:
Sorry, no information is available for the URL domain.com

[scorpion]

exactly, so for this domain I'm talking about, it shows up if you type www.sitename.com, but NOT sitename.com

I'm trying to understand why this behaviour occurs.

[dobaba]

> Anybody know if there is a technical issue to setting up
> your server that explains this phenomenon:
> type in: 'mydomain.com' --> no results
> type in: 'www.mydomain.com' ---> site found.

I seen other postings here complaining about the same thing.

I personally have seen Esmeralda update treat:
www.mydomain.com
www.mydomain.com/

as different sites. In other words a google search of

link:www.mydomain.com
and link:www.mydomain.com/

returns a different number of links.

It only did it to a newly indexed site. Sites that have
been indexed for a while did not have the same behaviour.

So I think the problem is with the Esmeralda update and
not your .htaccess file.

[Newman]

I think that something is wrong on Google. Those problems have a lot of domains.
Update is not over and maybe we must wait.

[jdMorgan]

Scorpion,

> My theory is if you use a wildcard, it "thinks" that you are rewriting the non-www version to the www version thus google sees it not as a redirect to the correct version with the prefix, but as a rewrite, and thus a "duplicate" entry.

The code you posted above is an internal redirect only, and thus not "visible" to Google or anyone else. It is essentially acting like a "dynamic file rename" and does not affect URLs.

Let's see if this behavior is still in evidence next week - It may clean indeed itself up.

Jim

[Newman]

Nothing new with domain problem!

[my3cents]

I don't think it's a server problem, I have several site on the same server all configured the same way and two of them are effected, 1 is not. I am the only admin and know that all have the same configuration and ht.access, etc.

The problem is that google entered the same file into the new index multiple times for multiple paths. They had not done this before to this extent. Last week it seemed to have straightened out for a couple days, but then reverted.

my3cents

[Newman]

Is anybody else notices problem with domain.com on Google searching?
Where is experts’ opinion?