Tell Google your Preferred Domain

Sometime ago I wrote an article titled “WWW or no-WWW“ where I explained that most sites can be accessed either through “http://www.domain.com” or “http://domain.com”. Leaving both domain versions working is not optimal because it might split your backlink count and consequently damage your search engine rankings.

Apart from setting a “301 Redirect” you can also use a Google featured called Webmaster Tools to inform Google about what domain version you prefer. This will make sure that Google handles the backlink count correctly and also that the right version will be displayed on search results.

Here is a quote from Google’s help center:

The preferred domain is the one that you would liked used to index your site’s pages (sometimes this is referred to as the canonical domain). Links may point to your site using both the www and non-www versions of the URL (for instance, http://www.example.com and http://example.com). The preferred domain is the version that you want used for your site in the search results. Once you tell us your preferred domain name, it may help us determine PageRank for your site more accurately.

Via: John Chow

Daniel Scocco on January 31, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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9 Responses to “Tell Google your Preferred Domain”

Preya on January 31st, 2007 4:28 pm

This is a great tip and really easy to do. I use blogger and just got my custom domain, but I’m still trying to figure out how to get the non-www to point to my blog (only the www does); also, now Technorati recognizes the two addresses (custom and blogspot) as two different blogs, which is not a good thing for rankings either.
Dan on February 1st, 2007 6:52 am

I recommend the Wordpress WWW Redirect Plugin for this sort of thing. Installed on all of my blogs!

http://www.justinshattuck.com/.....ct-plugin/
Daniel on February 1st, 2007 7:27 am

True, I used this plugin also sometime ago and it was very efficient. In the future I will write a post about setting 301 redirects manually.
Dawud Miracle on February 1st, 2007 11:28 am

Good tip. I knew about 301 Redirect. And I use Google Webmaster Tools, but I hadn’t look at the Preferred Domain option yet. Thanks.
Jozsef Papa on March 27th, 2007 7:03 am

My English Is poor but I am good textile craftsman, please see my site.Wery worried paid $60 to google adwords, not one miserable order in a whole week, Dont know what to do. Need help how can I find clients, and what must I do that clents find me.? Thank you, papajoe
Jozsef Papa on March 27th, 2007 7:05 am

I forgot to show you my site address which is http://www.picturesonfabric.com THanks papajoe
Rob on March 28th, 2007 3:19 pm

Does anyone know if this feature in Google Sitemaps works ?? (preferred domain)

Let me know if you have any experience with this - thanks!
hossein ali nikooravesh on July 20th, 2008 6:00 am

hi all,
i would like to have a post in google search. i mean when some one entered my e-mail or my name then he can see some profiles about me. is that possible?

thanks indeed
hossein