SEO for a static non-content website

[Contra]

I think I may have messed up a little bit when I first made my website. At the beginning I noticed that Google only index mysite.com, not the www.mysite.com version.

So I put a 301 redirect from the non-www version to the www version in my .htaccess file (the code I used is below). I didn't put any code into the pages themselves, just the .htaccess file.

Also, I signed up with Google Webmaster Tools. I signed both sites into WMT's. I set my preferred site to the www version.

The thing is, it still shows both the www version and non-www version in WMT's. Should it be like this? Should I delete the non-www version from WMT's? It's supposed to be just one site.


Here's the code that I used for the redirect:

RewriteEngine onRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.mysite\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .? http://www.mysite.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

[dzine]

Does it work in practice? I mean: if you surf to your page without adding www, is it added automatically?

Also: why did Google choose to index the non-www version at first? Do all your backlinks (internal and/or external) point to the non-www version maybe?

[grgmathew]

You would need to sign in for www site in WMT and make it as preferred one. This one will do, you need not to have both www and non www account in WMT. In this way, google will look your site as www.mysite.com and any links pointing to your non www will count as link for www site.

[NathanielB]

You would need to sign in for www site in WMT and make it as preferred one. This one will do, you need not to have both www and non www account in WMT. In this way, google will look your site as www.mysite.com and any links pointing to your non www will count as link for www site.

Have you used WMT? Have you set a preferred domain in WMT?

Sorry to have to ask, but if you had done you would know that you need both the www and non-www versions added to your WMT in order to set the preferred domain!

Also, if you cared to read what the OP posted you would know this has already been done, he has made the changes in WMT for his preferred domain, so maybe try having a read of the thread correctly before replying next time!

Contra, you should leave both versions in your WMT, its standard for them both to be there and one will not hide when you set the preferred domain, so don't worry about it. Just click the preferred domain option in your WMT for the domain and it will show your preferred domain if its set.

I'm not sure about your .htaccess code as I've not sure that one before, this is what I use on all my domains:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

[Contra]

Does it work in practice? I mean: if you surf to your page without adding www, is it added automatically?

Also: why did Google choose to index the non-www version at first? Do all your backlinks (internal and/or external) point to the non-www version maybe?

Yes it works in practice, if I type in mysite.com it redirects to www.mysite.com.

I am not sure why Google indexed mysite.com first. I have no external backlinks and any internal ones don't use the domain in the href tag (/images/logo.png).

[Contra]

NathanielB, that is exactly what I wanted to know. It just seemed odd to me that you would have both versions in WMT's for every website that you have listed in there, so I wanted to make sure that I was doing it right. It seems like small mistakes could lead to problems so I want to make sure that everything is right.

Thanks again guys.

[Contra]

Quick question, should I make all changes to settings and everything else for BOTH versions of the website (www and non-www)? For example, should I submit a sitemap for both? Right now I only submitted a sitemap for the www version since that is the preferred,should I also submit it for the non-www version?

[dzine]

Why would you want to do that?

[Contra]

Why would you want to do that?

I don't know

NathanielB mentioned that it's standard for both of them (www and non-www) to be listed in WMT. So I am just curious if I have to make all the same settings for both.