Does Google Treat Your One Blog as Two Different Sites?
It happens when you do not set your preferred domain with Google Webmaster tool.
Let Google explain what they mean by prefered domain;
The preferred domain is the one that you would like used to index your site’s pages. If you specify your preferred domain as http://www.example.com and we find a link to your site that is formatted as http://example.com , we’ll treat that link as if it was http://www.example.com . In addition, we’ll take your preference into account when displaying URLs in our search results. It may take some time for changes to be reflected in our index.
In simple word, if you do not show to google that you own both http://example.com and http://www.example.com then Google will always treat these both domain as two seperate websites.
Sound crazy but yes this is how Google thinks.
What will happened if you do not set your preferred domain in Google Webmaster Tool?
If you don’t specify a preferred domain, Google may treat the www and non-www versions of the domain as separate references to separate pages. Only consider those links back which point to the verified domain. It means if google has verified your site with http://www.example.com then it will consider only those reference and links which are pointed specifically to this domain and will not consider any back link to site http://example.com, no matter you are the owner of both these domain.
How to set your preferred domain in Google Webmaster Tool
Add both version of your site to webmaster tool i.e. http://www.example.com and http://example.com. get both these domain verified by Google following their verification method.
- Under Site configuration, click Settings.
- In the Preferred domain section, select the option you want.
So once you tell Google your preferred domain name, they use that information for all future crawls of your site and indexing refreshes. For instance, if you specify your preferred domain as http://www.example.com and we find a link to your site that is formatted as http://example.com, we follow that link as http://www.example.com instead.
In addition, Google will take your preference into account when displaying the URLs. If you don’t specify a preferred domain, they may treat the www and non-www versions of the domain as separate references to separate pages.
This was the same thing that I had been thinking about from the morning today. I just saw that my blog’s URL without www does not redirect to www. version. I think I will need to edit the .htaccess and make it redirect. Did not know about this WebMaster tool feature of adding preferred domain.
What you wrote is absolutely right. However, Google’s logic behind this absolute crap. they make it sound like rocket science and has managed to spoil even some good sites with this SEO and linking requirements. I mean, any crappy site can build links and make it rank better than others.
Canonical URL idea, according to me, is utter stupidity. Whatever is internal to them, due to their technical limitations, needn’t be actually made public right?
Yeah, because this whole canonical URL thing is crazy.
I have exactly the same issue as Shiva@Web Magazine told above. But what about the backlinks? I have done lots of link building with nonwww version. It will affect or not?
After you assign your preferred domain name in Google webmaster tool, Google will start treating both www and nonwww version as the same site. So do it as soon as possible.
Hey Shanker, thanks for your quick reply. May I ask one further question? after assigning preferred domain in GWT, can I start www version for link building?
Yes, Once you set the preferred domain, you may use any form www or nonwww for link building….Google will count each and every single link pointing to www or nonwww versions of your site.
Hey thanks shankar.I have asked the same question with you few days back.Got all the answers.\Thumb up!! /
Hey thanks shankar too.