How to tell google to index only www or non www?

I read this on a blog but cant seem to find it in the webmaster tools section:

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Brian

 

why not use htaccess to do this properly?

 

add that code to your .htaccess file

 

What if someone promoted his website as yoursite.com without the www, would rewrite work or would it be bad for SEO?

 

The another way is do 301 redirect from www. to non www version or reverse depend on page you want Google to index.

 

there is lags with this if i use wordpress. is there something for wordpress blogs?

 

I use 301s for the same purpose on a wide network of WordPress powered sites with no lag. The redirect is executed by your web server immediately, there should be no added load time.

 

i think fucoder.com/code/permalink-redirect/ plugin does the same think. try it

 

You can 301 redirect from non www to www version, but I feel Google looks at the common link format for your backlink profile and indexes that version.

 

its simple all you need to do is go to google.com/webmasters its in there on the left menu just need to look if you still dont find it ill send you a screenshot

 

Google gives you very usefull tool - http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps there in "Prefered domain" you can swith to domain.com or www.domain.com. Good luck.

P.S. Don't forger to vefry your website.

 

No do not use Google Webmaster tools, use a server side 301 redirect.

 

Use a 301 direct.

 

301 direct works for all search engines while the Webmaster tools works only for Google, if you want to be extra safe, do both. That's what I do.

 

This is by far the best method.

 

submit a google Sitemap and through the Google Webmaster Central you can instruct google to cache only www domains and not non-www.

Also redirect from non-www to www domains

 

use a 301 redirect in htaccess

 

I dont get it I dont see preferred domain in webmaster tools.....

 

use Webmaster tools