Indexing www or non www, does it matter?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by adnweb, Dec 7, 2015.

0
  1. #1
    When I took over this website for a friend, in webmaster tools the previous dev did not set a preferred domain. The only property in webmaster tools was www version. He did have a 301 point to non www. I set up the non www property so that I could set the preferred domain to non www since the 301 was set up this way. Here's the thing that I'm confused about. He submitted the www sitemap to be indexed. The sitemap shows 100 pages indexed but the Index Status shows 5 pages.

    Does it matter that the indexed pages are www instead of being under the non www property? Or am I worrying about nothing?
     
    adnweb, Dec 7, 2015 IP
  2. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

    Messages:
    19,776
    Likes Received:
    1,200
    Best Answers:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    470
    Articles:
    7
    #2
    What matters is that you stick to one version of the URL.
     
    dcristo, Dec 7, 2015 IP
  3. adnweb

    adnweb Peon

    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    1
    #3
    so i don't have to somehow get the non www property indexed and un-index the pages in the www?
     
    adnweb, Dec 7, 2015 IP
  4. christoph

    christoph Active Member

    Messages:
    279
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    #4
    I would stick to what was originally set up. As long as you have it set to non www as the prefered domain, the sitemap listing shows non www links and you maintain the same 301 direct, eventually it will get indexed (assuming there are no issues with the other 95 pages such as spamming / bad content etc).
     
    christoph, Dec 9, 2015 IP
  5. daniel27lt

    daniel27lt Active Member

    Messages:
    109
    Likes Received:
    6
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    98
    Digital Goods:
    4
    #5
    Plan and simple, I would index the URL that you are selected as your "preferred" domain in your Google Webmasters account. I hope this has helped.
     
    daniel27lt, Dec 11, 2015 IP
  6. patco

    patco Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,035
    Likes Received:
    47
    Best Answers:
    17
    Trophy Points:
    100
    #6
    Just redirect the one to the other version and forget about this (use .htaccess file for doing this!) :)
     
    patco, Dec 12, 2015 IP