In my Webmaster tools account for any website that I have ever created I have always verified both the www. version and the non www. version of the same domain. Basically this is getting a little tiring and since I always set my preferred domain on both to the www. version I was basically wondering if this is any use or if I am wasting my time. They both always seem to verify off the same html file anyway so I figure that webmaster tools is seeing them as the same site even though they display in my account as 2 seperate domains. Is there any value in doing this or not? Thanks guys ...
Apparently you should add both if you don't have a 301 in place. Should I add a site to WMT's with the www, without it, or add both versions. Hope that helps Cheers James
So it does help then? Are you best to use the www or non www? Which should I 301 to the other? I realy am a little lost if this is actally essential or whether having both set up on my webmaster tools account is realy not essential
If your planning on 301 redirecting one to the other, then it doesn't matter which one you choose. If you like having www in the address, then use it. If you don't like it, then don't use it. (Search engines don't care) You don't have to 301 if you don't want to (or can't), you can add both versions in webmaster tools and set your preferred domain in there. You can also add a rel="canonical" tag to the head of each page and specify the version you want there. Cheers James Also, you don't "have" to add both to webmaster tools... Its not a requirement. I only added the non www versions of my sites to WMT's 5 months or so ago... I have noticed absolutely no difference to indexing, ranking since doing that.
Google webmaster tools does not seem to allow me to add a 301 direct on the non www version of my domain. It will allow me to create 301's but only the completely different domains. I suppose that this is because Google can somehow see that the site is the same site, i dont know. I do like adding both versions to all the webmaster tools accounts, basically just because it gives me piece of mind. Bing however displays only the non www. version of a site and will not allow you to add another variation. I suppose its just a matter of preference, I was just checking that there was no official guidelines about this affecting your domains search engine results .... Thanks all!