My site was setup in the format of "http://domain.com" and that is how I have built all my links to that site. However, when I do a search for the site's main keyword my site comes up listed as "http://www.domain.com." When I do a backlink check in yahoo explorer the "http://domain.com" shows like 40+ backlinks (mostly from a sitewide link that the owner of that site used the url as "http://www.domain.com" instead of "http://domain.com"). When I do a backlink search in yahoo with the "http://domain.com" it comes up with like 250+ backlinks which I have built to that site. So is there a way to fix this issue in Google so that the SERPS show my site without the "www" ? All my internal pages that show up in the serps for their keywords are list as "http://domain.com/xxxxx" while the top level domain is listed as "http://www.domain.com." Any help would be appreciated.
A) if you are in a linux server, do a 301 redirect on www. to non-www in .htaccess B) Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools snd set your preferred domain to non-www see http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=44231&hl=en C) You could add the "canonical" tag to your pages
This is a common problem and I would recommend you do 301 redirect as vagrant suggested. You have to choose only one version between www and non-www. Here is a few quality tutorials about redirect Non WWW --> WWW How to 301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URLs | StepForth Web Marketing Inc. divspace | htaccess » Redirect Visitors From Non-WWW To WWW ... WWW --> Non-WWW Redirecting www to non-www Using .htaccess How to redirect www to non-www and non-www to www with Apache ...
The 301 redirection is described in RFC2616: “The requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URL and any future references to this resource SHOULD use one of the returned URLsâ€. Browsers automatically follow these redirections. They also display the new permanent address in the address bar. In accordance with RFC2616, the same address pointed to by the redirection will eventually be saved in the browser favorites. The standard recommends to use a 301 redirect when a page has been permanently moved to a new address. This is the best option for you.