Preferred domain issue

Rardak · Feb 2, 2022

I registered my domain on GSC (all 4 versions of http) and uploaded the site map to the https://www one and asked for indexing my pages. I waited like stupid for indexing for five days just to learn that google chose the https:// version for indexing my website (by indexing my homepage). What should I do about that? Should I ask my registrar to help me switch to my preferred version, or it doesn't matter which version I'll be using and just stick to that non www version?

All the versions are redirected to the https://www version. Should I tell my registrar/host to switch to that non www one?

praetserge · Feb 2, 2022

You should force www or non-www version through htaccess file.
You should have only 1 version... for me it's https: //www.

Rardak · Feb 2, 2022

praetserge said:
You should force www or non-www version through htaccess file.
You should have only 1 version... for me it's https: //www.

Even though the non www was indexed already (only my homepage)?

praetserge · Feb 2, 2022

Rardak said:
Even though the non www was indexed already (only my homepage)?

it doesn't really matter... once you force 1 url, google will re-index everything and it'll be fine.
About a year ago, I changed article urls and it didn't matter, at times google was showing old url's and at times new but eventually google re-indexed everything and now I only have new urls.
Forcing 1 url will have NO negative effect.

Rardak · Feb 2, 2022

Thank you. What about my backlinks if I went with the non-www version? It's an old domain I bought a couple of days ago and many BL lead to the www version...

Outreach Panda · Feb 2, 2022

I've recently found out how to resolve the issue it might some technical glitch. Setup proper 301 redirections then you don't need to set up the preferred domain in the search console.

Rardak · Feb 2, 2022

Outreach Panda said:
I've recently found out how to resolve the issue it might some technical glitch. Setup proper 301 redirections then you don't need to set up the preferred domain in the search console.

As far as I know, there's no option of setting your preferred domain on GSC anymore.

praetserge · Feb 2, 2022

Rardak said:
Thank you. What about my backlinks if I went with the non-www version? It's an old domain I bought a couple of days ago and many BL lead to the www version...

Rardak said:
As far as I know, there's no option of setting your preferred domain on GSC anymore.

Once, you redirect everything to 1 url, all your links will redirect there as well.
And since you'll have everything redirecting to 1 url, google will use that url (that's why we add only 1 version in gsc)

Rardak · Feb 2, 2022

praetserge said:
Once, you redirect everything to 1 url, all your links will redirect there as well.
And since you'll have everything redirecting to 1 url, google will use that url (that's why we add only 1 version in gsc)

I added all of them... Should I delete the rest then?
I read once and now again that one should add all of them when using HTTPS protocol:

To summarize, for any website on its own domain and being served only from the HTTP-protocol, at a bare minimum, two versions of your domain need to be present in Google Search Console. For any website on its own domain and being served from the HTTPS protocol, at a bare minimum, four versions of your domain need to be present in Google Search Console.

praetserge · Feb 2, 2022

Rardak said:
I added all of them... Should I delete the rest then?

You don't have to... but there's no need of having them there.
Just keep 1 to keep it tidy.

Rardak · Feb 3, 2022

praetserge said:
You should force www or non-www version through htaccess file.

The admin of the server told me they cannot do it. How can I set my preferred domain then?

Thank you.

praetserge · Feb 3, 2022

Rardak said:
The admin of the server told me they cannot do it. How can I set my preferred domain then?

Thank you.

Do you use wordpress?
Do you use cloudflare?

Rardak · Feb 3, 2022

praetserge said:
Do you use wordpress?
Do you use cloudflare?

Webnode... ahreds showed that all the versions are redirected (301) to the "www" version yet Google indexed my home page without "www". Is it okay?

praetserge · Feb 3, 2022

Rardak said:
Webnode... ahreds showed that all the versions are redirected (301) to the "www" version yet Google indexed my home page without "www". Is it okay?

The answer is very simple... enter 4 versions of your URL and see where they redirect... if you end up on the same page then you're good and google will fix the problem when they re-index the page.

Starblazer · Feb 3, 2022

I have changed URL structure of my first website around 10 times and never had any problem with GSC. If you redirect everything to one URL structure, Google crawlers will eventually realize it and index your correct URLs. You should enter all variations of URL in a browser and check if they are properly redirecting to your preferred format. If everything is fine, then just let Google deal with the reindexing. Additionally, I didn't find any benefit of adding all variations of a website in GSC. Although Google recommends it, there is no point in adding them all. But you can just leave them.

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