Domain Name Canonicalization: Redirect Non-WWW To WWW Or Vice Versa
Is there any difference in the following URLs?
• http://seowebsite.com
• http://www.seowebsite.com
• http://seowebsite.com/default.php
• http://www.seowebsite.com/default.php
If you use any of the above URL’s, you will find that all the URL’s lead to the same webpage. But search engine robots are not as good when it comes to determining if these pages are different or they are the same. Hence, a search engine robot will store each of these pages separately. One of the important criteria for determining search engine rank is based on the number of external links that each of these pages will have. So if various websites link themselves to all the 4 different versions of your index page or web page, then in all probability, the search engines will calculate the overall value of each of the URL’s separately. This calculation is done on the basis of the total number of links per URL. You might think this a good option because you will get 4 times the linking but that is not the case. In reality, it will diminish the potential ranking of the webpage if a single URL was to be used for linking.
If you consolidate all the versions of your home page under one particular URL then it is known as “canonicalization” or “canonicalisation” (in the UK and Australia). The examples that have been listed above are fairly common but in reality there are several similar URLs that can lead you to the same page. If you adhere to the best practices in canonicalization then you will be in a position to address almost 90% of the most common and widespread canonicalization issues and this will help you to increase the ranking of your website.
Here are 4 canonicalization best practices that you can follow:
1. Select a WWW or a Non-WWW URL and then you can redirect any other option to the preferred version. The toughest part is always about choosing the right option: WWW or a Non-WWW. You can have your website as a “www.seowebsite.com” or just “seowebsite.com”. As of date, there is no correct answer available and hence you will have to rely on your own judgment for the same. Once you have selected or made your choice, you will need to find a best way of trapping any and all requests to the application. You need to check the form that is being used and if necessary initiate a 301 Redirect so that you can get to the correct form. For example: if you type in wikipedia.org then automatically, you will be redirected to www.wikipedia.org.
2. You need to do away with a default filename at the end of your URL. It doesn’t matter which web server you are using as all of them will allow you selection of one or multiple default filenames to serve to especially when a browser requests for a directory.
3. One of the best practices is to link internally to a canonical form in your URL. You need to ensure that you are able to link to a proper canonical form of the URLs from within the website. This is a practice that will help in encouraging several external websites to link to your website using the incorrect as well as correct version.
4. You can use the Google Webmaster Tools for informing Google of the correct form. Implementing a best practice like this on your website is considered to be an ideal choice as they can address this problem for all the search engines. This will also help in providing customers with a proper and consistent navigational experience although this entire process might take anywhere from one to six months.
Check out our previous post on Enabling SEO Through Mod Rewrites for more detailed technical help!
By chandni | October 9, 2008 | Filed Under Google, SEO Advice
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