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I have recently been reading about Google canonization, which deals with how google views your URL listing.
I have added at the bottom a Q&A from Matt Cutts of Google, where he discusses this issue, in particular the need to be consistent in how the URL for your website is listed.
In my soholaunch global setting, I have my website listed as www.nativestar.org. That is also the way that google views my site when I google it.
1. Matt Cutts says a 301 redirect of other URL listings is a good idea when using a dynamic content, which soholaunch uses. Would it be useful to do a 301 redirect so that alternative listings are redirected to www.nativestar.org? Or does my soholaunch global setting take care of this?
2. If a 301 redirect is useful, how does one do this?
3. I noticed that when I use the hyperlink tool in my website, my home page is listed in the drop down menu as "index.php?pr=Home_Page". Would it be more useful to list my homepage in hyperlinks as http://www.nativestar.org? Matt Cutts suggests to "pick the url you prefer and always use that format for your internal links."
Thank you.
Here is the Q&A from Matt Cutts:
Q: What is a canonical url? Do you have to use such a weird word, anyway?
A: Sorry that it’s a strange word; that’s what we call it around Google. Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:
Q: So how do I make sure that Google picks the url that I want?
A: One thing that helps is to pick the url that you want and use that url consistently across your entire site. For example, don’t make half of your links go to http://example.com/ and the other half go to http://www.example.com/ . Instead, pick the url you prefer and always use that format for your internal links.
Q: Is there anything else I can do?
A: Yes. Suppose you want your default url to be http://www.example.com/ . You can make your webserver so that if someone requests http://example.com/, it does a 301 (permanent) redirect to http://www.example.com/ . That helps Google know which url you prefer to be canonical. Adding a 301 redirect can be an especially good idea if your site changes often (e.g. dynamic content, a blog, etc.).
Q: If I want to get rid of domain.com but keep www.domain.com, should I use the url removal tool to remove domain.com?
A: No, definitely don’t do this. If you remove one of the www vs. non-www hostnames, it can end up removing your whole domain for six months. Definitely don’t do this. If you did use the url removal tool to remove your entire domain when you actually only wanted to remove the www or non-www version of your domain, do a reinclusion request and mention that you removed your entire domain by accident using the url removal tool and that you’d like it reincluded.
Best regards,
NativeStar.org
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I have added at the bottom a Q&A from Matt Cutts of Google, where he discusses this issue, in particular the need to be consistent in how the URL for your website is listed.
In my soholaunch global setting, I have my website listed as www.nativestar.org. That is also the way that google views my site when I google it.
1. Matt Cutts says a 301 redirect of other URL listings is a good idea when using a dynamic content, which soholaunch uses. Would it be useful to do a 301 redirect so that alternative listings are redirected to www.nativestar.org? Or does my soholaunch global setting take care of this?
2. If a 301 redirect is useful, how does one do this?
3. I noticed that when I use the hyperlink tool in my website, my home page is listed in the drop down menu as "index.php?pr=Home_Page". Would it be more useful to list my homepage in hyperlinks as http://www.nativestar.org? Matt Cutts suggests to "pick the url you prefer and always use that format for your internal links."
Thank you.
Here is the Q&A from Matt Cutts:
Q: What is a canonical url? Do you have to use such a weird word, anyway?
A: Sorry that it’s a strange word; that’s what we call it around Google. Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:
- www.example.com
- example.com/
- www.example.com/index.html
- example.com/home.asp
Q: So how do I make sure that Google picks the url that I want?
A: One thing that helps is to pick the url that you want and use that url consistently across your entire site. For example, don’t make half of your links go to http://example.com/ and the other half go to http://www.example.com/ . Instead, pick the url you prefer and always use that format for your internal links.
Q: Is there anything else I can do?
A: Yes. Suppose you want your default url to be http://www.example.com/ . You can make your webserver so that if someone requests http://example.com/, it does a 301 (permanent) redirect to http://www.example.com/ . That helps Google know which url you prefer to be canonical. Adding a 301 redirect can be an especially good idea if your site changes often (e.g. dynamic content, a blog, etc.).
Q: If I want to get rid of domain.com but keep www.domain.com, should I use the url removal tool to remove domain.com?
A: No, definitely don’t do this. If you remove one of the www vs. non-www hostnames, it can end up removing your whole domain for six months. Definitely don’t do this. If you did use the url removal tool to remove your entire domain when you actually only wanted to remove the www or non-www version of your domain, do a reinclusion request and mention that you removed your entire domain by accident using the url removal tool and that you’d like it reincluded.
Best regards,
NativeStar.org
Compare credit cards - best credit card offers and rates. Find low interest rate credit cards. The best free credit card comparisons guide. Student cards, first cards, reward programs.