Backlinks and Domain Canonicalization

[alfredopalconit]

Since example.com and www.example.com are technically two different sites, does that also mean that its external link is getting two backlinks as well?

Example:

http://www.example.com/ has link to http://www.google.com - 1 backlink

and

http://example.com has a link to http://www.google.com - 1 backlink

Total Backlinks: 2

Is this correct?

[chimeron]

since they are technically 2 different sites, each of them gets credited with only 1 backlink in your example. this has the consequent effect of spreading out your PR between the two "identical" pages. but there are larger issues involved here.

note the word "identical" because that is very important.

bots will see that the content of example.com as a "complete duplicate" of www.example.com, it will also see the contents of www.example.com/index.htm and example.com/index.htm as "complete duplicates" of the first 2 URIs mentioned.

you see the point?

search for the term "canonicalization" to get a clearer picture of this seo problem. it's quite easy to remedy.

EDIT:

ooppps sorry, nabanggit mo pala yung term sa thread title, hindi ko napansin. iam sure alam mo na yung issue and how to solve it.

[carmelodiaz]

I think with Google you wont have that much of a problem since canonicalization has been improved on their algo during the Big Daddy Update!

So at this point those two domain only count as one vote...:D

And dont worry...you can use the G Webmaster Tools to tell Google which URL you prefer the one with the www or non-www

or you may opt for uniformity...like sticking with one kind of URL for all your links be onpage or offpage link....

or you can do a 301 redirect from your non-www to your www or vice versa which ever you prefer...

[maepaulino]

kung meron kang account sa webmaster tools ng google, di ba pwede mo i-select yung option kung alin yung mas prefer mo? Or kung iisa lang yun example.com at www.example.com?

[benjarriola]

kung meron kang account sa webmaster tools ng google, di ba pwede mo i-select yung option kung alin yung mas prefer mo? Or kung iisa lang yun example.com at www.example.com?

You can select. :D

[benjarriola]

...bots will see that the content of example.com as a "complete duplicate" of www.example.com, it will also see the contents of www.example.com/index.htm and example.com/index.htm as "complete duplicates" of the first 2 URIs mentioned...

Ito gamit ko remedy the problem:

http://webgasm.actiononline.biz/seo/2006/05/15/301-redirect-pages-using-php/

But I know there is a .htaccess way also. I just suck in editing my .htaccess file and I just rely on whatever I find online but I don't know it by heart. So I use PHP 301's instead.

[chimeron]

I think with Google you wont have that much of a problem since canonicalization has been improved on their algo during the Big Daddy Update!

So at this point those two domain only count as one vote...:D

And dont worry...you can use the G Webmaster Tools to tell Google which URL you prefer the one with the www or non-www

or you may opt for uniformity...like sticking with one kind of URL for all your links be onpage or offpage link....

or you can do a 301 redirect from your non-www to your www or vice versa which ever you prefer...

Don't let G's Webmaster Tools fool you into having a false sense of security over this issue.

While it's true that you can specify between a non-www and a www URI you prefer to use, canonicalization problems are more than just a question of non-www or www.

www.example.com/folder, www.example.com/folder/ and www.example.com/folder/index.htm will all have canonicalization problems even if they are all using a www. in fact all folders and subfolders to the nth level has the potential to cause canonicalization problems in Apache if they are not properly handled.

and how about other SEs besides Google. Specifying your choice in G's Webmaster Tools doesn't solve this problem for other SEs.

so redirect, redirect, redirect. preferably on the server level. but if you cannot, you can also redirect on the script level just like what Benj is doing.