Don’t Split Your Google PageRank!
This is an old story, but unfortunately, this problem still arise in two mailing lists that I join :)
Which one of our site URL that we want to used, the one with www like http://www.mydomain.com or the non-www version, http://mydomain.com? The one that we choose is the preferred domain name or sometime also referred as canonical domain.
Why we need to choose between these two URLs? Its just an URL right? Wrong!
When we don’t set a preferred domain, Google will consider these two URLs and all links that refer to the site as two separate domain, therefore Google will also give them separate PageRank for each of them, in other word, Google will split our PageRank!
Why we let Google to split our PageRank and get a smaller PageRank when we can force them to not to do that?
Ok, I get the point, so how do I tell Google about my preferred domain?
Easy, just add your site into your Google Webmaster Tools account, verified site ownership, then on the Webmaster Tools Dashboard, click the URL for the site you want, Click Tools, then click Set preferred domain, and choose between the www or non-www version *I personally preferred non-www version*.
Actually we could also used .htaccess and 301 redirect to redirect the address of non preferred domain to the preferred domain. However, I think setting the preferred domain at Google Webmaster Tools is more easy and straight forward, because we only need to tell Google about this preferred domain, other search engine will not give us PageRank, neither do the visitors of our site :D
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Posted in Internet, Personal Life, SEO, Tips
Poer July 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 am