Search Engines - why is my site address different?

[MrRobbie]

Can anyone please explain why my website address appears differently on Google and MSN?

For example, on Google, my site address appears as http://www.mysite.com, but on MSN and Lycos, it appears as http://mysite.com.

Is there anything I can check and /or change in Dreamweaver to understand why this is happening, and to correct this?

I've only got the one site by the way!

 

[surrealillusions]

Depends how people have linked to you and what sites Google and MSN first crawled through to your site to index your site with the one url.

If your site is on Apache, you can put a line of code in your .htaccess file to redirect all http://mysite.com to the www. one, which will help in SEO, as the SE's will see only one site, as opposed to the 2 sites they see currently.

Look in your control panel to see if theres any options to redirect any non-www traffic to the www address. If not, then you'll have to go down the .htaccess route for apache. If your site is hosted on windows, then change hosts/servers

Hope that helps.

 

[Jamesbuk]

Surrealillusions - would your suggestion not be penalised by google and possibly other search engines? Ive heard that google often 'penalises' people who use redirects?

Regards, James

 

[Craikeybaby]

Google advise you to do it. However use a 301 redirect, rather than a 302

Also look out the Google SEO pdf, it tells you everything you need to know about SEO for Google.

 

[MrRobbie]

Thanks everyone. I'll check out the Google SEO factsheet. My site is hosted on Hostmonster, and I think they use Apache, but I'm not sure. So I'll check into the Control Panel as well.

Many thanks again!

 

[whiteflyer]

It won't make much difference, you can miss the www. out of any site these days for example http://talkphotography.co.uk will still get you here.

Maybe MSN and Lycos are just trimming off the unnecessary bits.

 

[surrealillusions]

Google advise you to do it. However use a 301 redirect, rather than a 302

Also look out the Google SEO pdf, it tells you everything you need to know about SEO for Google.

It won't make much difference, you can miss the www. out of any site these days for example http://talkphotography.co.uk will still get you here.

Maybe MSN and Lycos are just trimming off the unnecessary bits.

Jokes aside, it does make a difference in the SE's, as they see it as 2 different sites, and thus penalise you for duplicate content, although the jury is still out on how much of a penalty it is for duplicate content. Its a long story and I wouldnt want to go on about it here.

But to the end user, doesnt make a difference, as long as it works and takes the user to the correct site, thats all their bothered about.

 

[Trev Rich]

It won't make much difference, you can miss the www. out of any site these days for example http://talkphotography.co.uk will still get you here.

Maybe MSN and Lycos are just trimming off the unnecessary bits.

Thats what I was going to say.

I either use www or http:// , not both lol:shrug:

either way will get you to the same place, its not 2 different sites and the search engine dont see it as 2. Its just how they are showing you the addy that differs.

 

[Amp34]

Thats what I was going to say.

I either use www or http:// , not both lol:shrug:

either way will get you to the same place, its not 2 different sites and the search engine dont see it as 2. Its just how they are showing you the addy that differs.

I don't use either

talkphotography.co.uk

Although there is the occasional site that is still in the stone age that doesn't recognise an address unless it has www. at the beginning...

EDIT: It seems to automatically put the http:// in in links, but it works if you copy and paste.

As for the OP, I used to do the .htaccess on my site, but i had isssues viewing wordpress (ie. wouldn't view at all) so had to remove it. Just a word of warning if you have wordpress and it starts playing up after you do it.