Wednesday, August 6, 2008
- Tim Wall
Did you know that elementfusion.com and www.elementfusion.com are not really the same website? In fact, we could point those addresses to completely different sites if we wanted to. Of course, we wouldn't do that because the world has become so accustomed to using both of them interchangeably, so we naturally make sure that they always point to the same place.
However, the problem is that search engines still see them as two separate sites. So, if there are ten websites out there linking to www.elementfusion.com and ten websites linking to elementfusion.com, each domain only gets the "juice" from ten links, rather than both of them getting the benefit of twenty links. So, we want to do everything we can to ensure that links to our sites always use the same address. We can help with this problem by applying domain-level 301 redirects.
Domain-level redirects are now built-in to WaterCMS, SkyCMS and LightCMS
This issue has come to the forefront of search engine optimization recently and, as a result, we've taken steps to equip our content management systems with the technology to handle this situation. We rolled out domain-level 301 redirect functionality this morning so it is there waiting for you, but now you've got to make a choice. What will be your primary domain? You need to choose, and you need to stick with your choice once it's made (search engines don't like it when you change things up too frequently).
How to choose between multiple domains
First off, you might have multiple domains pointed at your website. Perhaps you have multiple base names like yoursite.com, yoursiteok.com ... etc. Or, maybe you have multiple extensions on a single base such as yoursite.com, yoursite.org, yoursite.net ... etc. In all cases, you need to pick a single domain to serve as primary for your site.
How do you choose? Well, I'd pick the base name that is the shortest and the most memorable. Then, if you're a business, I would always choose the .com extension. If you're a non-profit, I would likely choose .org. If you are anything else, I would probably go with .com as well, unless you have a strong reason to use another option. Make your choice of domain, then move on to the next step (below).
How to choose between www and non-www
Once you've decided on the domain you want to use, you have to decide whether you want your primary domain to include the www at the beginning or not. Here is where different people have different opinions, but I will give you my take.
It doesn't make too much of a difference whether you use www or not, as long as you are consistent with the choice you make (and apply the redirects we have now made possible). However, for most sites, I think www is preferable for the simple reason that most people out there use www by default and therefore it is likely that people who link to your site will include www in the link they provide. It is also significant to note that major players like MSN, Yahoo!, Google, and Element Fusion, have all chosen to redirect to the www version of their domains.You can see this by trying to access their sites using the the non-www versions of their domains and watching what happens in the address bar.
If you are the analytical type and would would like to see some real data before making your choice, you can analyze your incoming links to see which version is most commonly used by people who are linking to you. One of the best ways to do this is to go to Yahoo Site Explorer and search your URL. Look on the results page for the number of "Inlinks" listed (see image). Do this for both the www and non-www versions of your site and compare the numbers. Then, you can simply choose the version with the highest number of inlinks. Usually, the choice will be clear (and likely, it will be the www version).
Once you've decided, set your primary domain
So, you've made your choice, now it's time to let us do the fancy-schmancy behind-the-scenes work. Just visit the advanced tab on your website settings page and look for the domain manager (see image below). You'll notice that each domain listed for your site now has a radio button next to it (if you don't see the domain you want to use listed, you may need to add it). Click the radio button next to the primary domain you want to use. That's it, you're done.
Disallow indexing for the publishpath domain
Ok, you're not done just yet. Since every site on our system has a [yourwebsite].publishpath.com address and that address is required for certain functionality to work, we can't redirect the [yourwebsite].publishpath domain to your primary domain. But, if you're using your own domain, you most likely don't want search engines indexing your publishpath address. So, we've added a little checkbox that says "Allow search engines to index [yourwebsite].publishpath.com." The box is checked by default but if you uncheck it, we will tell the search engines not to index the publishpath version of your site. We highly recommend that you uncheck this box if you are using a custom domain for your website.
Disallowing indexing for [yourwebsite].publishpath.com is also a good idea when you create a new website, if you intend for that site to one day use a custom domain. Disallowing indexing right at the beginning will keep the search engines from indexing content before the site is launched and then avoid confusion when you redirect to a custom domain.
Summary: four steps to search engine domain bliss
- Choose a primary domain
- Choose www or non-www
- Select the appropriate domain in website settings
- Choose not to allow search engine indexing on your publishpath address