SEO Tycoon

**ClarkeScott** · 08-09-2006, 11:44 PM

Will google sitemaps fix the issues surrounding www vs non-www domain like duplicate content and page ranking?

**A.N.Onym** · 08-10-2006, 03:15 AM

Lately, the Google Sitemaps have added a feature to remove the canonical issues (www vs non-www). I haven't seen it, but it was featured in the Matt Cutts video.

However, the best way to handle this would be to create a .htaccess file - this will work for all the search engines, not just Google.

I couldn't post the .htaccess file code here cause it kept seeing URLs in it, so simply search for '.htaccess www 301 redirect' and you'll be fine.

**ClarkeScott** · 08-10-2006, 06:44 AM

so your saying yes it will but, just in case do a 301...thanks

**ProfessorJG** · 08-13-2006, 08:07 PM

i have found google sitemaps to be worthless. anyone else?

**imported_Google** · 08-14-2006, 12:34 AM

They already have the option in there sitemap to tell them that www and non www are the same url. So they fix the problem.

**handsome rob** · 08-15-2006, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfessorJG

i have found google sitemaps to be worthless. anyone else?

Not entirely "useless", but I have stopped using them for my flagship site, and suddenly hundreds of my pages started coming back out of the supplemental index.

**sketchyhost.com** · 08-15-2006, 12:23 PM

I've posted the .htaccess code required in another thread - here it is again:

Code:

Options +FollowSymLinks 
RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursite.com [NC] 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [L,R=301]

**Otherjohn** · 08-15-2006, 01:37 PM

I have to disagree. I have had huge success with sitemaps. Grant it that they are still buggy sometimes, but I have seen google pretty fast fix them.
heres my post on the subject http://www.earnersforum.com/showthread.php?t=3920

**Otherjohn** · 08-15-2006, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by handsome rob

Not entirely "useless", but I have stopped using them for my flagship site, and suddenly hundreds of my pages started coming back out of the supplemental index.

Robb did you use a siteindex also or just one sitemap file for all the pages?
Larger sites need a siteindex with mulitple sitemaps

**sketchyhost.com** · 08-15-2006, 03:08 PM

I personaly use sitemaps for several of my sites, three of them being arcades - each with 1000+ content pages & its helped speed up the index process...not hugely, bue enough for me.

**imported_WoodiE55** · 08-15-2006, 03:20 PM

I've found Google Sitemaps to be a huge help as well. However I'm using to different sitemaps for my site. One for the forum and one for all the WordPress articles and it's worked wonderfully.

As for the www vs non-www - Google Sitemap allows you to pick how you'd rather have your site indexed!

**junger** · 08-15-2006, 05:27 PM

I've implemented Sitemaps on my site, but I have to be honest -- I'm not 100% sure what exactly it will do for me.

Is it just a better way to index my site and make the content discoverable by searchers, or what?

**imported_WoodiE55** · 08-15-2006, 06:24 PM

Why would you setup something you know nothing about or what it does?