December 21, 2005

It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). Learn how toadd a website property to Search Console.

Two URLs to a site—one that is prefaced with www and one that is not (for instance,https://www.example.com/ andhttps://example.com/)—often point to the same location on a server. But depending on the server configuration, they may point to different locations, so search engines can't assume they are the same.

This post provides tips forviewing stats if the www and non-www version of your site point to the same location.

If you have added your site without prefacing the domain with www (for instance,https://example.com/), and the www version of this domain points to the same location, tryadding the www version of the domain (for instance,https://www.example.com/) to your account. You may see a wider variety of stats for the www version of the domain.

You can add a site by:

1. Clicking theAddtab.
2. Scrolling to the "If you don't have a Sitemap" area and entering the site URL.
3. ClickingAdd Site.

Similarly, if you have added the www version of the domain and the non-www version points to the same location, you can add the non-www version to see stats for that version.

If the verification file still exists in the root of your site and both versions of the domain point to the same location, you canverify the second version simply by accessing theVerify tab and clicking theVerify button.

Note that having both versions of the site's URL listed in your account won't affect the indexing of your site as long as you have submitted a Sitemap for only one version—the version you want to be indexed. Don't submit a Sitemap for both versions if the location and content are the same.

If both domains point to the same location and you have pages indexed under both versions, see ourGoogle Help Center for more information on consolidating the listings under one domain.

We hear requests for help with this often, so we'll be looking at ways to improve this issue in the coming months.

Posted byVanessa Fox