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In Google's Webmaster Tools, under 'Search Traffic', and then 'Links to Your Site', there are 5 domains and 3 of them are old domains of our own and a development domain that are all actually the same site.

I have proper 301 redirects on these domains so traffic is all routed to the correct one. But is there any way to tell Google that all of these domains are actually the same? And that they shouldn't be counted as separate links to the site.

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There is no option within Google Search Console

But it can be done by telling Google not to index the development domain using no-index, but if you want to index the development domain and just discount the links then you need to use no-follow on your links.

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  • That would certainly fix the dev domain, but I can't no-index the others because they all resolve to the proper domain.
    – StephenCollins
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 17:38
  • Domains that do not resolve will eventually drop from Google's index which is just as equivalent to doing a noindex since the outcome remains the same. So if the sub domain doesn't work or returns a 410 gone... then there's nothing else you can do.
    – Simon Hayter
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 17:44
  • So, are you saying that if I dump the 301s and stop using the domain, it will disappear? But if I keep the redirects it will probably stay?
    – StephenCollins
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 21:09
  • Sorry but my answer ignores the part about you redirecting. You should no-index the development site if it adds no value to the main site. Your other domains that have similar content and a clean link profile should 301 to your main domain, ideally relevant pages. When you 301 from one site to another, your not associating them as so to speak but you are passing the SEO gained from one site to the other.
    – Simon Hayter
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 21:25
  • This problem goes back 20 years to when domains had a certain character limit. We couldn't get our full company name so it was abbreviated. Eventually the character limit went away and we started using our full name, but leaving the old name active for existing links. So now, if OLD.com 301s to NEW.com, how do I noindex OLD.com without harming NEW.com?
    – StephenCollins
    Commented Mar 22, 2017 at 21:30

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