1

I've recently started up a website: example.com. I want to drive all traffic from Google to https://example.com. I've added all 4 variants of the site to Google Webmaster Tools (http://www.example.com, http://example.com,https://www.example.com and https://example.com) and had them point to the HTTPS version as the preferred. I've uploaded a sitemap to the HTTPS version and done all of my setup through there.

When I Google the name of the website ("example"), one of the product pages comes up (i.e., http://example.com/my-product), but not my domain's homepage. When I Google "example.com" it is the first result, but version of the page looks old and the sitelinks I demoted are still there.

So why isn't my homepage coming up in a search result for my site? If I want Google to represent https://example.com, and not the other variants, do I just manage that version on Webmaster Tools? Or do I need to replicate the configuration for each version?

I've not had these issues with Bing. When I search "example", my front page is the top spot.

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    Are you redirecting your various sites to example.com?? As well, know that for new or sites with low activity, it can really take a while for a search engine to notice the change and update the search engine result page SERP.
    – closetnoc
    Jan 18, 2015 at 23:34
  • @closetnoc yup, traffic is redirected to the https-no-www version.
    – AnteSim
    Jan 19, 2015 at 3:05
  • Please understand that doing a search for example and site:example.com are two different things. One is a site search. The other is a keyword search. When I do a search for mydomainname (less the tld), I get this site. ;-) It all depends on who ranks for the keyword/search term you entered. It is not an automatic lock that your domain name example.com would show up as example. This is especially true given how many sites there are trying to rank for domain names and IP addresses these days. You would have some tough competition. High value branded back links can help with this though.
    – closetnoc
    Jan 19, 2015 at 3:40

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Redirecting all the versions to a single canonical version is the most important thing. It sounds like you have that covered.

You also need to use your brand name on your home page in text (not just logo). Part of the problem could be that Google isn't ranking the right page because the right page isn't using the right words.

If an old version of the page is showing up in the Google cache, Google may be having some trouble crawling your website. Examine your robots.txt file. Use the "Fetch as Google" feature in Google Webmaster Tools to test that Googlebot can access your site.

Finally, give it some time. It may take Google a couple weeks to get everything sorted out after you make changes. If your website is new, it may even take a few more weeks.

Improve this answer
1
  • I've marked this as answered because all of the searching I've done has pointed me to the same info. Thanks for putting it in a concise manner! Hopefully in a week or so I'll see some improvements.
    – AnteSim
    Jan 24, 2015 at 0:33

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.