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This all seems to be like a bunch of contradictions!

Firstly, Google recommends that both the www and non www entities of my website are listed as properties in webmaster tools. Done.

In doing this Google then asks you to select your preferred domain, with or without www. Set to without.

Then Google states this: "This setting defines which host - www or not - should be considered the canonical host when indexing your site." So I believe my real domain is with www and the canonical is without.

Then Google states this: " Ensure that you specify the new host as canonical in all page links or sitemaps. Use 301 redirects to route traffic from the previous host to the new host. "

So does this mean I need to add:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://serenitygardenrooms.com" />

to every page on the site?

and

Do I then also need to use a permanent 301 redirect in my .htaccess file like this:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.serenitygardenrooms\.com$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/serenitygardenrooms\.com\/" [R=301,L]

?????

And then there is the CNAME of the dns settings. Which is also defined as so:

"www.serenitygardenrooms.com CNAME 10 minutes serenitygardenrooms.com"

Now providing I have firstly, understood and applied the right settings and coding.... Doesnt this sound like saying the same thing in 5 different ways and a little unnecessary? Do I really need all this?

I would appreciate the "Right" opinion on this.

Many thanks

RobbieP14383
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  • ps, similar questions out there but non answer this questions directly. – RobbieP14383 Jan 16 '16 at 20:16
  • I don't know where Google recommends you add both variants to Search Console (previously known as Webmaster Tools). If both are accessible and display identical data, then you need only specify the preferred variant in the console and then create a 301 from the non-preferred one to the preferred one. That's really all you need to do. In terms of canonical URLs, it is always recommended that you add those. But remember, it's not just the hostname you need in there - the canonical URL is the full, correct URL to the current page. – Mike Rockétt Jan 17 '16 at 05:53

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