Annie_zaz:
Hi ran an seo tool on the site I'm working on and I got this message:
Canonical domain check failed
"www" and "non-www" versions should resolve to the same URL
Ditch that tool. Although it is common for the www and non www to resolve to the same URL this is not essential, and in many cases NOT what is needed.
The only time they need to resolve to the same URL is if both are serving up the exact same data (in which case Google will penalise both as being duplicated content).
This alone probably wouldn't make me say 'ditch that tool', but this, combined with your other thread (about the H1 tags) where I also suggested the the tool you are using could be providing a bad report really does make me highly suspicious as to whether the tool can be trusted at all.
Keep in mind that the developers of such tools will often have an ulteria motive in that they'll generate reports of 'problems' in the hopes that you'll employ their services to rectify things for you.
Annie_zaz:
the domain is example.com.au not www.example.com.au)
Technical correction:
'example.com.au' is a host called 'example' that resides in the 'com.au' domain.
'www.example.com.au' is a host called 'www' that resides in the example.com.au domain.
A domain can also be its own host, which is what you are describing as 'example.com'. (which technically, is a host called 'example' that resides in the .com domain.
The 'www' is, and always has been entirely optional. This harks back to the early days of the internet where websites were the realm of large businesses and some technology wasn't quite as advanced as it is today, and seeing URL's like
'www.cocacola.com', 'www2.cocacola.com', & 'www3.cocacola.com' were quite common to spread the load because a single webserver @ cocacola.com couldn't handle it all.
Annie_zaz:
So do I need now need to add <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com.au/"> to the head section of the index page?
As a general rule, you don't need to concern yourself with the zencart canonical links - they are 'inbuilt' and self generating.
Annie_zaz:
I also have an error saying https://example.com.au/sitemap.xml - Not Found
Would that be because the base tage says https://www.example.com.au ?
No. The cause of a 'Not found' message is because (take a guess)... The file can't be found, generally because it simply doesn't exist.
The sitemap.xml file needs to be created/generated by one of the many tools that are available. There is at least one Zencart module that will create (and recreate) this file automatically.
From a later post you asked
Annie_zaz:
So then I removed all the www from the configure files (I hope thats ok) and still get it.
Removing the 'www's are fine - as long as everything else is in order.
Annie_zaz:
So then I added R=301 in the ht acess file and I still get the error message but on the redirect tool it says all ok.
Maybe it's the tool?
Yup, that'd be my guess.
Annie_zaz:
Should I add the www's back in to the http:// ?
As previously stated, the 'www' really is purely optional, but you will need to be sure that if you DO use it that you have a redirect in place for either the URL with the 'www' or the one without the 'www' (unless of course you are serving up a different page for each - which for most people won't be the case).
For a LONG time I wouldn't use the 'www' for any of our sites because well, frankly, it is pointless, but these days a lot of people think that 'www' is essential - and even if you give them a URL without it, the customer will add it anyway (not to mention that a lot of web browsers will automatically add it if the customer doesn't (sigh)
As such, my approach these days is to add the 'www' as a 'cname' in the DNS and then on the server I'll add a redirect from the 'www' to the actual site (without the 'www').
There isn't a 'www' to be found in either of the zencart configure files.
I will add that this is my prefered way of doing things. If you happen to be one of the many people that place some kind of significance on the 'www' then you may prefer the opposite approach, which is to add a redirect for the URL without the 'www' to the URL with. In this situation your zencart config files will need also need the 'www' for the server name.
Bottom line - it is really just a matter of preference as to what you want your customers to see in the URL when browsing your store, and then configuring to suit your preference. If you try to 'configure' without knowing what you actually want it is all to easy to end up with a system that doesn't work the way it should. .htaccess rules can often 'hide' a misconfigured server so even these should be avoided except for the 'essential' one (www to non www, or vice versa), and even this should only really be put in place after everything is working without any redirects whatsoever. Keep it simple!
Sorry about the rant/lecture or whatever you want it call it. It is in my nature ;-)
Cheers
RodG
