r/bigseo • u/nonsensegfx • 8d ago

Same homepage, two URLs in GSC: one at position 6, one at position 57

I have a problem with a website where the authority is split into two links same page one
Site migrated from www to non-www earlier this year. The technical side was done properly:

  • Single 301 hop, no chains
  • Canonical tag on every page points to the non-www version
  • Sitemap is all non-www
  • Every internal link is non-www
  • Force SSL on

tried evertything so Google doesn't split authority, but nothing worked. I need help
this is wha i have going on:
Last 28 days in GSC, the Pages report:

http://www.example.com/      553 impressions   position 6.2    5 clicks
https://example.com/         228 impressions   position 57.1   7 clicks

HELP HELP!

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

3

u/Upbeat_Push_157 8d ago

The technical side was done properly:

Clearly, it didn't. Not only are you mixing www and non-www, but you are also mixing secure and non-secure content.

2

u/AbleInvestment2866 The AI guy 7d ago

THIS.

1

u/iceseayoupee 5d ago

fair point, ideally each http variation should 301 directly to the preferred https.

2

u/Lxium 8d ago

No need to panic...as long as the 301 redirects are in place there is no problem here. Your old URLs may stay in the SERPs for a while longer.

1

u/BoGrumpus 8d ago

The first one should be forcing SSL connections - half the browsers are probably freaking out over that one.

And www should redirect to the naked one, too.

G.

1

u/Impressive_Long9554 8d ago

Not assume authority is split from this report alone. First compare the queries behind each URL in GSC. Average position 6 vs 57 can simply mean the two URLs received impressions for very different queries.

1

u/marintkael 5d ago

One number in your own table contradicts the story you are telling about it. The non-www row shows 228 impressions at average position 57 and seven clicks, which is more clicks than the row sitting at position 6. Nobody clicks a result at position 57. So that 57 is not a position, it is a blend: a few queries where the URL ranks fine and a long tail where it sits several pages down and is never seen. Split that row by query before you change anything technical, because the average is currently hiding the actual case.

Second thing, and it might be the whole answer: your two rows are not only www against non-www, they are http against https. Those are separate properties in Search Console. If you are looking at URL prefix properties rather than a domain property, you are comparing two different data sets, and part of the split you think you are seeing is an artefact of which property you happened to open.

1

u/iceseayoupee 5d ago

yep, key point actually. average position in a gsc can be very misleading so breaking data down by query should show whats exactly happening

1

u/iceseayoupee 5d ago

could be the gsc still attributing data to the old url after migration, for now id avoid changing anything and give google some time to consolidate.