Search for your own site to see which versions are indexed, then make the redirect, the canonical tags, the sitemap, and your internal links all point at the same version.

Preventing and repairing are different jobs

Deciding on one address and redirecting the others is a setup task, and it takes minutes.

Discovering that two versions have both been indexed for a year is a repair task, and one redirect does not finish it.

By that point, links have accumulated to both, internal links may point at either, the sitemap may list one, and the pages themselves may declare something else.

Getting all of those to agree is the work, and doing only the redirect leaves contradictions that slow the recovery.

See what is actually indexed

The check that turns a suspicion into a fact, and it takes a minute.

Use a site search restricted to your domain and look at the addresses returned, which shows the versions in use.

Then repeat it restricted to the www version specifically, and again without it, and compare the counts.

Those numbers are approximate and directional rather than exact, which is fine for this purpose: what you are looking for is whether both return substantial results.

Do the same for the secure and insecure forms, since the same split can exist along that axis.

Search Console's coverage reporting gives a better figure, and the site search is the quick version that tells you whether to look further.

What the split costs

None of it is dramatic, and the cumulative effect on a small site is that a modest position is being achieved with signals that should have produced a better one.

Four things have to agree

The repair, and the reason single fixes do not resolve it.

The redirect: every other version permanently sends visitors to the chosen one.

The canonical tags: each page declares the chosen version's address, not the other one.

The sitemap: lists addresses in the chosen form only.

Internal links: your own navigation, body links, and images reference the chosen form rather than a mixture.

The last is the one most often left, because a redirect makes mixed internal links work, so nothing appears broken while the site continues signalling both.

A worked example

A business had a redirect from the bare domain to the www version, added when the site was built, and assumed the question was settled.

A site search returned results in both forms, which surprised them.

Checking the pages showed the canonical tags declaring the bare domain, because a plugin had been configured with the site address in that form.

So the server was redirecting to www and every page was telling search engines the non-www version was definitive, which is a direct contradiction.

Their internal links were also mixed, with older content linking to the bare form.

They corrected the plugin setting, ran a search and replace across content, and regenerated the sitemap.

The duplicate results faded over about two months, and their reported figures rose because the two versions consolidated rather than because anything improved.

Set the property up properly

A reporting point that makes the whole thing measurable.

Search Console treats each version as a separate property unless you use a domain-level property, which covers all of them together.

Businesses frequently have a property for one version only, and are therefore looking at half their data without knowing it.

Add a domain property, which requires a DNS verification step and covers www, non-www, secure and insecure at once.

Keep the individual properties as well during a repair, since seeing the two versions separately is exactly how you watch one shrink and the other grow.

Expect it to take weeks

The expectation to set, because the temptation is to keep changing things.

Consolidation happens as pages are recrawled, which is gradual and depends on how often each page is visited.

Important pages move in days, and the long tail takes weeks or a couple of months.

During that period both versions will still appear, and that is the process working rather than failing.

Resist making further changes in the first month, since a second alteration restarts the clock and makes it impossible to tell what worked.

Check monthly rather than daily, and expect the duplicate count to fall unevenly.

Check the other axes too

Since www is not the only way a site duplicates itself.

Secure and insecure versions are the same problem, and are usually already handled by a redirect that was added when the certificate was installed.

Addresses with and without a trailing slash can behave as separate pages on some configurations.

Parameters appended by advertising or tracking create further variants of the same page.

All of those are resolved by the same four-part agreement rather than by separate techniques, which is why fixing the www case properly usually fixes the others at the same time.

The counter-case

This can be over-treated on a small site.

Search engines are good at working out which version is canonical even where the signals are imperfect, and a small business with a modest site frequently has the duplicate resolved for them without intervention.

The site search counts are also unreliable enough that a difference between them may be an artefact rather than a finding.

There is a real risk in aggressive remediation, particularly a careless site-wide replace, which can damage content to solve a problem that was costing very little.

Check it once, make the four things agree, take a backup before any bulk operation, and then leave it for a couple of months.

The check

  1. Run a site search and look at the addresses.
  2. Repeat it for the www and non-www forms.
  3. Confirm the redirect goes one way only.
  4. Check what canonical tags declare.
  5. Regenerate the sitemap in the chosen form.
  6. Fix internal links, with a backup taken first.
  7. Add a domain property and wait a month.

Step four is where the contradiction usually lives, since a redirect can be correct while every page declares the opposite.

Choosing a primary address is covered in the second domain pointing at the same site.

Frequently asked questions

How do I tell if both versions are indexed?

Run a site search restricted to your domain and look at the addresses, then repeat for the www and non-www forms and compare. The counts are directional rather than exact.

Is a redirect enough to fix it?

No. Four things have to agree: the redirect, the canonical tags, the sitemap, and your internal links. A redirect alone leaves contradictions that slow the recovery.

Which is most often missed?

Internal links. A redirect makes mixed links work, so nothing appears broken while the site continues signalling both versions.

What does the split cost?

Links divided between two addresses, neither version as strong as one would be, split analytics, the wrong version appearing, and crawl effort spent twice.

How should Search Console be set up?

With a domain property, which covers www, non-www, secure and insecure together. Many businesses have a property for one version and are seeing half their data.

How long does it take to consolidate?

Weeks to a couple of months, as pages are recrawled. Important pages move in days. Resist further changes in the first month, since that restarts the clock.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Redirect in place and still seeing both?

Check what your canonical tags declare. A redirect going one way while every page declares the other is the usual contradiction.

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