A site mirror is a complete/partial duplication of a web resource in terms of content. For example, any web resource opens at two URLs: with www at the beginning of the address and without it. For search engines, these are completely different platforms, although their content is the same.
Why create a mirror of the site? Because this is one of the key points for SEO optimization. If this is not done, search engines will choose the main mirror on their own. And, most likely, you will have to promote the absolutely wrong domain name .
Search for the main mirror of the site
For search engines, mirrors are considered duplicate content. And because of this, they are underestimating their position in the issue. So it is necessary to understand how to find a mirror of the site.
The easiest way to do this is in Yandex Webmaster:
- Open the Add New Site page.
- Check different addresses.
At the bottom, 2 types of messages are displayed, by which it is easy to understand whether this URL is the main or additional mirror of the site.
You can also enter alternative URLs in the Google search engine. The mirror of the site shown in the results will be the main one.
Competent mirror gluing of the site
Indexing of the mirror site is necessary for search engines. So they will understand which address to display in the issue. This is the first point. And the second is that the presence of several mirrors complicates the promotion of the site.
When placing external links, you may inadvertently specify an alternate URL. The transmitted weight will be shared between different addresses, and the actual positions of the site in the rendering will turn out to be lower than expected.
Gluing mirrors will help to avoid this problem. With its help, all indicators are summed up, and weight redistribution becomes irrelevant.
For gluing mirrors you need:
- Write a 301 redirect in the .htaccess file.
- Specify the main mirror in Yandex Webmaster ("Indexing" - "Moving the site").
- Add all mirrors to Google Search Console as a separate site. And then specify the main address in the settings of each.
If you have changed the hosting of the site together with the domain, gluing is also a mandatory procedure. After all, it will help transfer all the efforts made to promote the old site (positions, reference mass) to the new one.
Conclusions
Now you know what a site mirror is and why you need it. Situations are different. Usually, the need to create a mirror of the site appears to redirect the address from www to a similar address without it. Sometimes, when working on the reference mass, mistakes are made when placing backlinks. As a result, the reference weight is divided, and this must be corrected. And sometimes you have to give up the old domain and transfer the web resource to a new one - while preserving all achievements (positions, link weight, site structure ).
For SEO, this is business as usual. During the promotion, everything happens and it is often necessary to take drastic measures. And knowledge about the mirror of the site and its correct configuration make it easier to solve problems of this type.
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