Instructions
Set your Site's VisibilityYou need to ensure that you set your site's visibility to Public. If your site's visibility is set to anything else then Google Search will not index your site. For instructions on how to set your site's visibility see Google Sites - Site Sharing and Visibility Options. Redirect your Naked Domain
You need to make sure that your naked domain (e.g. example.com) redirects to your www address (e.g. www.example.com). To see this working see what happens when you go to steegle.com (you will arrive at www.steegle.com).
- Sign in to your DNS and make an A record of @ and point it to 174.129.25.170 (this is a free redirection service offered by http://www.wwwizer.com/). Make sure you delete any other @ A records.
Add Site to Google Webmaster Tools - Naked Domain
Once the redirect works register the naked domain with Google Webmaster Tools .
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Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools and use the Add Site button and enter the naked domain of your Google Site (e.g. example.com in my screen shots I use gbbohelp.co.uk) and then use the Continue button.
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On the Verify Ownership page, go to the Alternative Methods tab and choose Add a meta tag to your site's home page and copy the meta tag.
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Open a new browser tab or window and go to your site and sign in. Use the More Actions button, then Manage Site and go to General. In the Google Webmaster Tools verification box paste the meta tag given by the Google Webmaster Tools Verify Ownership page and use the Save Changes button.
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Go back to the browser tab or window with the Google Webmaster Tools Verify Ownership page and use the Verify button: you should now see the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard for your site's naked domain.
If the verification failed your redirect does not work correctly: you need to correct this before you can continue.
Add Site to Google Webmaster Tools - www Web Address (subdomain)
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Return to Google Webmaster Tools Home, use the Add Site button and enter the www web address of your Google Site (e.g. www.example.com in my screen shots I use www.gbbohelp.co.uk) and then use the Continue button.
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If you see the Verify Ownership page choose Add a meta tag to your site's home page and copy the meta tag.
If you arrive directly at the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard for your sites web address skip 3 and 4 below and go to Set Preferred Domain
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Open a new browser tab or window and go to your site and sign in. Use the More Actions button, then Manage Site and go to General. In the Google Webmaster Tools verification box paste the meta tag given by the Google Webmaster Tools Verify Ownership page and use the Save Changes button.
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Go back to the browser tab or window with the Google Webmaster Tools Verify Ownership page and use the Verify button: you should now see the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard for your site's www web address.
Set Preferred Domain - Google Webmaster Tools
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From the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard for your site's www web address use the Site Configuration link (in the left, vertical navigation), then the Settings link that appears.
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Choose the Display URLs as www.example.com option from the Preferred Domain section (where www.example.com is your site's www web address) and use the Save button that appears.
Submit a Sitemap of Google Site www web address
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From the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard for your site's www web address use the Site Configuration link (in the left, vertical navigation), then the Sitemaps link that appears.
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Use the Submit a Sitemap button, in the box next to your site's www web address enter system/feeds/sitemap and then use the Submit Sitemap (on the right) to add it to the list of sitemaps.
Google Webmaster Tools will display information about your sitemap.
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Come back later (hours or days) to see the pages the Google Webmaster Tools has found from the sitemap.
Fetch as Googlebot and Submit to Index
From the Google Webmaster Tools dashboard for your site's www web address use the Diagnostics link (in the left, vertical navigation), then the Fetch as Googlebot link that appears. Use the Fetch button to fetch the homepage and wait a few seconds and the page will refresh and notify you that the fetch completed successfully. - Use the Submit to index link and in the Submit URL to index dialogue box that appears choose URL and all linked pages and use the Submit button.
Check Google Search to see the Indexed Pages
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For the next couple of weeks go to google.com and enter the site search operator followed by your site's www web address, e.g. site:www.example.com (where www.example.com is your site's www web address) and use the Search button.
- Google Search will display all the pages it has indexed from your site.
Tests Performed by Steegle.com
When Joshua Howell of shocknawe.com.au suggested this process I was naturally a little sceptical so before writing this article I performed tests on three, brand new sites
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The first site I mapped the web address for, so the web address had never pointed to anything else and was recently purchased. This site became fully-indexed within two weeks.
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The second site I also mapped a newly purchased domain to it and the site became partially indexed in three days, and fully-indexed within 7 days.
The final test I performed gave the first page of the site indexed in less than 24 hours! - Now the Fetch as Googlebot tool in Google Webmaster Tools allows you to submit to the index I have had sites indexed in less than 12 hours: one was done within 8 hours and another within 2!
Configure Naked Domain Redirect with GBBO
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Go to https://gbbo.myportalexpress.com/ and sign in with your username and password sent in the Second Registration E-mail from GBBO.
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Once signed in go to https://gbbo.myportalexpress.com/Domains/Custom/gbbo.aspx and in the Please provide as much information... box add the following message:
Please add an A record of @ that points to 174.129.25.170. Please DO NOT change the www CNAME record as I still want it to point to ghs.google.com (my Google Site).
and use the Submit button.
The GBBO Support Team will e-mail you to notify when the change becomes live.
Acknowledgements
Once again many thanks to Joshua Howell of shocknawe.com.au for sharing this find.
Thanks to the GBBO Support Team for confirming that naked domain redirection is possible.
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