In response to a query regarding a website that was not being indexed, Google revealed a little-known technical SEO fact regarding domains and subdomains that may confuse some people and maybe give the impression that a website is having problems being indexed.
Google on Indexing Issue: The individual who posed the query used the secure HTTPS protocol to publish a website that they had developed using the Core MVC framework.
But soon after, they realized that they were having trouble getting the information indexed.
The person posing the question made note of the two known variables in the scenario—the HTTPS protocol and the framework utilized to develop the website—in their query.
Is there a chance that the indexing is being hampered in some way by the web application framework being used?
Or is indexing being impeded by something related to the HTTPS configuration?
The query posed was:
“I have issues getting the new pages indexed after moving my Core MVC website to HTTPS.”
After looking over the website, John Mueller at Google found that HTTPS and the MVC framework had nothing to do with the alleged indexing problems.
Google’s Person responded:
“..I looked at the indexing of your website.
If you specifically search for the www version of your site, you won’t find much because it appears that your site is indexed without the www subdomain.
It will be indexed if you just search for the domain, such as site:domain.com.
There’s Always More to See than Meets the Eye
Sometimes the most evident potential reasons of a problem hide the real solution, making it more difficult to choose the right one. The greatest way to tackle an SEO issue is to never give up on finding a solution when faced with apparent problems.
Let’s investigate the non-WWW version of the site as John Mueller may have reframed the issue from the site not being indexed to the WWW version of the site not being indexed.
A Subdomain Is WWW
Finding the solution also serves as a helpful reminder of a crucial technical distinction between a website’s www and non-www versions: the WWW version is a subdomain of the non-www version.
Related: SEO: Should You Focus on Keywords with Low Search Volume?