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    4. How do I switch my website to www.mydomain?

    How do I switch my website to www.mydomain?

    On-Page / Site Optimization
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    • lauragee
      lauragee @lauragee last edited by

      I only have fields that look like this:

      name server 1:  _______________

      name server 2: _______________

      nothing with two fields like your picture

      (I tried to attach a screenshot, but no luck)

      AO21OQZ AO21OQZ photostream

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • lauragee
        lauragee last edited by

        Thank you! So, just to clarify, if I follow these instructions will my website be destroyed? I mean, the instructions you gave about how to add the record on network solutions.

        BlueprintMarketing 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • BlueprintMarketing
          BlueprintMarketing @lauragee last edited by

          Yes they are trying to get you to confirm that you want to use your own name servers and if I may add their DNS setup is garbage because they make money off of managing it for you.

          To update A records

          1.     Log in to Account Manger

          2.     Within **Account Manager, **use the drop down under **My Domain Names **to choose the domain you’d like to manage and click the Go button

          3.     In the green box, select Change Where Domain Points

          4.     Select Advanced DNS

          5.     Click the Continue button

          6.     If the domain name was not previously pointed to Network Solutions® nameservers (DNS) you will receive a page with messaging regarding this change.  If you’d like to continue, click the Move Nameservers to Network Solutions® button

          7.     In the IP Address (A Records) section, click Edit A Records

          8.     Your current A records are listed in editable form, and any Network Solutions® service that is associated with the A record is listed below the Numeric IP text box

          9.     The first three hosts listed are the most common hosts used with domain names:

          o    www : Points to the specified IP address when Internet users enter an address, such as www.jimbikes.com

          o     @ (none) : Points to the specified IP address when a user enters just the domain name without anything before it, such as jimsbikes.com

          o    * (All OThers) : Points any unassociated host for a domain name to the specified IP address, similar to a catch-all feature that could be used for any misspelled host names

          To add or edit A records

          1.     Enter or edit the new host name in the Host column

          2.     If needed, modify the TTL settings (7200 is the default)

          3.     Enter or edit the IP number under the Numeric IP Address column in any remaining empty row

          4.     Click Continue

          ** You see they make you go through all that just to add an a record. Confirming the a records in their will not harm you at all.**

          Simply confirm them and continue then follow the advice above.

          I can't tell you how strongly I recommend using a different host.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • lauragee
            lauragee @lauragee last edited by

            Hey, I followed those instructions and I finally had a place to enter the information! So, it did have a value already in place for www, which makes me wonder if this was even the problem at all... but I did replace it with the value you posted, so now I just have to wait for the change to take effect, and hopefully it will all work. Thanks so much for your help!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • BlueprintMarketing
              BlueprintMarketing @lauragee last edited by

              I promise you you will not have any damage done to your website by following the instructions.

              All that is going to happen is you will confirm your name servers because network solutions it is about the worst place to host your DNS you can find.

              Then it will allow you to see your a record it shows you as managing advanced a records it believes that it is advanced because you're not using their name servers you have decided to name them yourself. In addition I'm going to go as far as saying you should use https://www.cloudflare.com

              to host your domain records however you would not get the ability to have custom name record without paying. If it means a lot to have custom name records I would not use cloudflare

              I just used clould flare to back up your DNS records so you will have a copy regardless of anything and I do want to make you comfortable and have you know that you will not have your site destroyed by simply following what you need to do. If you are going to use  cloudflare let me know so I can take your records off and there will be a duplicate issue

              very important  remove the c name  shown below and in the photograph that is a misconfiguration you need a 2nd a record.

              www  is an alias of organicencyclopedia.com

              It will also give you an error message if you try to add more than one www

              so  delete the c name before prior to adding the a record because seeing names need to go to host names given by the web host not by just adding your domain name in the cname box we want it to look like this

              http://i.imgur.com/Bx5d4fg.png

              htttp://www.networksolutions.com/support/a-records-ip-addresses-2/

              dWbk0c0.png Bx5d4fg.png

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • lauragee
                lauragee last edited by

                Well... I can now enter www.organicencyclopedia.com OR organicencyclopedia.com and go to the page without being redirected, which...that in itself seems kind of odd because I have canonical URLs turned on... but anyway, I'm still getting the redirection loop if I change the URLS to www in general settings. Guess I'll try again tomorrow in case I just haven't waited long enough, though.

                BlueprintMarketing 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • BlueprintMarketing
                  BlueprintMarketing @lauragee last edited by

                  Laura,

                  it is your web browser

                  http://www.organicencyclopedia.com/

                  works fine having canonical URLs turned on makes no difference in a redirect it could say whatever and it would make no difference in the actual working of the server

                  canonical URLs are a seo thing only the do not and cannot affect a redirect or start one on a server only a 301redirect  can do this it is your  web browser's cache

                  I know this look your site as does not do any loops here

                  http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/#!/Ntpv7AiZh/www.organicencyclopedia.com

                  lauragee BlueprintMarketing 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • lauragee
                    lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                    Yes, it also looks like it's working fine on my end right now... but I have the address listed as organicencyclopedia.com under general settings. If I change the main address to www.organicencyclopedia.com (which is what I am trying to do), it causes a redirect loop error again. (Also, just in case my All in One SEO was causing a problem I deactivated that and installed Yoast, but the same thing is still happening)

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • lauragee
                      lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                      But, Ok, that's good to know about canonical URL being only for SEO. I guess it's a redirection problem rather than a canonical URL problem.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • BlueprintMarketing
                        BlueprintMarketing @lauragee last edited by

                        the

                        rel="canonical" href="http://organicencyclopedia.com/"

                        is not showing www. to fix on Wordpress SEO just

                        do what is shown here http://just-ask-kim.com/canonical-post-page/#.USnUa0XipdE

                        right now it is here but it's a easy fix

                        I hope I was of help rember I  use the transport seo to Yoast here

                        http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-data-transporter/

                        then remember to delete the old all in one seo

                        lauragee BlueprintMarketing 7 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • BlueprintMarketing
                          BlueprintMarketing @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                          have you tryed a new web browser

                          redirection problem a different browser as if it works for me and pingdom it sound like your computer is storing the old info

                          I would tell your host to make a 301 redirect to www.organicencyclopedia.com

                          as this should not be happening to you and not to me or pingdom.

                          Remove the following redirect chain if possible: http://s.amazon-adsystem.com/iui3?d=assoc-amazon.com&enId=Associates&eId=view&r=1&rP=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.organicencyclop…http://s.amazon-adsystem.com/iui3?d=assoc-amazon.com&enId=Associates&eId=view&r=1&rP=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.organicencyclop…Remove the following redirect chain if possible: http://www.google.com/pagead/drt/uihttps://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/drt/si?p=CAA&ut=AFAKxlQAAAAAUSnWpv5PG8GBMgkej42-FWI_MQygcYW9Read more at Google Code

                          this is the only code redirect

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • lauragee
                            lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                            I was able to use that feature to set the canonical URL for my home page (to the www version!) I tried to use the 301 redirect feature under it to redirect to the www page, which still caused the redirection loop, but since I basically just wanted to do that for SEO purposes, I think that will work! Now I just need to go through and set canonical URLs for the other pages, but I don't have too many, so that is fine. Thanks again, I have been fighting with this for days.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • BlueprintMarketing
                              BlueprintMarketing @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                              Hi Laura,

                              I hate to be the bearer of bad news but unfortunately I can reach your site at www.

                              and without it that means you need a 301 redirect I would download a plug-in like this that will let you simply do a 301 redirect inside WordPress

                              http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-seo-redirect-301/

                              or

                              http://www.webhostingbillboard.com/wordpress-plugins/best-wordpress-plugins-for-301-redirects/

                              Again I am very sorry to tell you this. As it seemed like everything was all set. Unfortunately now we know that there has to be a 301 redirect put in place for the site to work correctly.

                              I know I've said this earlier but this appears to be a business site for you I would really really really suggest using a host that specializes in WordPress hosting

                              zippykid.com will handle your DNS for you and everything you need done will be done by them simply put name server DNS records of theirs in your name server DNS slots and they do everything and not when I say everything that's what I mean every single thing and the make your site a lot faster and safer all of these guys will but this is the only one that will control your DNS as well all of them will help you.

                              page.ly you also get 30% off of their site for life and pro perks found here at seomoz

                              will help you with your DNS they will not allow you to run MX records through theirs which I think is not cool but whatever.

                              WPengine you get 4 months free pro perks seomoz

                              will make you use your own DNS but will help you just like all these others when it comes to configuring the DNS to work properly.

                              Web synthesis

                              is a great host and once again you will be on your own with DNS but they will help you as far as advice and is for setting up your site.

                              Please understand I'm not trying to sell you on anything as you can tell there's no affiliate links or anything like that I would like a few simply type it in yourself to not follow any links I give you just so you know this is not me trying to make money it seems like if this is can be a big issue there should be larger issues coming down the road in the speed of your website is not great this could all be fixed very easily by using any of those guys would try WP engine you get 4 months free you can host your DNS at DNS made easy for 20 bucks a year including 10 domains. And it's much faster visits anycast then. What you're running now any of the hosts above would be more than happy to tell you exactly what you need to do to get your site to run on their servers I cannot stress enough how much easier this makes life having to manage WordPress host if you get hacked though fix it those types of things these things that we dealt with tonight would've been solved in 1 ticket

                              I hope I have helped you and I'm glad to see that your site is making progress. It seems like a very cool one one that I will learn some good lessons from I will bookmark it and Recommend to my friends and to parents. If I can be of any more assistance please let me know I'm going to send you a PM with my direct info in case you need to speak more quickly.

                              Sincerely,

                              Thomas

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • lauragee
                                lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                                Thanks. Yeah, I noticed that pages were loading both with and without the www... but does that really matter, as long as Google only considers one version real for SEO purposes? I thought that was the important point.

                                I've tried redirecting with various plugins, but unfortunately that just causes the endless loop error no matter how I do it. I feel like there must be some mystery setting working against whatever I put in.

                                I appreciate your suggestions about registrars, hosting, etc, but the reason I'm using what I'm using is mostly because I'm broke. My current host lets me run as many websites as I want for a set price, and I have domains on a bunch of different registrars from getting $1 deals... yeah, I can see this strategy is not paying off, so I will look into some of the services you recommend and see if they will be possibilities in the future.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • BlueprintMarketing
                                  BlueprintMarketing @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                                  Hi Laura,

                                  I believe I can fix your problem. One of 2 ways I noticed you are hosted on Amazon? Is this correct?

                                  If so that is a good thing my suggestion is we properly change the htaccess file

                                  so that it works to follow the perm links.

                                  If it gives us any trouble I have a lot of resources at my disposal I am positive this can be fixed

                                  Amazon has a free price tier that will allow you to use their DNS for approximately dollar month but I have a free DNS resource.

                                  Why are you buying so many domains buying so many domains if I can ask?

                                  I'm going to send you a PM with a solution.

                                  Ok?

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • lauragee
                                    lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                                    Ok, hmm. I don't believe my sites are hosted at Amazon, they are hosted through Wealthy Affiliate (although, it's possible that all WA sites are hosted at Amazon and they just don't tell you that, I honestly have no idea). The only interaction I have had with Amazon is putting an affiliate ad on my page.

                                    I have bought about five domains because, well, I already use a couple of them for other projects, and I just found some more great keywords for subjects I would like to write about. I'm trying to pursue niche writing for profit, and not all of my writing subjects fit into the same niche. Does that make sense?

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • lauragee
                                      lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                                      I am strongly considering transferring my main project to page.ly as you suggested, BTW.

                                      BlueprintMarketing 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • BlueprintMarketing
                                        BlueprintMarketing @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                                        I would do that page.ly,  Zippykid, WPengine web synthesis are all fantastic.

                                        you can't go worng with any of them I think go with what you like.

                                        your website will be much better at any of the the four then where it is.

                                        let me know what

                                        You sould google "Wealthy Affiliate sites" alott of people not happy.

                                        SEOmoz does mozicons all over the world + they know what there talking about

                                        the WA sites is on Amazon yours is on a slow server theres is on a big one with a CDN if you want to make money writing for profit talk to people like James at skyrocketseo.co.uk or brian at coppybloger there here not at the WA

                                        They are well known for there work.

                                        You should pick the domain with the most Moz trust then make one great site not five ok sites Google has  Devalued exact match domains so much that it is unbelievable. The truth of the matter is if you focus your time on one excellent blog rather than spread around on some good blogs but not truly great that it will be almost impossible to get a following that you want. Look at all the big companies from people who have made it in blogging  copy blogger for instance.

                                        I knowing what I know from what you just said strongly agree focus on a singular blog put everything into it and don't worry about having to spread out using a domain name by then domain lots of much authority you can name the title of the URL what ever you want and it will rank.

                                        Great choices unhappy to see you're going in the right direction.

                                        Sincerely,

                                        Thomas

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • BlueprintMarketing
                                          BlueprintMarketing @lauragee last edited by

                                          Hi Laura,

                                          I would take the blogger version of your website then simply put it on a  functional framework click WordPress preferably Genesis-based

                                          I have attached a bunch of links most of them are themes you can also use 1st link the screaming frog is Seo spider to show just how bad the the job script in blogger is affecting your ranking.

                                          http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

                                          your links have way too many parameters in them to ever rank well

                                          http://www.organicencyclopedia.com/search/label/Cooking With Whole Foods

                                          you like page.ly I do to their great use them if that's the one you like

                                          simply going to this URL http://www.seomoz.org/pro-perks

                                          find Page.ly you will have 30% off for life ( it will show you what you see below gone the logo it will take you to the a page with discounts)

                                          https://page.ly/

                                          one thing I would recommend buying to avoid conflict is but dollar month and it's Amazon route 53  DNS you simply place the name servers into your old DNS in addition to being very easy to use to be in much faster http://aws.amazon.com/route53/

                                          it costs 50 cents a the domain per month

                                          always cloudflare for free just make sure the orange clouds are not lit http://www.cloudflare.com free for life

                                          remember because of security reasons none of these hosts serve e-mail so you must have hosted e-mail like Google apps unfortunately Google apps is no longer free. But there is an identical product you can get for free rate here and it imports all your old mail into with just a username and password

                                          https://www.zoho.com/mail/zohomail-pricing.html

                                          pick the light plan

                                          30% Off All Plans

                                          Page.ly is a superior Managed WordPress Hosting solution. They take care of the technical stuff, so you can get back to blogging

                                          I would then go to this page below copy blogger if you want quality free advice from people who are extremely well known in the industry in fact they make these themes own on a hosting company and many more things to with blogging you will have no trouble at all moving your comment and onto a new WordPress server with page.ly you simply  export from blogger into WordPress on a fresh database.

                                          http://www.copyblogger.com/about/

                                          try reading copyblogger see what you think

                                          http://www.copyblogger.com/human-web-design/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/balance/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/eleven40/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/focus/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/executive/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/mocha/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/luscious/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/focus/

                                          http://demo.studiopress.com/focus/colors/blue/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/decor/

                                          http://demo.studiopress.com/decor/colors/amethyst/

                                          http://my.studiopress.com/themes/crystal/

                                          https://page.ly/

                                          http://websynthesis.com/

                                          https:/zippykid.com

                                          http://wpengine.com

                                          I hope this helps,

                                          Tom

                                          lauragee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • lauragee
                                            lauragee @BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                                            I thought that page.ly looked nice, but the reason I didn't move there is because I can't afford to. I know I mentioned this before, but to put it more bluntly, last week my internet was shut off for a while because I couldn't pay the bill. I didn't know if I was going to be able to pay my other utilities, either, but this month I lucked out. I just thought about it and realized that even if I had been able to scrape together the money for page.ly for the month, there's absolutely no guarantee I'd be able to do it again month after month.

                                            I know blogger isn't as good for SEO, although to be honest I couldn't find a ton of information about that. For one thing, I see that internal links have a lot of parameters, but my permalinks and inbound links are pretty simple, so isn't that what matters for SEO purposes? And actually, I find blogger to be more user-friendly, so it has fixed some of my problems, like redirecting my naked domain to the www domain automatically for the first time.

                                            I've had blogs on blogger before, and I know they get some search traffic eventually. My current plan is to see if my site becomes commercially viable at all, and if it starts to make the profit to pay for it, maybe I'll actually pay someone to migrate it to page.ly or similar and make sure it's set up right. If not, eh, no more money lost, at least.

                                            I do appreciate the other resources, though, especially the free email to replace google apps, which I searched for for a while and couldn't find, and also copyblogger – I've started listening to their podcast, and it's very interesting, thanks!

                                            BlueprintMarketing 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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