Google Dropped Preferred Domain Setting From Search Console

Posted On : June 20th, 2019   By : Diptimayee Mohanty   To : Google

On June 18^th, Google announced in its webmaster central blog that they have removed the Preferred Domain setting from search console. And with this deprecation, Google will no longer use any existing Search Console preferred domain configuration.

So, now it’s important for webmasters to ensure whether Google is considering the right URL format of their domains or not by checking the search results (Note: Webmasters can use site:example.com command).

How Google will choose preferred domain now?

Now, when Google will find same content on multiple URLs like http://example.com/ or https://www.example.com/index.html then, it will pick one URL as the canonical for search. Also, webmasters can inform Google regarding their preferences in multiple ways which are discussed below. But, if webmasters don’t have any preferences, then Google will itself choose the best option.

How to set preferred domain without preferred domain setting?

Without this preferred domain setting, now webmasters have some options to inform Google regarding their preferences. The options are –

• Use rel=”canonical” link tag on HTML pages
• Use rel=”canonical” HTTP header
• Use a sitemap
• Use 301 redirects for retired URLs

Also, Google has advised webmasters to go through the Consolidate duplicate URLs help center article to find the detailed explanations on how to inform Google about their preferred domains.