"Hello.. I understand that this may be a basic question, but I am not very experienced in this area and would appreciate some assistance. I have created a website for a small home improvement company I work for on Wix, and I have implemented domain forwarding with masking through GoDaddy. However, I am encountering an error where the website is not getting indexed by Google Search Console due to Duplicate without User-Selected Canonical. Could this issue be related to the masking? Is there a way to resolve this and get the website indexed while still using masking?"
Domain masking can indeed cause issues with Google indexing. While it might appear seamless to users, search engines often see it as a duplicate content issue. This happens because the masked domain (the one that forwards) and the original domain (where the content actually resides) both point to the same content.
To resolve this, you’ll need to ensure Google sees only one version of your website.
Here’s how you can potentially fix the issue:
- Implement canonicalization: This involves adding a
<link rel="canonical" href="https://your-original-domain.com" />tag to the header of your masked domain’s HTML. This tells search engines that the original domain is the authoritative source of the content. - Use 301 redirects: Instead of masking, consider setting up a permanent 301 redirect from the masked domain to the original domain. This signals to search engines that the content has permanently moved, preventing duplicate content issues.
It’s important to note that masking and redirection can impact how Google crawls and indexes your site. If you’re facing indexing issues, using masking might not be the best solution. You should consider using a simple domain setup for better SEO performance.