Primary and alternate site addresses
The same website can be accessible at various addresses. For example, with and without the www prefix, over the HTTP and HTTPS protocols, or in different domains.
The primary site address is the address that appears in Yandex Search results. Only this address is included in ranking and shown to users.
Alternate site addresses are the addresses that host the same content as the primary one but are excluded from Yandex Search results.
Initially, Yandex indexing bots consider all addresses separate sites. Over time, our algorithms identify duplicate pages and group site addresses together. Only the primary site address remains included in search results.
Yandex algorithms group site addresses to:
- Avoid duplicates in the search results.
- Ensure that site information and statistics are taken into account correctly when ranking.
- Show users the optimal versions of sites.
Why it's important to monitor how your addresses are grouped
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Controlling search visibility.
If your addresses are grouped, the alternate address pages will eventually disappear from search results.
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Transmitting metrics.
During merging, some accumulated metrics are assigned to the primary address. For example, external links of the old site are treated as external links of the new one.
At the same time, the External links page in Yandex Webmaster displays the URLs specified on a third-party site.
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Competition between addresses.
Addresses that aren't grouped (for example, subdomains or different domains with the same content) may compete with each other for being included in the search results. This may impact your site's visibility in Yandex Search.
In Yandex Webmaster, you can:
- Check which URL the Yandex algorithms consider to be your primary address.
- Manage your site's addresses. If you haven't specified your primary address, the indexing bot will automatically determine it using special algorithms.
To receive timely updates about your site's primary address in Yandex Webmaster, subscribe to notifications.
How to find out which site address is your primary one
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Go to Yandex Webmaster and click .
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If the site is considered an alternate address, the following message will appear when adding it to Yandex Webmaster:
The URL you entered in the field will be replaced with the primary site address from the notification.
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Check the URL that Yandex Webmaster suggests for adding and confirming as your primary address.
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If needed, add the site you need to Yandex Webmaster and leverage all the service's features to improve your site and grow your business.
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Go to the My sites page.
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Find the address you need in the list of sites.
If the addresses are grouped, the first address that opens the group is considered the primary one.
If a site isn't grouped with any other addresses, this is the primary address of your site.
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If your primary address is correct, verify your ownership rights. After that, you'll be able to view your site's statistics in Yandex Webmaster.
After you verify the ownership rights to your primary site address, you may delete all the alternate ones from the service. You don't need to reset rights to the alternate addresses so as to avoid revoking rights to the primary one.
Manage your site addresses in Yandex Webmaster
The primary site address is determined correctly
When adding a site to Yandex Webmaster, you can receive a notification that our algorithms consider another URL to be your primary site address. If you agree with this recommendation, click Add and verify your rights to manage the site.
In this case, the site address that is already included in Yandex Search will be added to the service. After you verify your site rights, you'll be able to get complete statistics for your site in the service.
Set an alternate site address as the primary one
When adding a site to Yandex Webmaster, you can receive a notification that our algorithms consider another URL to be your primary site address. If you disagree with this recommendation:
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Re-enter the site address you need into the field and click Add. This informs Yandex Webmaster that you want to add a specific site address.
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Make sure your rights are verified for both sites. If you haven't done so already, verify your rights. To learn more, see Verifying the site rights.
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To set the desired site address as your primary one, use the Relocate site tool.
Detailed information:
- Moving a site to a new domain name
- Switching a site to HTTPS
- Setup instructions for popular site platforms
The primary site address doesn't belong to me
When adding a site to Yandex Webmaster, you can receive a notification that our algorithms consider another URL to be your primary site address. If this URL doesn't belong to you, check if you have a redirect set up for that address. In Yandex Webmaster, you can do this using the Server response check tool.
If there are no redirects:
- Re-enter the site address you need into the field and click Add. This informs Yandex Webmaster that you want to add a specific site address.
- Verify your rights to manage the site you added.
- Ungroup the sites.
You don't need to verify your rights to the site currently considered your primary address. After ungrouping, it will be automatically removed from the My sites page.
FAQ
The primary site address was changed by mistake
The primary site address may change if a redirect or the rel="canonical" attribute pointing to a new address is set on the old site's pages.
Make sure that the pages on all alternate addresses redirect users to the corresponding pages on the desired primary address. That way, Yandex algorithms will adopt the rules you set and won't select your primary address automatically.
The site appears in Yandex Search results with the wrong address
It's possible that the Yandex indexing bot have selected your primary site address automatically. For example, this can happen if the bot can't access a site at its actual primary address when attempting to crawl it.
Check the site's availability using the Server response check tool. If the primary site address is available, it will reappear in Yandex Search after one or two updates to the search engine database. Updates typically occur several times a week.
If this isn't a temporary error and you need to change the primary site address, inform the robot about this change. To learn more, see Moving a site to a new domain name.
Yandex Webmaster doesn't accept my move request
If your sites can't be grouped, it may be due to one of the following reasons:
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The code of the site that should become the primary site address contains the rel="canonical" attribute. Delete it and submit the request for moving again.
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The site is unavailable or responds with a long delay. Check the site's availability using the Server response check tool.
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The sites' content doesn't match. Check if the internal page URLs and headers match.
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The site moves to another domain zone without a redirect.
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Site indexing is prohibited in the robots.txt file.
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Violations of the Search rules are detected on the site. View the details on the Security and violations page in Yandex Webmaster and fix the errors.
In two weeks, check that the message about the violation disappears from Yandex Webmaster, and re-send the request.
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The request was sent from the site to move to. Send a request from the site you want to make an alternate address.
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Internal service error. Try sending the request later.
The site is no longer available at the primary address. How to retain statistics in Yandex Webmaster and the site's ranking in Yandex Search when moving to a new address?
To ensure a successful move to your new primary address:
- The site should be accessible to Yandex indexing bots at both addresses.
- Content on the site pages at these addresses must be identical.
Otherwise, the search engine will treat these sites as separate resources, and it won't be possible to keep existing metrics for your new address.
Learn more:
The primary site address changed after it was hacked
The primary address may change if its pages redirected the indexing bot to another address when it attempted to access them. To make sure that redirects from a desired address to the primary one are configured correctly, use the Server response check tool in Yandex Webmaster.
If the hacker attack has been thwarted and the redirection has been disabled, the primary address will automatically revert to the correct one within two weeks. No additional action is required on your part.
A link located on another site.