How to check the availability of site mirrors, merged with the main domain

A mirroring site is a full or partial website copy named under another domain. Checking the domain merge is needed in two cases: firstly, this is a necessary procedure before a site purchase; secondly, this plays an extremely important role for the site promotion.

What is a mirror site?

A mirror site is a domain which contains a full or partial copy of an already existing web-resource. For instance, for the example.com, the mirror is www.example.com. The mirrors can be considered as sites which have different addresses but lead to a single common website.

How to make a mirror site? For this, you have to complete the following algorithm. There are various pieces of advice according to your preferences and tasks. In this article, we will consider not creation but optimization of the site mirror which will help search engines while proceeding the domains and prevent you from sanctions for doubles.

Merging mirrors means combining several domain names in order to identify the main, basic mirror. To merge the mirrors correctly, choose the basic mirror and set up a 301 redirect to it. Then, complete settings in webmaster tools and a robot.txt file. Finally, the CMS adjustments. Choosing the main mirror is essential, as all the mass will be referred to it.

While choosing the basic mirror, pay attention to the following factors:

if it goes about the sites with or without www, choose the one which is under indexation;
if it goes about the sites with different domains, choose that which can be found on the SERP and has better ranking;
domain readability;
choose the older domain;
clear domain history;
choose the site which has direct and organic leads.

Of course, the main mirror site can be changed, but it is better to choose it once. Besides merging which is performed on purpose, there is an automatic merging of domains. Search engines automatically merge the mirrors if the sites are totally or partially similar and copy each other.

How to check the merge of domains?

Siteliner

This is a pretty simple but extremely useful and effective service which helps to analyze your site and identify all the issues regarded. The tool counts pages, identifies the broken links and other errors. Just enter the site domain and click "OK". The tool will identify the shares of the unique, common and duplicate content on your site. If you need to view the report in more detail, you can open special tables by clicking the category.

Webconfs

Helps to compare two site pages and determine their similarity. Enter the original page URL in the first field and the one that is considered to be duplicated in the second. The tool will show whether there are similar content parts.

How to remove domain merging

You can separate the domains which were combined by engine bots. As it's been described in the top of the article, you need to complete some simple steps to determine the basic domain. Then delete all the set redirects and, if necessary, edit info about mirrors in the robots.txt file. Also, you can change settings in your CMS.

To complete the separation, you have to remove the duplicate content and fulfill your site with the unique texts. If you ignore this measure, the sites will be considered as mirrors again. Moreover, the sites will be separated automatically, if the search engines see that their pieces of content are no longer the same.

Conclusion

Find out which of the combined domains is more easy-to-remember, which of them is older and what history does it have.

Check what sites are on the SERP. It's needed to identify the main mirror. Choose the site which has more visits or better ranking. Take into account that despite the main mirror can be changed in the future, much better is to chose it only once.

Check whether there are mirrors merged with the main domain. The most simple way to do this is to use special online tools which are described above. However, there are lots of other tools, so you can choose the most suitable service.

To separate domains, you need to start with replacing the duplicate pieces of the content on your site. Shift it with the unique ones and most likely, the domains will be separated automatically. Also, you have to remove the set redirects and edit the root robots.txt file. Also, you can deal with the merging in your CMS if it's possible.

This article is a part of Serpstat's Checklist tool

Checklist is a ready-to-do list that helps to keep reporting of the work progress on a specific project. The tool contains templates with an extensive list of project development parameters where you can also add your own items and plans.

Try Checklist now

Learn how to get the most out of Serpstat

Want to get a personal demo, trial period or bunch of successful use cases?

Send a request and our expert will contact you ;)

Rate the article on a five-point scale

The article has already been rated by 1 people on average 4 out of 5

Found an error? Select it and press Ctrl + Enter to tell us