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I notice Google recently changed Webmaster Tools to treat http and https as completely different sites - same as www and non-www version of the URL. So I now need to configure and review four separate sites? What a PITA!

They said the do it because we asked for it. I can see how maybe 0.01% of the Internet may use the protocol to separate content on the same URL. But what a pain for the rest of us!

Is there a way to get it to merge all the data as one?

PrecisionPete
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  • This looks like an SEO question to me so it's off-topic here. Ask on [webmasters.se] but check their help centre before you post. –  Jul 08 '14 at 21:36

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It's recommended to use either www or non-www, but not both. Same with http and https, pick one, use that, and redirect the other. You can find many answers about how to do the redirect. Here are some examples for Apache: redirect non-www to www, redirect www to non-www, redirect http to https and redirect https to http.

Community
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Gergo Erdosi
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  • I do that. All redirect to https://www but if you look in Google Analytics, it has some of the stuff under non-https showing only a redirect. Just seems a lot more complicated than it should be. – PrecisionPete Jul 08 '14 at 23:59
  • And the first message Google sends to you after setting up your account is: "1. Add all your website versions. Make sure you add both "www" and "non-www" versions for your site. Also, if you use the HTTPS protocol, add those variations as well." - they then tell you to set your preferred version of www or non-www. – James Gentes May 12 '15 at 18:29