Advice and answers from the Advanced Web Ranking Team
Website alias setup
Learn how to set up AWR to track different domain variations, subdomains, or specific URLs, including customization for various search engines like YouTube and Amazon.
The website alias represents any placeholder added for the main tracked domain or competitor to be tracked during the updating process.
The alias controls which SERP listings are checked and reported during the ranking updates.
The default AWR system alias has the following format: *.domain.tld, and is expected to substitute and report any potential URL variation which may be found in the result pages, such as:
sub1.domain.tld
Alias formatting
The following alias formatting types can be selected to be used when defining the tracking system requirements:
Entire website - *.domain.tld. Rankings for all website URLs will be reported
Root domain. - domain.tld. Only root domain positions will be reported, excluding any other URL ranking from the AWR reported results.
Subdomain - [custom input].domain.tld. Particular subdomain monitoring will be enabled. Any other URL reporting will be excluded.
URL starting with / URL exact match: domain.tld/[custom input]. Particular URL monitoring. Any other website position will be excluded. Video Channel: youtube.com/@[custom input - channel name]. Particular URL monitoring. Any other website position will be excluded.
Custom value. Custom text can be inserted, so that the ranking monitoring can be extended to: videos, article URLs, local listings (via Google My Business profile name), etc.
Alias setup for particular search engines
Some search engines require custom alias setup, so that rankings can be reported. This happens because the domain alias added as default has a different format than the listings which may be found ranking.
Local search engines. Local results are listed by Google or Yahoo with the business name defined in the owner's profile account (Google My Business)
example search engines: Google Maps, Universal, Organic and Places, Places, Yahoo Local
alias format: Papa John's Pizza
Video search engines. Targeted video URL/s listed on YouTube, Vimeo, or any other video content links hosted on a different place than the tracked website
example search engines: all YouTube search engine variations (default, Channels, Videos, Sponsored), Google Video, Yahoo / Bing, Universal
alias format: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V88QuR6q0Q
www.youtube.com/channel/UCMLJSXTRLGiTVSGAqpOmeTQ
Amazon search engines. List the targeted product/s ASIN identifiers to monitor Amazon rankings.
alias format: www.amazon.com/<...>
Google Play search engines. List the apk direct deep-link to monitor Google Play listing performance
alias format: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<package_name>
Do you have any other questions? Don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will keep building the FAQ.
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