(Entry was posted by Patty Mantaloons on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 01/20/2017).

Abnormal dip in traffic after changing preferred URL

So I have a site https://url, of which I had only, until yesterday, 3 URL variations in GSC: https:// (set to preferred version), https://www, and http://. Yesterday, I verified the http://www version in GSC (preferred set to non-www). I saw an abnormal dip in traffic yesterday, and wondering if it could be related, and if there`s anything I should be doing with these 3 non-canonical versions in GSC aside from setting the preferred version to non-www for all of them. My htaccess is set to redirect all versions to https://url.

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Alan Bleiweiss: 1) As long as they all 301 redirect, actual traffic is safe. 2) As long as GA code is set up properly, you can see the "majority" (- typical issues for analytics programs) of that and it would not be impacted by a GSC setup or config issue except as relates to the "preferred" setting being set incorrectly, or URL parameter issues, or stuff along those lines. 3) GSC can be flaky, and take a few days to catch up sometimes. 4) GSC and GA data rarely match. (Don`t ask - it`s "complicated", they say)
Tony McCreath: You only need to do preferred on one. They all sync up.
Cristian Sepulveda: Check GA. Is not GSC.
Patty Mantaloons: Also, I was wearing a grey hoodie. No more wearing grey hoodies on Fridays.