Is the WWW needed when backlinking? Angela and Pauls Method

[dbankston]

When baclinking (using angela and pauls links) is there a difference between using the following URL for my links:

(I CANT POST THE LINKS BUT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS)

using the w w w?


some of my wordpress blogs are spidered with the www and some are not. is there a reason? is one better than the other? Does one outrank eachother?

I also read another thread here titled Angelas and Pauls links are dead, whatsup with that?

Thanks guys, really appreciate your help!

[Istvan Horvath]

www is a subdomain and it is absolutely unnecessary!

People just got used to it - although you don't really need it.

Now, if you have a site - try to use always ONLY one version, otherwise the search engines will index it as two sites!

You can go to G. webmaster tools and set which one do you prefer to use for your site.

[UnDenIeD]

When putting up a website you always need to choose one format, http://www.site.com or http://site.com and stick to it in all your link building campaigns. In the past this was a big problem because by not choosing a single url you would actually create duplicate content. Search engines are a little bit lenient these days but i still do it on all my sites.

In wordpress this can be done automatically via the admin interface but it used to be a little more complicated(through the .htaccess) For normal sites you can do a 301 redirect from the address you decide not to use to the good one.

If your site already has backlinks you should go to yahoo site explorer and make a search with the www and without it. Look which of the two urls has more backlinks. Choose the one with the highest number and from this point one create backlinks using only that url structure.

[JagSEO]

See first what works for you and then decide if you want only http or with www on it. Stick to it if you found the one better than the other and then start some link building with it.

[RGallowitz]

It only matters WHERE you link TO.

You should always link back to only one version of your website.
It's either with the www or without. You can achieve a safety net by implementing a htaccess 301 redirect on your server.

How the incoming links look don't really matter.



Regards

[duncanb]

I usually do use it, so no harm in using it!

[TheAngelGuy]

Hi, there,

I used to do web hosting tech support, and while the "www." is not a subdomain (it's actually an alternate DNS record) here is something to think about.

Just a few years ago, most domain registrars/hosts were automatically putting BOTH in their DNS servers so that someone could get to them either way.

For some reason, in the past few years I've seen an alarming trend where I'd go to a site WITHOUT the "www." and it wouldn't be the site - it'd be a generic host's search page. The "www." site, though, would work fine.

So while it's true that theoretically it doesn't matter, to ensure that your links actually DO go to your site (until this small trend is reversed), you can guarantee that by using the "www." in front of it.

Just something to think about...

- Paul

[Dennis Gaskill]

You should pick one linking method and stick with it. A search engine sees these links:

http://www.site.com
http://www.site.com/
http://www.site.com/index.html
http://site.com
http://site.com/
http://site.com/index.html

...as different pages, even though they all point to the same page. If you have links pointing to your site in all these different ways, your link juice is being split.

You can use a 301 redirect to tell ALL search engines which you prefer, rather than just telling Google.

[dbankston]

thanks for all the help guys! appreciate it.

[Glassjaw009]

This is a great question and it can often be confusing. Google will index any page it sees, therefore if you have links pointing to both "versions" of your website - one with www and one without, Google will index those are being two sites. This is not beneficial because Google will see it as duplicate content =( Hope this helps.