www. then http:// WTF?

[keenstyle1]

Intiallay when building back links google had indexed the site in the search result as www.url.com . Then a couple months ago i noticed the search result just displaying url.com, so I pointed all my links at http://url.com / Now this morning it has the www infornt of it again....?

Question Why is this happening?

And, should I re-point all my past links to the www.url.com now?

Thanks!

[KirkMcD]

If you haven't already, create a Google Webmasters account. You can set your preference for www or not in it.

[keenstyle1]

Cool thanks, I'll find that. So , is it safe to say that the old back links pointing to the http:// are now worthless since the site is displaying the www?

[Trent Brownrigg]

I've noticed the same thing with one of my sites. I have hardly ever linked to it with the www. And it's a wordpress blog so it automatically takes out the www anyway by default. It has been showing indexed in G without the www for as long as I can remember. However, recently it has sometimes been showing in the results with the www and sometimes not. No clue why.

[jazbo]

Google are pretty good at knowing that both url variations are the same site.

[Laura B]

If you haven't set your preference in Google Webmaster Tools, Google will index both www and non-www versions of your site, creating a duplicate content issue. Once you designate which one you want, it will begin directing everything to the one you prefer.

[ChrisSTX]

www is only an A-Record. It really makes no difference whether or not your site is indexed with or without www; just make sure you have your DNS setup properly to re-route/re-direct with or without www

[dburk]

Originally Posted by jazbo

Google are pretty good at knowing that both url variations are the same site.

Hi jazbo,

Yes they are pretty good at knowing that, however Google does not index your "site" as a whole, they index individual documents. And while the www and non-www MAY be the same document, they also may NOT be the same document. Therefore you will have a canonicalization issue that can be detrimental to your SERP ranking.

Canonicalization - Webmaster Tools Help

Google engineer Matt Cutts says "that can cause a lot of problems in search engines".

YouTube - Canonical Link Element