Domain url with www or not ?

[mrgee]

I have a number of niche sites now. When viewing in a web browser the url's all seem to default to http://mydomain.com without the www. Now for my backlinks I have been using the url WITH the www. I am a little confused by this.. Should I be concerned.? Should I be aiming to have the domain appear with the www. And how does it seem to default to a url without the www. When first registered they all seem to include the www..??
Anyone your thought would be appreciated..

[Josh MacDonald]

I don't think you should be too concerned but I would start using the regular http version. Also, it could just be the browser. For example, I believe Google Chrome deletes the http and www, so your url would appear like:
warriorforum.com in the address bar

[clickbump]

Originally Posted by mrgee

I have a number of niche sites now. When viewing in a web browser the url's all seem to default to http://mydomain.com without the www. Now for my backlinks I have been using the url WITH the www. I am a little confused by this.. Should I be concerned.? Should I be aiming to have the domain appear with the www. And how does it seem to default to a url without the www. When first registered they all seem to include the www..??
Anyone your thought would be appreciated..

I think "concerned" might be too strong a word. However, it absolutely will affect the value of those backlinks. Google sees your site as two different sites when you have links in both forms (with and without www).

You want to make sure your backlinks are consistent, whether you use www or you dont, be consistent in how you create links to your site.

[Jeremy Banks]

pick one now and stick to it and only build links to one. I usually use it without the www. just to make the total url shorter. Also make sure you do a redirect from www to the non www domain.

[Psykryph]

Originally Posted by clickbump

I think "concerned" might be too strong a word. However, it absolutely will affect the value of those backlinks. Google sees your site as two different sites when you have links in both forms (with and without www).

You want to make sure your backlinks are consistent, whether you use www or you dont, be consistent in how you create links to your site.

Can you offer any proof of this? Will Google really see your website as two different websites just because you leave out www? I'm not trying to prove you wrong, but I personally think Google is smarter than this, and I think maybe building links with some using www and some not using it would almost be better.

Just want to know if you actually know what you're talking about or not.

[NastyBlast]

Originally Posted by clickbump

Google sees your site as two different sites when you have links in both forms (with and without www).

I'm not sure about this anymore. I have vision over about 80,000 domains and in the last two years I have seen almost no difference in the actual ranking performance of sites when it comes to inbound links to the domain root. I the past there was definitely a clear distinction made between www. and not but only from what we could see in the cache servers that Google makes public.

Originally Posted by clickbump

You want to make sure your backlinks are consistent, whether you use www or you dont, be consistent in how you create links to your site.

I do agree however that keeping your inbound links consistent is good policy

[scott g]

Originally Posted by clickbump

I think "concerned" might be too strong a word. However, it absolutely will affect the value of those backlinks. Google sees your site as two different sites when you have links in both forms (with and without www).

You want to make sure your backlinks are consistent, whether you use www or you dont, be consistent in how you create links to your site.

Set up through your Wordpress CPanel your preference or put it in a .htaccess to load your site and pages as www or non-www.

If you check your backlinks in Yahoo! Site Explorer you will see a different # of backlinks.... B/c just like Scott said www is one site and non-www is another site. Just like a subdomain is it's viewed as it's own, completely individual site... That sort of applies to this question! LOL!

CHEERS!

[HavenX]

Try using your htaccess to redirect non-www to www this way all credits will be pass to the site which has the www in it.

[boydmk2]

Use domain removers to make it easier for bulk websites that has www
but for me the standard should always have www, Good luck!

[michaely]

Hi, if you're using Wordpress, just do the following:

1) Login to your wordpress admin page (not cpanel)

2) Click "Settings" -> "General"

3) Add "www" to the url for the following 2 fields:
a) "Wordpress Address (URL)"
b) "Site Address (URL)"

4) Click "Save changes"

[adddirectoryp]

If you want your domain always include www just copy the code below and save as .htaccess file and upload to your server (root path). Please don't forget to change where yoursite to your domain name.


RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(yoursite\.com)(:80)? [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L]


Good Luck

[jack jastin]

Originally Posted by adddirectoryp

If you want your domain always include www just copy the code below and save as .htaccess file and upload to your server (root path). Please don't forget to change where yoursite to your domain name.


RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(yoursite.com)(:80)? [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L]


Good Luck

Really, In this case 301 redirect is having the only solution for this concern.

You need to simply add a WWW redirect command at the root of your site simply using the rewrite rule above mentioned but yes, make sure you have an access to the root of your site. If you are not getting concerned with this, Definitely it will impact the ranking and SEO of your site.

[StoneWilson]

Of course you should concern about that, technically, search engine take them(with and without www domains) as two totally different things. Just like www.example.com and bbs.example.com, search engine will treat them separately.

[George Langer]

Google takes both version as 2 different sites so it splits Page Rank.
The best eay is to use 301 redirect as mentioned above, also unify the versions with and without "http://" the same way.

Regards George.

[Matt Broody]

you need to choose one site you will build backlinks for
www or non www and after that to make appropriate redirection

[kiranraj19]

i think with www is good than without www

[devonm]

I try to stick with www instead of without the www