301 Redirect Tutorial?

[That Guy]

How do you do this to make it so that a www domain is the same a a non-www domain? I tried google and I'm still kinda confused so I thought I would ask here for a full tutorial. I'm using wordpress btw.

[VeronicaD]

I honestly (and embarrassingly) haven't really taken the time to get into all that. But from my quick search I found this. Hope it helps! How to 301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URLs*|*StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

[That Guy]

yeah found that page on google, but I'm a bit of a newbie and need a really simple "do this. do that" for wordpress.

[lumpy burgertushie]

you simply create a htaccess file and put the code in it that they tell you to.

now, why do you think you need to do this?

simply choose one or the other and use it exclusively.
rarely will anyone type a domain name into their browser these days.
they will simply click on whatever the link is wherever they find it.
As far as I know, it makes no real difference to google etc. for page ranking etc. Seems like a lot of worry for something that makes no real difference.

luck,
robert

[That Guy]

I backlink only to a www domain but when I search my keyword on google I get the non-www version of it appearing. I find it kind of weird and feel like it may not be getting the benefit of the backlinks that I'm creating for it.

[zerofill]

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.YOURDOMAIN.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/$1 [R=301]

Will force the WWW

[That Guy]

OK so where do I put the code?

[zerofill]

Goes in .htaccess in the root folder of the domain.