My www is hidden

[GoodnightSweetRatRace]

I recently paid for a link building service, and i've just discovered all the links are pointing to http://www.(mywebsite).com

However, the www. is hidden in my domain name. In Google it is seen like this.. http://(mywebsite).com

I'm just wandering if this makes any difference at all.

Cheers

[drimaffli]

Have you tried to type www.(mysite).com to see if it goes to your website? If it does then there should be no problem. If not you may have to add a record to add the www to it.

[Wayne-JJ]

If you are using Wordpress, you can login to your wp-admin and add the www in the 'General' tab.

[Peter May]

Yes it will make a difference.

If in wordpress on the left menu of the dashboard go to settings > general then change the wordpress address and url address to www. when you save you will have to login again.

Peter

[nicolas simpson]

I had the same problem...Thank you for writing this thread...

[Steve Diamond]

It can make a big difference for SEO purposes. There are a couple of things you can do to tell the search engines about this, which will give you a permanent solution.

First, if you are using WordPress, do what's already been mentioned. Then, whether or not you're using WordPress, do the following:

Look for a file named .htaccess in the root web directory of your web host, usually public_html. If there is no file of that name, create one. (Yes, that's a period as the first character of the filename.) Add these lines at the very beginning of the file:

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

Obviously, you'll want to substitute your own domain name. This will have the effect of redirecting any request for a page on your site that does not begin with www to the corresponding page that does begin with www.

Go to Google Webmaster Tools. If you don't already have an account, create one. If you haven't claimed your site, claim it. Go to Site Configuration/Settings and select "Display URLs as www.yourdomain.com" under Preferred domain. Save this setting. It may take a while to have any effect on your listings, but eventually it will.

HTH.

Steve

[insidmal]

Exactly as Steve said! It DOES make a difference.. google reads them as different domains...

Steve hit the nail right on the head on that post, Kudos!

[Mariae]

I learned a lot from this thread. Bravo to Steve! Thanks for sharing!

[hilarious89]

Originally Posted by Steve Diamond

It can make a big difference for SEO purposes. There are a couple of things you can do to tell the search engines about this, which will give you a permanent solution.

First, if you are using WordPress, do what's already been mentioned. Then, whether or not you're using WordPress, do the following:

Look for a file named .htaccess in the root web directory of your web host, usually public_html. If there is no file of that name, create one. (Yes, that's a period as the first character of the filename.) Add these lines at the very beginning of the file:

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

Obviously, you'll want to substitute your own domain name. This will have the effect of redirecting any request for a page on your site that does not begin with www to the corresponding page that does begin with www.

Go to Google Webmaster Tools. If you don't already have an account, create one. If you haven't claimed your site, claim it. Go to Site Configuration/Settings and select "Display URLs as www.yourdomain.com" under Preferred domain. Save this setting. It may take a while to have any effect on your listings, but eventually it will.

HTH.

Steve

At first I thought that there is no problem with hidden www, but as steve described us very clearly, I got the point.

Thanks a lot steve.