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Do www. domains perform better than non www. domains?

by jakal2001
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Just a wonder, Im not sure if it does make any difference to the big G so thought id ask..

thanks
#domains #perform #www
  • Profile picture of the author ashstronge
    Interesting Question, which I have never heard a complete answer to.

    I ensure both versions are linked to each other on websites that I have worked on, as I know user online behaviour differs among browsers, when entering www. or not. Best to have both to ensure your optomizing your domain traffic
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    • Profile picture of the author Mapca
      Big G seek quality and relevant content. With or without www issue doesn't matter here. Many popular websites like Facebook have www in their domain, others like Twitter don't have it. All the sites rank well in search engines so if you are concerned about SEO, you shouldn't worry about this.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    The answer is no.

    Google doesn't care if you use the
    Code:
    www.example.com
    sub-domain (www is a sub-domain just in case you didn't know) or the main domain example.com.

    If you put different content on the www sub-domain than the main domain Google will index them both separately.

    That being said, there is a small SEO positive in not using the www (it's very small).

    Google parses the keywords out of a domain, so using the www version adds an additional word (www) to your URLs which will share the URL SEO benefit.

    Comparing what Google parses from these:

    Code:
    www.keyword1-keyword2.tld/keyowrd3-keyword4/
    Google Parses these 6 words:
    www keyword1 keyword2 tld keyowrd3 keyword4

    Compare to the non-www:

    Code:
    keyword1-keyword2.tld/keyowrd3-keyword4/
    Google Parses these 5 words:
    keyword1 keyword2 tld keyowrd3 keyword4

    Unless you are targeting www SERPs (there are WWW SERPs), not using the www sub-domain has a small boost, but it is tiny, not worth worrying about. Though if starting a new domain use the non-www version for maximum SEO. Do not change an old www site to non-www the PR loss (~15% loss) from the 301 redirects isn't worth it.

    David
    Signature
    Freelance SEO Consultant
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
      Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

      The answer is no.

      That being said, there is a small SEO positive in not using the www (it's very small).
      David
      My observations, since the EMD update. Google have completely removed inurl: as a scoring factor. Although there is some speculative claims that EMD inurl: still hold a little weight. As you pointed out, If there is any, it's very hard to see.

      But strangely enough, it's so bred into us by now, most of us will continue to build as we did.
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      • Profile picture of the author jakal2001
        Thanks for all your replies guys
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
        Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

        My observations, since the EMD update. Google have completely removed inurl: as a scoring factor. Although there is some speculative claims that EMD inurl: still hold a little weight. As you pointed out, If there is any, it's very hard to see.

        But strangely enough, it's so bred into us by now, most of us will continue to build as we did.
        The URL is still a factor, but the SEO benefit appears to have been reduced over time.

        You have to remember Google keep adding new metrics, if they used 10 metrics on the day Google went live for the first time those 10 metrics would have shared the entire SEO ranking benefit, if it was equally shared they'd each be worth 10% of a webpages rankings.

        Google has said they use over 200 ranking factors today, if it were a simple equally shared each would be worth less 0.5%, so just by adding more metrics, older metrics have less value.

        So just adding new metrics is enough to devalue old ones. It's not quite that simple since they won't equally share the ranking value, some factors will be worth less than 0.5% others worth significantly more.

        Add to that webmasters abuse metrics, Google will have also devalued how much benefit some factors pass. Look at what Google did with nofollow in 2008/09, in one algo change they wiped out (reversed) the SEO value of PR sculpting using nofollow! Went from using nofollow was an easy way to hoard PR to using nofollow is an easy way to waste PR.

        Yet, barely anyone noticed the nofollow change because though PR is important it's ONE of many SEO factors and alone it won't rank a site high.

        You can easily test keywords in URLs still count by setting up a webpage like:

        example.tld/highly-unique-phrase.html

        Don't use the words Highly, Unique or Phrase in that pages content, don't link to the page with anchor text including Highly, Unique or Phrase and you'll find you can find the page for the search Highly Unique Phrase (more unique the phrase is the better).

        Easiest way to test this is as above and do a site search in Google with this format:

        Code:
        site:example.tld "Highly Unique Phrase"
        If the test page is found it can only be due to the URL.

        David
        Signature
        Freelance SEO Consultant
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        • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Morgan
          Things like this simply don't matter. I understand the thinking, especially when you see sites like the Open Site Explorer (Moz) showing different rankings for the www domain and no www. A common impression is "I'll just put them both into one" but it very seldom works that way.


          In my testing I've seen no affect from it whatsoever. From what I've seen Google weighs a link to www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com equally, and it can decipher between the two and make assumptions. Meaning if a bunch of people decide to link without the WWW that doesn't mean those links are any different than your WWW ones.

          Pick one and stick with it.
          Signature
          Jeremy Morgan, Software Developer / SEO
          Check out my Programming Blog for news, tips, and tutorials
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  • Profile picture of the author EssayPartner
    It doesn't matter what type of the main domain you would prefer. Without WWW or with it.

    Just dont forget about 301 redirect from "www.site.com" to "site.com" or backwards.
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  • Profile picture of the author jakal2001
    Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

    best option is to use one W

    That way you avoid the duplicate letter penalty.

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