The Strange Case of the missing WWW.

14 replies
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this or if it even matters!
My new website seems to be missing a www. prefix.
By example it looks like this:

http://mysite.com

whereas I think it should look like this:

http://www.mysite.com

The page loads fine, so perhaps I shouldn't be worried but my concern is with broken URLS and being indexed.

Has anyone else had this problem?
All the best, Derrick
#case #missing #strange #www
  • Profile picture of the author Voasi
    Websites can have both non-www and www versions. Search engines typically don't like this (Google especially) because it's hard for them to decipher which page is the "real" site and which one is just a copy.

    You need to 301 redirect whichever version you want to keep to the other. Look up htaccess 301 redirect and you'll see articles on how to do this.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Pension Guy
    No need for the www.
    But use ONLY one - otherwise google might see it (an index it) as two separate websites.
    Go to G. webmaster tools and decide which one you will use and then stick to it.

    BTW, it is not a "prefix" - it is an obsolete subdomain.
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  • Profile picture of the author George Wright
    Hi,

    I've never used the www at all when typing a URL in IE. I always use it when linking to my site. At least now for the past few years I do. The WWW is "understood" in most cases. However I've ran across a few sites where you have to type it.

    Of course when you type just the word and "Control Enter" IE defaults to WWW and .com

    George Wright
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    • Profile picture of the author Derrick0408
      "Of course when you type just the word and "Control Enter" IE defaults to WWW and .com"

      This is the strange thing, when I try this trick, Firefox enters the WWW. for a split-second and then it disappears and all I get is http:mywebsite.com
      As mentioned, the site works fine, but it seems to be there is some sort of error somewhere along the line and I don't want broken URLS etc.

      I'm wondering what could cause my website to drop the www. from its URL?
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  • Profile picture of the author guillopuyol
    There are some types of content management apps like wordpress that ask you how you want to display the url... links shouldn't break in a normally working site because the www is a subdomain of your site and it is in a way the default subdomain.

    I would recommend as The Pension Guy did, that you stick to only one or else the link juice you get will be divided. I did this early on and I linked to

    www . mysite . com/index.htm
    mysite . com
    mysite . com/index.htm

    Although these are all essentially the same page, search engines see them as different entities.

    Weeeeiird...



    -G
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    • Profile picture of the author mikeyman120
      Wordpress blogs that are self hosted at least don't have the www. Do you have a blog at http://mysite.com

      If your talking about this site - http://dogtrainingnetwork.ning.com/ that is normal.
      Mike
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      • Profile picture of the author Derrick0408
        "Wordpress blogs that are self hosted at least don't have the www."

        The main page for my domain is my Wordpress Blog - I think you've have solved my problem, thanks!
        I had no idea that wordpress drop the www. so I imagine that doesn't hurt with rankings etc.

        My only further question is if I tell people which website to visit verbally it could be awkward as most people expect to see WWW. and even on business cards but I guess if I just said mywebsite.com then it will work anyway.
        Thanks so much to everyone for responding!
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        • Profile picture of the author mikeyman120
          Originally Posted by Derrick0408 View Post

          so I imagine that doesn't hurt with rankings etc.
          I don't know anything about seo. But my wordpress blogs always show up near the first page of google for a keyword or two relating to the blog and I don't have a clue why. I just use keywords for the tags and ping my blog after every update. Although I think it pings for you. My regular websites are nowhere to be found in google.

          Mike
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        • Profile picture of the author guillopuyol
          Originally Posted by Derrick0408 View Post

          "Wordpress blogs that are self hosted at least don't have the www."

          The main page for my domain is my Wordpress Blog - I think you've have solved my problem, thanks!
          I had no idea that wordpress drop the www. so I imagine that doesn't hurt with rankings etc.

          My only further question is if I tell people which website to visit verbally it could be awkward as most people expect to see WWW. and even on business cards but I guess if I just said mywebsite.com then it will work anyway.
          Thanks so much to everyone for responding!
          Well... although the standard setting for Wordpress is to drop the www, you can go to the settings and change your blog url from mysite.com to www .mysite.com (without the space...)

          That will make it so that it always shows up as www.your site.com

          -G
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      • Profile picture of the author Eric Graudins
        Originally Posted by mikeyman120 View Post

        Wordpress blogs that are self hosted at least don't have the www.
        Whether or not your website works with or without the www depends on how your web hosting company has configured your account.

        The majority of companies set things up so that your domain works with or without the www prefix.

        If they have not done this, you will get an error message if you try to go to a website without using www.

        cheers,
        Eric G.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    I don't do a lot of surfing, but I have never typed in the www for years. I thought everyone understood that this isn't needed anymore, but when I passed on a url without the www, a couple of people thought they had to type it into the google search box to try to get more info and find the site (!) They didn't realize you could type just domain.com in the address bar and get to the site.

    Most control panels let you set up your files in the www section or the other one but I have never used the www section, so can't even remember what it is called.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Anderson
    oh.
    and i thought that it was only like that on sub domains.

    ok.
    rob
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  • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
    Domain Canonicalization

    ^^ Google it, and sort your site out, before you start splitting your page rank dead in half.

    Peace

    Jay
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