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URL question

by TKO
11 replies
Gday Warriors

Just purchased a new domain and decided to host it on another account with Hostgator...I have several accounts...

When google finds my blog it returns the address http://url without the www. at the front.

How can i fix this? Does it matter?
#question #url
  • Profile picture of the author aaronngoh
    It does not matter and do not worries about this.

    Aaron
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    http://www.wellnessnumberone.com
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    • Profile picture of the author Ralf Skirr
      You can open a google webmaster account. In the settings you can tell them to use with or without www.
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    • Profile picture of the author SyndicatedViews
      Get the advice here.

      SEO advice: url canonicalization

      For me, it is a problem. Google sees it as two different websites, so for many reasons, its a case of duplicate content, which will not be penalized according to cutts.

      But the concern is the traffic with the two, website forms your host looks at them independently, .........if someone more technical can validate,

      And in doing so, your site seems less popular, less popular, lower rankings, lower rankings, lower revenue, lower revenue...you give up on IM

      See how the little things can have big effects?

      But its a problem which can be solved. It's a 301 redirect thing. I'm certain someone here has the solution. It will be fixed, just hold on.

      Sheldon
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      Success doesn't come to you - you go to it."Marva Collins"

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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Ben
    If your blog is a WordPress blog, go to the Settings page in your dashboard and under General, find the WordPress Address and Site Address URL's. Most likely it will be http://yourwebsite.com -- just change it to http://www.yourwebsite.com and it should fix it.

    I hope this helps!

    -Ben
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Diamond
    For SEO purposes it certainly does matter. Google counts backlinks separately to the www. version of your domain and to the non-www. version.

    When you use Fantastico to install WordPress, the default is not to use a subdomain, so you end up without the www. prefix. It's simplest to keep it that way.

    The advice to set the preference in Google Webmaster Tools is good. That will help Google to consolidate any stray backlinks that may get out using the www. prefix.

    But there's another step you should take. This will clear up any possible confusion for all search engines, not just Google.

    Add the following lines to the top of your .htaccess file found in the public_html directory of your domain. Or if it's an add-on domain in your account, it will just be the root directory of the domain. In any case, it's the same directory where the wp-config.php file appears.

    Code:
    RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^yourdomainname.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://yourdomainname.com/$1 [R=301,L]
    Substitute your actual domain name for "yourdomainname" (two places) and, if it's not a .com domain, substitute the actual extension for ".com" (two places). This will tell any spider or browser that tries to access any page on your domain using the www. prefix that the real, permanent address of that page is found at the non-www. URL.

    Hope this helps.

    Steve
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    Reduce stress | Stay focused | Keep positive and balanced
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  • Profile picture of the author Yoong
    It does matter to a certain extent. For example when you generate a sitemap and upload into Web master, you need to make sure that the url is the same as what you specified in webmaster.
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
    Originally Posted by TKO View Post

    Gday Warriors

    Just purchased a new domain and decided to host it on another account with Hostgator...I have several accounts...

    When google finds my blog it returns the address http://url without the www. at the front.

    How can i fix this? Does it matter?
    I noticed the same thing when I setup my first Wordpress blog. I don't think it matters like it used to. It still takes you to the same place. If you are really that worried about it, give Hostgator customer support a call. They are great.

    Joey
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    Learn How to Snipe in 2015 and Generate $750+ per Month in Record Time (Product Launches) - Great For Back-to-School, Fall & Holiday Seasons!
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  • Profile picture of the author samples
    if you have a wordpress site then you can change this in settings
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  • Profile picture of the author savvybizbuilder
    Actually, decide on what you prefer most for your URL domain. You will determine that http://url & http://www. is different by checking your back links but both are directing to your site. This will be an issue to your link building.
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    SAVVYONLINE BUSINESS BUILDER | 101 FREE TOOLS | TWITTER QUICK-START ACADEMY
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  • Profile picture of the author Domainate
    Use .htaccess to 301-redirect non-WWW to WWW and fix that setting also on Google Webmaster Tools.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Nametrader.com View Post

      Use .htaccess to 301-redirect non-WWW to WWW and fix that setting also on Google Webmaster Tools.
      This ^^^^ exactly.

      Funny how topics sometimes "catch the zeitgeist": this is the third thread on this subject over the last week. This one contains less misinformation than the others, though. This very recent thread may interest some ...
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