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differences between a www and a non www

by TAHERSYED34
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
So I am looking into my webmaster and google encourages us to add one of a www version and a non www version of the domain name

what i have noticed is that the www version has 22 urls submitted and 6 of those indexed and 3 images submitted and zero indexed

vs

the non www version has 22 url submitted and zero indexed and 6 images submitted and 0 indexed.

why is the www version getting indexed only?

#differences #www
  • Profile picture of the author eserhangul
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    • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
      Originally Posted by eserhangul View Post

      if you are using webmaster tool, it is advised to use both as when you search on google as site:www and non www, google will give you different indexed results.
      That's terrible advice!
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    Google tends to index the version which has most links.

    www is a sub-domain of the main domain so there could be two separate sites on www.example.tld and example.tld.

    www.example.tld is no different to random.example.tld both are subdomains.

    When Google finds the same content on the non-www and the www version (duplicate content) it tries to combine them to avoid indexing issues. You want to avoid having links to the www and the non-www without informing Google which is the main one. If Google makes a mistake and indexed both you are splitting your link benefit for no gain, so you only want one version indexed.

    If you only have one version indexed, that's good. If both are indexed use Webmaster tools to choose the most important on and consider some .htaccess file rules to redirect the one you don't use to the other: I have some rules at 301 Redirect Htaccess

    David
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    • Profile picture of the author UMS
      Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

      Google tends to index the version which has most links.

      www is a sub-domain of the main domain so there could be two separate sites on www.example.tld and example.tld.

      www.example.tld is no different to random.example.tld both are subdomains.
      I know the intent of your information, but technically it is incorrect. In virtually all cases, www is an A record or CNAME, which in effect is a hostname and not a subdomain.

      If it was a subdomain, then you would be able to have something like:

      somename.www.example.com
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
        Originally Posted by UMS View Post

        I know the intent of your information, but technically it is incorrect. In virtually all cases, www is an A record or CNAME, which in effect is a hostname and not a subdomain.

        If it was a subdomain, then you would be able to have something like:

        somename.Example Domain
        Yep, I was simplifying since you'll find the majority of webmasters don't know www is a sub-domain and could have different content. When they understand www could have different content they tend to understand the importance of only linking to one version consistently to avoid confusion and splitting link benefit.

        David
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    • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
      Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

      Google tends to index the version which has most links.

      www is a sub-domain of the main domain so there could be two separate sites on www.example.tld and example.tld.

      www.example.tld is no different to random.example.tld both are subdomains.

      When Google finds the same content on the non-www and the www version (duplicate content) it tries to combine them to avoid indexing issues. You want to avoid having links to the www and the non-www without informing Google which is the main one. If Google makes a mistake and indexed both you are splitting your link benefit for no gain, so you only want one version indexed.

      If you only have one version indexed, that's good. If both are indexed use Webmaster tools to choose the most important on and consider some .htaccess file rules to redirect the one you don't use to the other: I have some rules at 301 Redirect Htaccess

      David

      Why not set the preferred domain in both sites if both have same indexed pages? Why would you need to 301 redirect?

      Also, what do you name the .htacces file? I cannot add a non-named ".htaccess" and it has to have some name.

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
        Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc View Post

        Why not set the preferred domain in both sites if both have same indexed pages? Why would you need to 301 redirect?

        Also, what do you name the .htacces file? I cannot add a non-named ".htaccess" and it has to have some name.

        Thanks
        That's why I said consider adding some .htaccess file rules, if you set the preferred domain you don't NEED the rules.

        The rules can help make your new backlinks consistent, every visitor will always get the same version no matter how they try to access your site: so if you want them linking to the www version setting the right rules will mean if someone tries to access your site via the non-www version they'll be redirected to the www version making it more likely when adding a link they'll use the www version.

        Do you mean in a txt editor you can't create a file named .htaccess

        Had that problem myself, so the link I posted earlier has several .htaccess files that can be downloaded and modified.

        David
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        • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
          Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

          That's why I said consider adding some .htaccess file rules, if you set the preferred domain you don't NEED the rules.

          The rules can help make your new backlinks consistent, every visitor will always get the same version no matter how they try to access your site: so if you want them linking to the www version setting the right rules will mean if someone tries to access your site via the non-www version they'll be redirected to the www version making it more likely when adding a link they'll use the www version.

          Do you mean in a txt editor you can't create a file named .htaccess

          Had that problem myself, so the link I posted earlier has several .htaccess files that can be downloaded and modified.

          David
          I ended up just using your download .htaccess file to see the code. I opened a new Notepad file, pasted in your redirect code from the dowloaded version (with my edits) then do a "save as" but choosing "All Files" for the type and just specifying ".htaccess" as the file name. Then just ftp upload to my root directory.

          I must not have indexed www pages even tho I added them to webmaster tools. When I check via site:domain.com I get my indexed pages from that domain. With site:www.domain.com I don't get results, yet they show up as "indexed" in webmastertools.

          In any event, I don't get redirected when I navigate to http://www.mydomain.com (I'm expecting to go to http//:mydomain.com)

          Thanks!
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