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www. or no www. that is the question?

by Clojo
22 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi Warriors,

I am having some issues with having no www. and having www. at the beginning of my domain.

When I set up a wordpress site using cpanel, it automatically has NO www., so I change it to www. in the wordpress settings and all seems fine.

I then submit my site to webmasters and it seems to want to display the site as without www. unless I submit both sites (even though it is actually only one site) only then can I set it to show the preferred domain as www.

I am now seeing that my site is indexed as no www. rather than with www. and my with www. site has disappeared.

I was on page one for the with www. but have no completely gone out of the index and only appear on page 65 for without www.!

I am confused :confused: and I bet you are too after that lot! But if anyone can shed any light I would be really grateful. Would all this confusion effect my rank? I seem to have double the pages indexed as it is showing both sites, and submitting 2 sitemaps - sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz? Why does it do this?

Thanks in advance

Clojo
#question #www
  • Profile picture of the author Wechito
    1. Set your canonical domain on Wordpress (what you seem to have done already to www)
    2.Google webmaster tools will ask you to confirm that you own the 2 URLs. To do so, just upload the HTML confirmation file tot he root folder of your site and press "confirm" on both the www and the non-www sites on Google webmaster tools
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    • Profile picture of the author Clojo
      Originally Posted by Wechito View Post

      1. Set your canonical domain on Wordpress (what you seem to have done already to www)
      2.Google webmaster tools will ask you to confirm that you own the 2 URLs. To do so, just upload the HTML confirmation file tot he root folder of your site and press "confirm" on both the www and the non-www sites on Google webmaster tools
      Thanks for this. That's great. I have been doing this, but wasn't sure if this would effect my SEO?
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  • Profile picture of the author yunie6
    hi clojo!

    been having this problem when i first started.

    you have to change your .htaccess file on your domain root folder to add this code that redirects all non-www to www. the code is

    Code:
    # Redirect non-www to www 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www. 
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.net/$1 [R=301,L]
    once so, there will not be any confusion between www or non www as all the backlinks that are directed at non www are now redirected to www.

    hope I answer you qn. and if so.. kindly give me my first thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Clojo
      Originally Posted by yunie6 View Post

      hi clojo!

      been having this problem when i first started.

      you have to change your .htaccess file on your domain root folder to add this code that redirects all non-www to www. the code is

      Code:
      # Redirect non-www to www 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www. 
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.net/$1 [R=301,L]
      once so, there will not be any confusion between www or non www as all the backlinks that are directed at non www are now redirected to www.

      hope I answer you qn. and if so.. kindly give me my first thanks!
      Yunie thanks for this that is great. I will do that. SO I presume I keep everything the same in that code you have posted except change the http://www.domain.net/$1 to my domain. What is the relevance of the /$1?
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  • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
    Doesn't matter, but whichever one you use, stick with it and stay consistent when building backlinks.
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    The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is hiding your valuable keywords!
    OFFLINERS, Start using this simple technique and these 6 "weapons" today to get more clients and skyrocket your conversions! - FREE, no opt-in.
    Make some money by helping me market this idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    The problem was, your site was ranked as the version you changed. Unfortunately, google now treats it as a site that is not existing anymore and pointed towards the non www. So you will still get some link juice, but it may take a little longer for you to show up.
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  • Profile picture of the author App Developers
    I had the same issue. I picked one and stuck with it! lots of good advice here! appreciate it.
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    www.austinflightcheck.com
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    • Profile picture of the author Clojo
      This is driving me mad!

      I have set up a new site. I installed wordpress and immediately change it to www. in the settings. I have now added both www. and no www. to webmasters and set the preferred url to www.

      My www. was ranking for my keyword but has now disappeared and my no www. is now ranking. The problem is all my backlinking is to the www. site. Does this now mean that it will take longer to rank?

      How can I just have one or the other and not both!?!?!

      It is making me crazy!

      Can anyone advise?

      Thanks in advance.

      Clojo
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      • Profile picture of the author zoobie
        Originally Posted by Clojo View Post

        This is driving me mad!

        I have set up a new site. I installed wordpress and immediately change it to www. in the settings. I have now added both www. and no www. to webmasters and set the preferred url to www.

        My www. was ranking for my keyword but has now disappeared and my no www. is now ranking. The problem is all my backlinking is to the www. site. Does this now mean that it will take longer to rank?

        How can I just have one or the other and not both!?!?!

        It is making me crazy!

        Can anyone advise?

        Thanks in advance.

        Clojo
        The problem is not adding both version to the webmaster tools. The problem is you have to tell Google which version of your site you want Google to index.

        Since Google treats, non-www, www and http://www.xyx.com/index.html,
        differently, so you need to tell Google which version to be indexed so that you will have the desired ranking.

        Now to achieve that, you need to first redirect non-www to www version
        using a htaccess file or a php, asp redirect script if it is a windows server,

        and secondly you need to build links using the following html code consistently:

        Code:
        <a href="http://www.abc.com/" title="your keyword">your keyword</a>
        Note the trailing slash on your the website. The title bit is optional but it will boost Google ranking if you can add that bit on the code.

        I hope tat helps.
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        • Profile picture of the author Clojo
          Originally Posted by zoobie View Post


          Now to achieve that, you need to first redirect non-www to www version
          using a htaccess file or a php, asp redirect script if it is a windows server,
          Thanks so much Zoobie. Can you tell me the code that I would have to put in the htaccess file in order to redirect? This is all new to me.

          Any help would be brilliant.

          Thank you
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      • Profile picture of the author askloz
        it really doesn't matter how a site is linking to you, Google understands that some ppl are aware that a www. in the domain name is normal, while ppl like us who do SEO, know it should be non-www... so google takes that into account and you wont be punished by it or have rankings drop... so you're all good to go... use my code above and you'll be fine... just let google sort it self out. and continue with the content creation on your site and backlinking and you'll be ok

        Originally Posted by Clojo View Post

        The problem is all my backlinking is to the www. site. Does this now mean that it will take longer to rank?
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        • Profile picture of the author Clojo
          Originally Posted by askloz View Post

          it really doesn't matter how a site is linking to you, Google understands that some ppl are aware that a www. in the domain name is normal, while ppl like us who do SEO, know it should be non-www... so google takes that into account and you wont be punished by it or have rankings drop... so you're all good to go... use my code above and you'll be fine... just let google sort it self out. and continue with the content creation on your site and backlinking and you'll be ok
          Thanks Askloz. Thats brilliant. I will do this then. Ace! Thanks for you your help.
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  • Profile picture of the author askloz
    you will want to have the site load WITHOUT a www.

    cos WWW is a known definition. so it goes towards the overall prominence score which makes it lower, so take it out and it will be higher

    here, use my code, change my domain over to yours. dont touch the .com's unless your domain extension is different

    Code:
    RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.dailytradingsystem.com$
RewriteRule ^.*$ "http://dailytradingsystem.com" [R=301,L]
    hope that helps
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    • Profile picture of the author Clojo
      Originally Posted by zoobie View Post

      The problem is not adding both version to the webmaster tools. The problem is you have to tell Google which version of your site you want Google to index.

      Since Google treats, non-www, www and http://www.xyx.com/index.html,
      differently, so you need to tell Google which version to be indexed so that you will have the desired ranking.

      Now to achieve that, you need to first redirect non-www to www version
      using a htaccess file or a php, asp redirect script if it is a windows server,

      and secondly you need to build links using the following html code consistently:

      Code:
      <a href="http://www.abc.com/" title="your keyword">your keyword</a>
      Note the trailing slash on your the website. The title bit is optional but it will boost Google ranking if you can add that bit on the code.

      I hope tat helps.
      Originally Posted by askloz View Post

      you will want to have the site load WITHOUT a www.

      cos WWW is a known definition. so it goes towards the overall prominence score which makes it lower, so take it out and it will be higher

      here, use my code, change my domain over to yours. dont touch the .com's unless your domain extension is different

      Code:
      RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.dailytradingsystem.com$
RewriteRule ^.*$ "http://dailytradingsystem.com" [R=301,L]
      hope that helps
      Hi askloz,

      Thanks that brilliant. I will use your code. Only problem with directing it to no www is that I have just had a load of backlinks build to the www. site.

      Will this have a massive effect? or not so much?

      I presume that I just switch the sites in your code to direct to the www. site?
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      • Profile picture of the author askloz
        Originally Posted by Clojo View Post

        Hi askloz,

        Thanks that brilliant. I will use your code. Only problem with directing it to no www is that I have just had a load of backlinks build to the www. site.

        Will this have a massive effect? or not so much?
        i guess you skimmed past my post where I mention its ok

        btw... its LOZ

        All the best

        Originally Posted by Clojo View Post

        I presume that I just switch the sites in your code to direct to the www. site?
        did you skim past my post again
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        • Profile picture of the author Clojo
          Originally Posted by askloz View Post


          btw... its LOZ

          All the best
          Haha! Thanks Loz. Worked it out now..."Ask Loz". Makes sense now! Sorry.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ettienne
    It really makes no difference whether there is a WWW in front. It is VERRRRRY seldom that someone will have issues when NOT using www

    PS. I NEVER type www when visiting sites, it's simply not necessary
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