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Does it matter how people link to your site?

by staffjam
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I was wondering if it matters how people link to your site in their blogrolls.

For example they may do http://abc.com or http://www.abc.com or www.abc.com

I seem to be having all 3 coming into my site - should i ask people to change them or are the search engines smart enough to figure it out?

Thanks for any advice
#link #matter #people #site
  • Profile picture of the author mesmerist
    I think it's better to have variations to look natural
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Grant
    Yes it matters.

    site.com is different than www.site.com
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  • Profile picture of the author staffjam
    Thanks Guys - Mike do you think it matters in a good or bad way?
    Surely the search engines can see the difference
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    “Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.” Robert Heinlein

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  • Profile picture of the author Vlad Romanov
    As Mike said the www extension is pointing to a different domain as far as search engines are concerned. You should pick one and stick to it in your backlinking strategies. It does not make it good or bad; backlinks need to be pointing to the right URL or they will be useless to you.
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    Website: http://vladromanov.com

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    • Profile picture of the author Sweely99
      Originally Posted by Mike Grant View Post

      Yes it matters.

      site.com is different than www.site.com
      Originally Posted by Vlad Romanov View Post

      As Mike said the www extension is pointing to a different domain as far as search engines are concerned. You should pick one and stick to it in your backlinking strategies. It does not make it good or bad; backlinks need to be pointing to the right URL or they will be useless to you.
      These guys are right.

      Linking to site.com and www.site.com is like linking to two different domains as far as Google (and other search engines) are concerned — provided you don't permanently redirect one to the other using a 301 or aren't using so-called canonicals URL's.

      It's easy. Google it or send me a PM — I'd love to help you out!
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  • Profile picture of the author GerryMedia
    You have to decide whether you want to use with or without www.

    You can "force" this using htaccess.

    Here's the simplest tutorial: Force www vs non-www to avoid duplicate content on Google

    So it doesn't matter if other websites link to you as www or non-www, once the human visitor or search engine spider follows these links, they will always end up in the domain of your choice (www or non-www)
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  • Profile picture of the author staffjam
    Thanks guys - i have everything pointing to http://abc.com version so no matter what people type they end up here. The problem is when people add us in their blogrolls - they don't always ues the http - but quite often the www. - which will automatically be forwaded to the other. I was wondering if i should contact the blog and site owners and ask them to change this?
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    “Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.” Robert Heinlein

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  • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
    As Mike and others have said, it definitely matters. You need to try to stay consistent whenever possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Since you can't control how others link to you, the whole thing
    is moot. Just make sure that either with or without go to the
    same page.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    It's not complicated, just redirect the url you don't like, to the one you do like.
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  • Profile picture of the author LeahRae
    I agree with @ GerryMedia - use your htaccess to state your preference. You can also tell Google if you prefer http// or http//www. in webmaster tools.

    As for external links, I wouldn't get too demanding over links. I would concentrate more on the Link Title text.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mr.H
    More Variation More natural
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