Backlinks to www. instead of http://

by 6 replies
7
Hello,

I have been running a huge campaign asking links from various different sites.

I have blog that is located hxxp://random.com (without .www's)

However, when I go www . random . com it redirects to (301 I guess?!) hxxp://random.com

...but some of the webmasters have put my link with www. (I guess it's 15% of backlinks) Should I PM them that they have to change it to non www. or does it still pass linkjuice?
#search engine optimization #backlinks #http or or #http or or #www
  • If your paying them for the link, then you can change it to whatever you want.
    The 301 will pass flow onto the root. It might look a bit more natural too to have the mix.
  • The thing is it should look natural so you should consider these variations..

    http://
    http://www.
    www.
  • It's nothing to worry about ->

    http://yoursite.com = your canonical URL.
    http://www.yoursite.com = NOT your canonical URL.

    Matt Cutts explaining the Canonical URL

    You just have to choose one or I guess stick with the default which for you is without the "www". For SEO purposes, this means all of the link juice is transferred to the non-www version. It doesn't matter which variation other people link to, it will be transferred to the correct domain and this is the one that Google will look at.

    The only potential problem is that Google would be unsure of which version of your url to choose and you would miss out on some "link juice". However, it's 2013, Google's really good at choosing and it sounds like you already have a rel="canonical" established in your header.

    If your using WordPress you can change it under General Settings > Site Address (URL)
    • [2] replies
    • Well, in this scenario it simply doesn't make much difference. However, should probably clear up a big myth that 301 redirects still pass flow... they really don't anymore. The PR they still pass is so small compared to what it used to be just a couple years ago.
    • It is a good method to redirect links..
  • The googlebot difference.

    if your backlink is the www version of your website. The bots will first get a 301 redirect with the right location then a 200. If you look in your log. You will see that google may stop after the 301 redirect. It is ok but it will take more time for those links to be taken into account.
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