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www does it matter or not?

by jsanderz
13 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi,
I have been setting up a few domain names and noticed that the URL doesn't begin with www I used name cheap to create the domain names and host Gator to host the sites. Whether you enter the www or not into the address bar will still take you to the same website, that I understand. But for the sake of Google analytics, back links etc, does it really matter? Does anyone know why this has happened? I've set up WordPress sites before and www is there? I've been told that Google looks at these as two different sites, does anyone know if that is true?
Many thanks
#matter #wwwdoes
  • Profile picture of the author CarloD.
    Yes, It does make a difference,

    In your wordpress settings under general, you will see

    WordPress address (URL)
    Blog address (URL)
    thats where you can set it, also any links that you use the same.

    I don't think it matters much if you use one or the other, but I would say it is best to stay consistent and choose only one.
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  • Profile picture of the author bjradioguy
    I does not really matter for SEO for purposes, except that when you are doing backlinks and writing articles that you always are consistent with the format. If you do not use www, then make sure all of your links are formatted that way.

    The www before your domain represents a specific subdomain, so linking to www.domain.com and domain.com are 2 different links. The reason that most people still use www is that consumers/searchers use www by default (for the most part) when they type in a web address, so it makes it simpler, or more natural for them.
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    • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
      Hi Carlo, bjradioguy
      Both my wordpress and blog address show no www, I have added www. It actually logged me out of my account and when I logged back in it now shows www.domain.com in the url.
      I have read that you can change it using Google's webmaster's tools at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ do I need to do this now that I have changed the wordpress and blog address?

      Regards.
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      • Profile picture of the author bjradioguy
        Originally Posted by jsanderz View Post

        Hi Carlo, bjradioguy
        Both my wordpress and blog address show no www, I have added www. It actually logged me out of my account and when I logged back in it now shows www.domain.com in the url.
        I have read that you can change it using Google's webmaster's tools at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ do I need to do this now that I have changed the wordpress and blog address?

        Regards.
        When you sign up in Webmaster tools, you probably did it with the www correct? You should not have anything to worry about.

        One thing you do need to do... and everyone needs to be aware of... is that when you change to www in that manner in Wordpress, the redirect it gives you is a 302 redirect and NOT a 301. You definitely want that to be a 301 redirect so of anyone does link to you at domain.com it will transfer alot of the authority. You can do this using the "Redirection" plugin. Let me know if you need help setting it up.
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        • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
          Hi Guys,
          Sorry I'm a bit mixed up, (maybe a bit thick) do I need to do anything or not? Would Google's webmaster's tools do the job if anything needs doing?
          Why has this happened in the first place?
          Many thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeevee
    Yes it does matter. http://www.playhard.co.uk is a totally different domain to http://playhard.co.uk

    In effect www. is just a subdomain, like any other subdomain.

    Both will have seperate PRs. Often the webserver is set up to redirect one to the other by default, but they are still seperate domains.

    Hope that helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author theIMgeek
    The technical term here is Canonicalization... which in plain english means "make sure you don't put the same stuff in two different places."

    domain.com/page is seen as a totally different url to www.domain.com/page.

    The problem with this, from an SEO standpoint is that it can split your incoming links. If half of your links arrive to domain.com and half to www.domain.com your search engine ranking will be weaker than if you had 100% focused on one or the other.

    As others have stated, it doesn't matter which you choose, www or not, just pick one and commit. Commit with 301 redirects, and make the change official within Google Webmaster tools to clarify already indexed pages.

    -Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
      Hi,
      I just want to say thank you to everyone for all your help. This is what I've done so far:
      Changed both WordPress address (URL) andBlog address (URL) to www, added both domains in the Google Webmaster tools and set the preferred domain to www. I have tried the 301 redirect plug-in for WordPress, but after setting it up and trying it I got an error message which said something like, unable to redirect. I deactivated the plug-in and entered the domain name without www and the webpage opened correctly to www.domain.com.
      My last two questions are, do I really need to use the 301 plug-in and why was the URL changed in the first place? When I registered the domain name in the first place I am sure it was www.domain. At which point did the url change?
      Many many thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
        Hi all,
        I've just spoken to technical support at HostGator and they have said the reason I lose the www from the URL is because when I add the domain using their "addon domains" facility and using WordPress it strips the www from the URL.
        So that means every time I add a new domain with HostGator I'm going have to go through this rigmarole. Does anyone have a better solution?
        Many thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author theIMgeek
    Wordpress will now automatically handle the www redirect for you. No additional plugin required.

    Technically, you registered domain.com and www.domain.com is just one of the infinite subdomains you can choose to set-up. So it's got nothing to do with registration. By default, most sites will use both domain.com and www.domain.com interchangeably, but you're now among the smart folks who have forced one as the primary URL.

    -Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Nguyen
      I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but I did this when I wanted my site changed/redirected from http://yourwebsite.com to http://www.yourwebsite.com.

      1. Open up notepad

      2. Enter the following and substitute "yourwebsite.com" with your own domain name:

      RewriteEngine on
      RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourwebsite\.com
      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourwebsite.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]

      3. Now name this file ".htaccess" (no quotes)

      4. Upload this file to your public html or whatever in your cpanel.

      5. Now when you type in your domain it will have http://www.yourwebsite.com instead of http://yourwebsite.com

      Hope that helps,

      Peter
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      • Profile picture of the author jsanderz
        RJP, thank you for your advice all seems ok now when I login to wordpress it now defaults to www.domain.com.

        Peter, thank you for the info, all is ok without doing that but I will remember that for the future.

        Out of interest if anyone else has a hostgator account how do you host multiple accounts? As far as I can see you can only add them as "addon domains".
        Regards.
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        • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
          Originally Posted by jsanderz View Post

          As far as I can see you can only add them as "addon domains".
          It is a problem with cPanel. DirectAdmin handles extra domains a lot better. They all have equal weight and in fact you can switch your root domain if you want to. You get 2 double clicks quicker access to the root domains folders so I do that when work on a new site gets hectic.

          A couple of good DA hosts are hostpc.com and uberhost.net. Check out Webhostingtalk.com for more info on DA vs CP.
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