why to Redirect Non www urls to www?

[chinku]

Can anyone tell me whether page rank will be affected if non-www urls are not redirected to www?

[Bakeron]

All you have to do is choose from the start which version of the URL you will use, with or without WWW. From that point on just build links to that version and everything will be OK with rankings.

[KillerPanel]

The problem is if you have one version of the site, for example, with WWW, and someone links to your other version, without WWW, Google counts that as a link to separate site if you don't setup a 301 redirect to point to the version with WWW.

[hunterjordan]

Can anyone tell me whether page rank will be affected if non-www urls are not redirected to www?

Imagine that you have not implemented 301 redirect from non-www to www, then suppose people link to a page on your site using non-www and www at the same time from different places... then search engines can get confused as to which URL to throw into their index and since they have 2 URLs with the same content on your site they will see it as duplicate content.

[KillerPanel]

Imagine that you have not implemented 301 redirect from non-www to www, then suppose people link to a page on your site using non-www and www at the same time from different places... then search engines can get confused as to which URL to throw into their index and since they have 2 URLs with the same content on your site they will see it as duplicate content.

Having a duplicate content is no problem because Google doesn't give any penalties for that but your PageRank will be spilled over two different version instead of preserving the link juice just on one version.

[Jamie J]

How to redirect non www url to www? Can someone please help me with the code ?

I have a website with www. url and some websites have a link which has non www url for my website. And had also somehow effected the listing of my website in search engine. So can someone please help me with a code so that I can redirect non www url to www urls.

Thank you !!

[jennifer]

Can anyone tell me whether page rank will be affected if non-www urls are not redirected to www?

It is highly recommended to set up a redirect from non-www to www URL. Ideally search engines will most probably catch on to the situation eventually, in the meantime your site is subject to several different problems that may damage your rankings.

[Katie9]

Having a duplicate content is no problem because Google doesn't give any penalties for that but your PageRank will be spilled over two different version instead of preserving the link juice just on one version.

I have heard about duplicate content penalty by google. I think it is advisable to redirect from the non www to www. I would also like to know about the procedure to do this for my domain name.

[hunterjordan]

Having a duplicate content is no problem because Google doesn't give any penalties for that but your PageRank will be spilled over two different version instead of preserving the link juice just on one version.

Yes. I do agree with you. But it would be define one preferred domain name between www or non-www

[KillerPanel]

Yes that is the smartest thing to do. Pick one version from the start and stick to it. You can also specify your preferred version in Google Webmaster Tools.

[marck_don]

Imagine that you have not implemented 301 redirect from non-www to www, then suppose people link to a page on your site using non-www and www at the same time from different places... then search engines can get confused as to which URL to throw into their index and since they have 2 URLs with the same content on your site they will see it as duplicate content.

[Rock]

Search engines consider http://domain.com & http://www.domain.com as two different websites even though they serve the same content or they both are actual the same website. As a result, if your website has been linked to from other websites using a mix of the two URLs you are effectively splitting the potential benefit of valuable link popularity.

301 redirects are permanent redirects, which makes both the non-www URL jump/redirect to a www one, causing search engines to show the end site as http://www.domain.com & not confusing them at all. Thus increasing your website's chances of obtaining & maintaining top rankings in the world's best search engines..

[Gracie]

It is important to have the website directed at www. Also when you are submitting the website in any of the directories, social sites you should add the website with a www. in it.

[Catherine]

It is important to have the website directed at www. Also when you are submitting the website in any of the directories, social sites you should add the website with a www. in it.

That's right. The reason one should do this while submitting site is the fact that if you submit the links without WWW, and the original site is with WWW, there will be a difference in the number of Backlinks both of these URL's will have as they are considered as different URL's by the search engines.

[sabritech]

I agree, it is important to apply a redirect. As Search engine consider a URL with www and without www as two seperate domains. which can divide your ranking and popularity between two domains. After you apply a Redirect, the benefit will remain with 1 URL, which will improve ranking and S.E Positioning.

[eUK-Ken]

Hello,

well according to me You should decide to stick to specific format either with WWW or a NON-WWW site. As Google views www. and non www. as different sites, as www. is technically a sub domain. While there's not much chance of being penalized for duplicate content, as it will be recognized as same domain, links going to Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting | Domain.com will not have effect on Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting | Domain.com.

The search engines will index the site with both http and www, causing your site to be indexed twice. Search engine sees it as different site.

Regards,
Ken.

[sabritech]

Hi,

Having one domain is a perfect Option. As there will be no need to work out with all redirects. You have to work with a single Domain, optimizing it well and getting it up!!!


Regards,
SabriTech

[cranzi]

I think its just as silly to expect owners to do the redirect route when not all times it is our fault one is either with or without the 3 w's. I guess I am just tired of having to do this even when its fairly simple only because a few people miss the 3 w's, I have to do more work over it.

[Arguille]

With this discussion, I have come up with the conclusion that a URL can have the same name, with and without "www" at the beginning of the URL, but can still be different website. Is it possible then that someone can use a Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting | Domain.com even if I already owned Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting | Domain.com

If this can be possible then is it a must that we have the URL without the "www"?

[basher]

Since www's are by far the norm, I think it would be kind of silly not to have one if you want a good PR.