to www or not to www

[robind]

Hi all,

Any thoughts on link formats? I'm not sure i see the point of www at all!

Im building a php site with mod rewrites using a navigation header with direct links in this format:

http://domain.co.uk/link

and now I realise that if you type in

http://www.domain.co.uk/link

it throws up an 500 server error.

Not an issue if your browsing, but do Search engines not penalise for this? Perhaps its safer to use /link?

 

[robind]

The problem is that I have done all my link building without the www, but doing a search for the domain with www. has thrown up some links with the www prefix.

Does this matter? I am wondering if its worth backtracking and rebuilding the site links from the www up, or does it not matter as long as I make the site more consistant at my end?

 

[DomainMagnate]

its usually better to use the version with www.
You can do a 301 redirect from one to another.

 

[ScottJ]

Also if you use webmaster central you can login and specify whether you would like your domain to appear listed as www or not www, worth doing if you feel it may be a problem.

You can use either without penalty of problem as long as your consistent and 301 the one you don't use.

 

[tifosi]

If you're on linux then how you've got the zone file set up and the cname & A entry for the domain as well as the apache (normally) virtual hosting will affect how the server sees http://domain... and http://www.domain...

S

 

[robind]

hi thanks for the advice. within only a few hours of doing this my ranking doubled at least.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

 

[Maccke]

For short domain, I do often recommend the non-www version.
Depends a bit on the letters as well.

 

[TallTroll]

So long as you are consistent, and use a 301 from one to t'other (whichever you decide to use), it's immaterial. It comes down to personal preference / user experience. If you think your targets want to see www.example.com, use that.

If in doubt, use www. Most people don't realise it's simply a subdomain, rather than a compulsory part of a URL. This is especially true if you are targetting any but the most savvy audience

 

[Arleigh]

Try to read this link. Hope it would help.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/