To WWW Or Not To WWW?

by Gobala Krishnan on January 14, 2009

To WWW or not to WWW? That’s the question!

When it comes to building websites, here are a few basic SEO or Search Engine Optimization concepts that everyone needs to know to avoid wasting their time and money. For my Malaysia students I cover a lot of this in the Internet Millionaires BootCamp, but in this post let’s tackle a seemingly simple issue.

Should you use “www” in your domain name or not?

For example, do I want my website to appear in Google as http://gobalakrishnan.com or http://www.gobalakrishnan.com? Is there any significant difference between the two?

In my experience it makes no difference whether you use the “www” or not. But what does matter is consistency. If you plan not to use “www” in links back to your website, then follow that method all the way.

Don’t submit your site to 10 directories using “www” and another 10 directories without them. Keep it consistent if you want your search engine rankings to improve fast.

Google recognizes the two as different versions of the same page, and it really wants to keep just one. But which one does Google use? By being inconsistent in your linking you’re giving Google mixed signals.

Ganted, you cannot control how other people link to you. For example you may want to link to my site from your blog as http://gobalakrishnan.com – and there is no way I can control what you do. But if I am actively using the “www” version of the URL, then there should be significantly more “www” links out there.

So what do you do, if you were not that careful in the past? Is there any way to fix it?

There are two simple methods: (1) use WordPress or (2) edit the .htaccess

Both are actually the same. WordPress helps to edit the .htaccess file in your server, which controls file permissions. If your site is not running on WP or other CMS systems then you need to do it manually.

Edit / Redirect in WordPress

In WordPress, just go to Settings > General and you can see something like this:

WordPress Redirect

By default, you will probably have the version without the “www”. This is ok, if you’ve been using the non-www version of your site URL all the while. However if you use the www version, then please change your site URL here – and never change it again.

Edit / Redirect in cPanel

cPanel Redirect

First you need to do a test. Which version of your site URL is currently displayed in your browser? What happens when you type in the other version (with or without www) in the browser? Which version do you plan on using?

Does it get redirected automatically? For example if you type in http://gobalakrishnan.com it will automatically redirect to http://www.gobalakrishnan.com – if this is the case for your site then you need to do nothing more.

If it does not automatically redirect, login to your cPanel account and go to the Redirects section, and enter something like this:

Make sure the “Do not redirect www” option is checked, otherwise your site will just be redirecting in an endless loop. However if you prefer to use your domain name without the “www”, the check the option “Only redirect with www” and enter the non-www URL in the text field.

Click on “Add” and your redirect problem will be solved. Test it out by typing in the variations in your browser.

For example, now http://weightlossdetective.com redirects to http://www.weightlossdetective.com

(It may take Google some time to re-index your site and make the required changes)

Remember, making redirects is a fix to the problem. The problem is inconsistency. If you can be rather consistent in your linking then you don;t really need to worry about this.

Lesson: Always use the same version of your domain name when ever leaving comments, or putting links up on other sites.

Related Articles:

Tagged as: redirects, www

{ 22 comments }

1 Sam September 16, 2011 at 8:13 am

thank you for your usefull information but i still experiencing problem for the sub pages (the home page works fine). they do not redirect to my preferred style. what can i do about this?

2 etomyam May 22, 2010 at 7:35 am

thank God I’ve found this useful article, I’m trying to use www in my existing blog. Thanks again

3 John Thornton October 18, 2009 at 3:34 pm

Thanks for the great explanation. Until I read this I didn’t realize that I had been using http://cleanfuture.us both with and without the WWW. My preference is without, particularly with use of URL shortening. I’m changing everything now for consistency.

4 Praveen Rajan (Marketingly.com) February 9, 2009 at 12:34 pm

@gobala: sorry buddy! I’ve been using Disqus for comments. Turns out that they’ve been erratic today – try giving it a shot again when you have the time.

5 Praveen Rajan (Marketingly.com) February 9, 2009 at 3:46 am

Consistency is key – good point! Also a good overview of how to handle redirects.

However, if I had to choose between using “www” or not, I’d opt for using “www” consistently.

I ran a quick test on the world’s top 10 websites and how they handled “www” – here’s what I found

6 Gobala Krishnan February 9, 2009 at 11:06 am: hi Praveen: thanks for the link. Wanted to comment on your blog but couldn’t figure out how.

7 David Michael Raj February 5, 2009 at 1:41 pm

Sorry sir. Thank you for the tips on “to WWW or not to WWW”. It’s gonna help our “infant” Internet team to make the right start creating a website.
Looking forward to more from you Gopala. Wishing you all the best.

8 David Michael Raj February 3, 2009 at 8:31 pm

I’m really fortunate to have found your website. It’s given me a KITA (KickInTheAss).
Happen to meet you at Stuart Tan’s SMART Seminar, Nov.08. You were introduced to the attendees towards the end of the final-day program. You were there with Martin (hope I got the name right).
After that Seminar, a few of us formed a group, to share ideas & make something out of what we picked up. Three of us from the group purchased 3 different IM modules or packages, which we decided to use as our training program to start up our IM business. To make a long story short, after creating my blogs, I’ve not been able to make much progress. I read through your story, which inspired me to look for answers. If your e-book “Blog Paycheck” is gonna provide them, I’m willing to purchase it, but I’m a little confused, coz, I remember reading somewhere in your write-up, that we could have it for FREE (sorry if I read wrong!). Please tell me if it is USD 27.00 or Malaysian Ringgit. Will you be holding live seminars? I would like to have a chance to meet you.
I want to also CONGRATULATE you on the launching/sale of your book “The New Millionaires” at MPH. Wishing you all the best towards achieving your million$.
An IM Aspirant
David

9 Gobala Krishnan February 4, 2009 at 5:26 am: hi David: I think product related questions it would be better for you to submit to the support center: http://support.incomattic.com

10 rokky January 24, 2009 at 7:19 pm

Good points mentioned there. But is it more favourable to use the www version? I mean, I use just the http:// itechdude.com for my site. Is that considered equal as the www version by Google?

11 Gobala Krishnan January 25, 2009 at 7:43 am: hi rokky,

I personally think either version os ok – as long as you stick to that version. For me it’s already a habit to always put “www” in front.

12 ThiruselvamK January 21, 2009 at 12:06 am

Dear Gopala,
Fumbled into this space, by chance. How many more tumbles, I do not know. At age 57, luckily my single finger tap dancing on the keyboard alllows for my typing competency. Otherwise, my pyjamas is on….without income yet. Will get my children to read your page and place me on the right lane. Thank you. ThiruselvamK

13 Gobala Krishnan January 21, 2009 at 9:02 am: Hi ThirusalvamK,

That’s great, it’s never too late.

14 Jennet January 17, 2009 at 6:20 pm

easily explained. But you can also use google web master tools to do this redirects, right?

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15 Gobala Krishnan January 16, 2009 at 12:13 pm

Hi Paul,

As i said in the email, and in the post above, i dont think anything is wrong. You have used this site before right, or the domain name has been around for a while? Just need to time to be updated in Google.

16 paul January 16, 2009 at 10:07 am