Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Changing url from non www to www.
-
basically I have realised i have more page authority and links going to www.onestopmuscle.co.uk instead of onestopmuscle.co.uk. I use wordpress and have no clue how to make sure onestopmuscle.co.uk redirects to www. version.
anyone have any ideas? I don't want to mess about with files or i'll most likely make the blog into a disaster.
-
I agree with George _"Wordpress 301 redirects the links from the non-www URL to the www URL so your link juice should still flow to the new URLs and the shared links will still resolve to the right page" _in the long run this will conserve you link juice.
-
Excellent news that you were able to get it to work.
I'd say yes your social media links have zeroed out because they used the old URL without the www. It's not a Google thing though and won't be fixed by re-indexing the site. However, my understanding is that Wordpress 301 redirects the links from the non-www URL to the www URL so your link juice should still flow to the new URLs and the shared links will still resolve to the right page. The only caveat is that the actual number for likes and shares in your social share buttons has reset to 0.
In my opinion, it's a good move (you're just missing the "eye-candy" for now) and this number will rise again as people begin to share using the new URLs.
-
hey guys, finally had the balls to change the site url on the wordpress backend to contain www. ( did it on a old site and it messed it up ) and that worked!! Strange tho seems all my social media likes and shares have gone from the site, everything is at zero... not sure why maybe google needs to index all the pages again?
I do have more links and more page authority with www. than without, so im hoping its a good move.
-
No prob : ) Let us know how it works out..
-
so i create a .htaccess file, get all the right code for the redirects. upload that .htaccess file to the index.php file? I'll phone my hosting tomorrow see if they can sort it, but thanks everyone who has responded helped a lot.
-
Edit: just saw you have already checked with FileZilla. I've created a new htaccess file and pasted in what Wordpress provides as an example then uploaded the new htaccess file to fix this on other sites.
-
tried going into filezilla, cannot find a .htaccess file. I will phone up my hosting.
thanks
-
Do you have anything redirecting in your htaccess file? It could be that or it could be on the hosting end...
-
have changed it to include www. but it still redirects to onestopmuscle.co.uk ( without the www ) :@. this is soo annoying and I know it is probably such a simple fix.
-
The wordpress which is the site.
-
Exactly, and as George said : "you are likely logged in at the old sub-domain of simply onestopmuscle.co.uk rather than the new sub-domain of www.onestopmuscle.co.uk"
-
do i change the site address url to include www. also? or just the wordpress url part? thanks for the help!
-
Hi Scott, yes, this should be correct. After updating this value, you may need to log back in to continue using the admin area. This is because you are likely logged in at the old sub-domain of simply onestopmuscle.co.uk rather than the new sub-domain of www.onestopmuscle.co.uk and with the new redirect, you have to log in again. It's kind of strange behavior I know :).
-
In the Wordpress admin area, under General Settings, there is a input for WordPress Address (URL). Here, you can set the URL you would like to use for your base URL (e.g. http://www.example.com/). If you use www. here, your pages should use the www. version.
Hope this helps!
-
settings > general settings
wordpress url: http://onestopmuscle.co.uk
site address url: http://onestopmuscle.co.uk
So if i change both to have www. it wont cause any problems with the site content on there already? I'm sure I did this before and i couldn't even log into the site! ( old site ).
-
Since its wordpress you can do it in the wordpress settings back end.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect from a previous url
Hi - newbie question I have a customer who's had previous versions of his website. Previously it was known as "princess-interiors.co.uk" (been around for a few years) and is now "princess-design.co.uk" (been around also for a few years). New site is WordPress - what would be the best way to redirect (I have access to the previous version of the site which is still hosted). I expect it's to use 301, but how would I do that (step by step), and does www. versus non-www need addressing (and how). Really concerned, as this site has gone to zero organic visits!! Hoping somebody can help. Thanks
Link Building | | Gokart0 -
Does a text URL (without hyperlink) provide any SEO value?
Our clients use the link shortener of our service software to share their job offers. Sometime the job baords they post to do not allow hyperlink and thus post the url as text only. Do these url texts offer any benfits in terms of SEO?
Link Building | | rflores0 -
URL parameters affecting link juice
I have a couple of quirks in my online shop that I'm ironing out. One of them is adding some URL parameters to product links.ie: website.com/product.html?&cat=0&featured=Y If someone links to this URL, will I get the link juice as if it was website.com/product.html ? I have URL parameters in Webmaster Tools and robots.txt set up to ignore them so they're not in the Google index, but I have found a few websites that have linked to us using these longer URL's and I'm wondering whether to write to them and ask them if they mind changing them or not.
Link Building | | sparrowdog0 -
Adding keyword to your url
Couldn't find the answer to my question anywhere so I'll give it a try here. If you have a site called www.example.com, and then want to add a keyword to this site, like this: www.example.com/keyword How do you add a keyword to your url like this? Without making the URL with the keyword your "main" URL, meaning you don't have to enter the keyworded URL to get to the homepage (www.example.com), and still rank better on the keyword put in the url. I'm a bit confused on the subject, would love for someone to help me understand! Thanks.
Link Building | | danielpett0 -
URL shortener and backlinks
Are there any SEO benefits drawn from creating backlinks with Google url shortener service(especially for the very deep links) or for the do-follow link juice I have to use a complete address?
Link Building | | SirMax0 -
Changing backlinks anchor text
Hi, I've read a few blog post here that suggests the strength of building links using your brand as an anchor text. This supposedly gives the site authority. Currently a chunck of the back links to my homepage are on generic terms i'm trying to rank for which doesn't seem to be working very well. I was thinking of contacting the various webmasters to change the anchor text to that of the site brand name but wondering if this will signal a manipulation of links to the search engines and potentially could be flagged as paid links? Has anybody done this before and what is the danger of doing this? Thanks Duke
Link Building | | clickangel0 -
Urls rewriting "how to" with .htaccess
hi, Please i would need advices (links, tips, tool:generator ?) regarding url rewriting through .htaccess (newbee about it). It's a "refurbishing" website case , the domain doesn't change. But the CMS does ! I've got a list of urls (800) with which i don't want to loose rankings on : Here the type of old url syntax : http://www.mydomain.com/home/newscontent.asp?id=1133 Here the new url type would be: http://www.mydomain.com/name-of-the-article
Link Building | | mozllo
or/and
http://www.mydomain.com/category/Page-2 Tks a lot...0 -
Index.php OR .php - Which is better for urls
I was wondering. When I build links should I build them using "index.php" OR ".php" at the end? Does one have any more value than the other from an SEO standpoint Example: www.mywebsite.com\hotdogs\index.php or www.mywebsite.com\hotdogs.php
Link Building | | openspan0