Should you use www?
-
The age old question. Should I use "www." for a brand new content site assuming my goal (and most goals starting out) is to get to millions of visits per month? Does the community agree with, http://www.yes-www.org/why-use-www/?
The only reason I question it honestly, since most high traffic companies in my search use www., is because moz doesn't.
Thanks for your help. Seems it would be quite a pain to go back once you have a lot of traffic.
-
Hey mag777! Happy New Year! Great question and one I'm asked a lot from my business advisory groups, clients and referral partners. It's one that undoubtedly always comes up in conversation when talking about either acquiring new domains or revamping a website... "Should we use the WWW or NON-WWW domain?"
In my 12+ years of web consulting and SEO, it has boiled down to a preference ideology. As mentioned by seoman10 in this thread, it could be seen as a shorter, easier to remember URL. When marketing the domain, you'd always want to confirm the WWW is redirected to the NON-WWW if this is the path you choose to take. And visa versa NON-WWW --> WWW.
As Gaston mentions too, check out your competitors URL structure. It's a quick glimpse up to the address bar while you are already doing your competitive research. Do some searches in Google as well for your website and competitors to see how much of the URL does or could display. Moz.com doesn't use WWW. They could get away with it because it's so short. I on the other hand almost need to with https://whiteboardcreations.com since it's a much longer domain. Keep this in mind for those domains you're working on, too.
From an SEO school of thought and how I now operate, I choose the NON-WWW simply because we can get just a little more of the URL to show in Google SERPs, if we're targeting inner pages to provide a hint more of visual for the searcher. The URL string matches more closely to the Title and Description. That is the way I look at this strategy.
Here is a quick video from Matt Cutts a few years back... should ease your concerns over redirects
https://youtu.be/Filv4pP-1nwEither way, the websites you work on for yourself or your clients will be fine as long as you are consistent for the entire site and redirects are tested and confirmed functional.
Cheers to a successful 2018 for you and everyone else reading!
- Patrick @ Whiteboard Creations (Apex, NC)
-
Hello mag777,
TL;DR;
In a SEO perspective, there is no difference.In my experience for the companies I've worked (and those im working) there is no difference in SEO for having www or non-www site.
How do we decide?- (as stated in the article you share) using the one that complies all the technical need of the website.
- Understanding all online competitors and trying to see which version they use and why
- For some companies its a commercial and branding thing. Just love to use one version.
In my opnion this is the case of the really big brands, they follow the wave that in the begginings(arround 2000's) every website used www so as the general public understad that was an internet direction.
That last point is backed by me asking them why they use that version and them saying: "because Coca-cola, Ebay and every big company uses www. So we want to imitate them"
Hope it helps.
Best Luck.
GR. -
Going by the book, technically a short domain will give you a slight benefit, but I wouldn't consider it's anything worth bothering with.
Not using www will make it slightly quicker to type and easier to remember, However when advertising your domain name off-line it is more explanatory to have a www. prefix (Without having to type website or HTTP(s):// every time).
I would say there is very little SEO benefit, I would assess it from a user angle.
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
-
Is there any set benefit in using a URL tracking engine on a domain for passing link juice?
Is there any set benefit in using a URL tracking engine on a domain for passing link juice? I.E. xxxx.com?$id=1111 to then redirect to shareasale? The client has an affiliate program and is thinking of running one in-house as well. Is there a benefit to a “redirect engine” that uses the website root domain?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KellyBrady1 -
Www PA is 29\. Http version is PA of 21\. Should I start using the WWW one?
I think I know the answer but i need to ask anyway in case i am wrong. The www PA is 29. Http version is PA of 21. Should I start using the WWW one? A number of years ago, they hired an agency that built a ton of links to the WWW version. I should also point out that most of the site urls are for the http, so i would have to redirect all the other pages. Advice? Thanks, Nails
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | matt.nails0 -
CNAME record for WWW to Non-WWW Vs. 301?
I was just chatting with the person who set up our site on our domain hosting and they said they added in a CNAME record to transfer the www version of my site to the Non-www version. Shouldn't this be set up as a 301 redirect? I have hundreds of links built to the www version and only a few to the non-www version. Or Could I just add in a 301 in addition to the CNAME record? This is not my wheelhouse and need a little advice. Thanks in Advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | photoseo10 -
What's the best redirect to use for a newer version of a blog post?
For example: suppose you have a post "The Best Games to Play for YouTube Gamers in 2016" and you want to make this a yearly series. Should you 301 the 2016 version to the new 2017 one? Should you use the canonical attribute? If 2016 isn't in the URL, should you make the 2017 one the new URL?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Edward_Sturm0 -
Do I use H1 tag for logo or page content?
Should the h1 tag be used for the main page content or the logo? I understand the original method was too H1 the logo with the main search term, does this still hold true or should it be content focused?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
Shall I use a 301 or 302 redirect when people leave the company?
Hello, At my company, we have instances where client-facing people leave the company and so we need to remove their profile page from the website. As opposed to people receiving a 404 when they search for them, I thought it would be best to divert visitors to a generic landing page to explain that the person they are looking for has left the company with details on how to get in touch. I'm tempted to use a 302 redirect so the person they are searching for stays in the search results longer. But longer-term, will this cause any harm? Should it be eventually be turned into a 301 redirect? Or should I just use a 301 in the first instance. Thanks in advance, Stu
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Stuart260 -
Should I include www in url, or doesn't it matter?
Hello Mozzers, I was just wondering whether Google prefers www or non www URLs? Or doesn't it matter? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Consolidating numerous landing pages using similar search terms
Hi, The site I am working on currently uses numerous pages for search terms with similar keywords. vehicle wrapping / vehicle wraps / car wrapping / car wraps / van wrapping / van wraps etc Now obviously i want to bring these into one to help create one high authority page covering all terms. At present the "car wraps" page is ranking for quite a few of these terms. Am i best to stick with this or chose the highest search term being car wrapping, and pass the dribbles of juice from the rest and "car wraps" onto this? This is aimed at a local demographic so the local terms will be thrown in too unless you think the places pages will work in favour? Many thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Lee4dcm0