Www vs non-www
-
We just had our site redesigned. Previously, it was indexed under www.suss.net, but now the developer has it at suss.net with www.suss.net 301 redirecting to suss.net. Is this bad for SEO?
-
Thanks for the detailed response. I checked Open Site Explorer and looks like we should be using the www.
Also, I believe that we have some print ads that use www -- good thinking!
-
Neither helps or hinders your SEO efforts but forcing one over the other will help on many fronts (particularly with PR concentration and indexation issues). Generally, I prefer non www URls because this reduces the length of all URLs by 4 characters. A bonus is if your domain and file names are short you may not need a URL shortener on Twitter.
However, there are other considerations for an existing site. For example:
-
what does your link profile look like? Are your most valued backlinks pointing to www vs non www (there is slight PR leakage with 301 redirects)
-
What does your indexation look like? Are more www pages indexed than non and vice versa
-
Do you have a massive amount of print collateral or ads with www? This is less of a concern because of the 301 but it brings back up issues #1 and 2.
There are other considerations but these are the ones that come to mind quickly.
-
-
I don't know who has thumbed down because it is the correct response.
-
I am not sure if there is technically a negative SEO impact of non www sites however I would guess a www site has a better CTR rate etc as it is more familiar to users.
-
Yes.
You want the 301 to go from suss.net to www.suss.net
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
-
How to resolve warning of pages with redirect chain when its your http:// to https://www.
how do I write a 301 redirect in the htaccess file so that http:// goes straight to https://www. Moz replyEli profileHey there!Thanks for reaching out to us!
Technical SEO | | VelocityWebsites0 -
Direct link vs 302 redirect
So we have recently relaunched a site that we manage. As part of this we have changed the domain. The webdesign agency that built the new site have implemented a direct link from the old domain to the new domain. What is best practice a direct link or a 302 redirect? Thanks
Technical SEO | | cbarron0 -
Google Webmaster tools Sitemap submitted vs indexed vs Index Status
I'm having an odd error I'm trying to diagnose. Our Index Status is growing and is now up to 1,115. However when I look at Sitemaps we have 763 submitted but only 134 indexed. The submitted and indexed were virtually the same around 750 until 15 days ago when the indexed dipped dramatically. Additionally when I look under HTML improvements I only find 3 duplicate pages, and I ran screaming frog on the site and got similar results, low duplicates. Our actual content should be around 950 pages counting all the category pages. What's going on here?
Technical SEO | | K-WINTER0 -
How do I stop www.mysite.com/ showing as a duplicate of www.mysite.com
I have run the campaigns software over a site and it is showing that www.mysite.com/ is a duplicate of www.mysite.com, how do I correct this? Is it a genuine duplicate page? My first thought was to use rel canonical but there is no page called / to put it on. Your suggestions welcomed Sean
Technical SEO | | ske110 -
404 vs 301
My company is planning on discontinuing one of the product lines we currently offer. In terms of SEO, would it be better to implement a 301 redirect to a generic page page (such as the homepage or main product page), or to create a custom 404 page explaining that the product line with links to other pages (according to the most next viewed pages in Google Analytics). Thanks!
Technical SEO | | theLotter0 -
Related post script for non wordpress sites
Guys am looking for a related posts script or tool that can read my site map or and post related articles under each of my articles. There are plugins like yarrp, linkwithin but they are for wordpress. I need something i can you use with a normal html website.
Technical SEO | | Emeka0 -
Root domain not resolving to www. Duplicate content?
Hi, I'm working with a domain that stays on the root domain if the www is not included. But if the www is included, it stays with the www. LIke this: example.com
Technical SEO | | HardyIntl
or
www.example.com Of course, they are identical and both go to the same IP. Do search engines consider that to be duplicate content? thanks,
michael0 -
Panda Update Question - Syndicated Content Vs Copied Content
Hi all, I have a question on copied content and syndicated content - Obviously copying content directly form another website is a big no no, but wanted to know how Google views syndicated content and if it views this differently? If you have syndicated content on your website, can you penalised from the lastest Panda update and is there a viable solutiion to address this? Mnay thanks Simon
Technical SEO | | simonsw0