Links to www vs non-www

[toddmatthewca]

I was having speed issues when I ran a test under Google Page Speed test and, as a result, switched to using Google Page Speed Service.  This meant I had to switch my site from the non-www to the www.  Since the switch my page is running faster but my ranking has dropped.

What I'm trying to find out is the drop due to all of my previous links going to the non-www or is it because of the site being considered new and is more of a temporary issue.  If it is a link issue I will contact everyone I can to see who will update the site address.

Thanks everyone!

[toddmatthewca]

Andy, JCurrier and Derek

Thanks so much for all of your help.  Much appreciated!

[acceleratormktg]

Doesn't seem like anyone has mentioned it but, just in case, make sure you have your rel="canonical" tags published properly on every page. Here's a link for more if you need it:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139394?hl=en

[Andy.Drinkwater]

If everything is in place Megan, then you should have no problems. Google will be able to work the links out without penalty. As JCurrier said, expect a little movement when you make changes, but it doesn't sound like anything much and should right itself. If it doesn't, then there may be something else going on as well.

[JCurrier]

Hi Megan,

As long as you have made all of the appropriate changes, you should be fine. The drop is probably due to the change, but you should see the rankings recover. I think you can expect some shuffling to occur when changes like these are made.

[toddmatthewca]

Hey Andy!

thanks for the response.  I do have a redirect in place and have made all the appropriate changes in webmaster tools.  Google recognizes the site on www but I saw a drop (5 spots) since the change.

Im wondering if Google treats www links and non-www as the same or different, or perhaps the drop is just a temporary one due to the "new" domain.

thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Megan,

You shouldn't really have two live versions of your site. Apart from anything else, this causes duplication issues. What I would do is correct this by having someone create a redirect in the .htaccess file so that when anyone does hit the non-www version, they will automatically be forwarded to the www version.

That being said, you could always look at page caching to speed the load times up. Perhaps even look to have large images fed from an alternative source such as Flickr?

Andy