Www vs non-www
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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?
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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!
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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:
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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)
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What does your indexation look like? Are more www pages indexed than non and vice versa
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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.
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I don't know who has thumbed down because it is the correct response.
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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.
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Yes.
You want the 301 to go from suss.net to www.suss.net
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