Can access my site using www
-
Hello, when I try to access my website using www i would like it to redirect to non www but instead it shows a sal error message.
-
Yes, you can access your website using the prefix "www". The "www" is simply a subdomain that is conventionally used to identify web servers. It is not required by any technical standard, but it is a widely recognized convention.
In short, you can access your website with or without the "www" prefix. It is simply a matter of personal preference.
Here are the tutorials I have followed to set redirects with or without www.
Via cPanel: https://www.milesweb.co.uk/hosting-faqs/redirect-www-non-www-urls-htaccess-cpanel/
Via DirectAdmin: https://www.milesweb.co.uk/hosting-faqs/redirect-www-non-www-urls-htaccess-directadmin/
-
This is common and can sometimes be easy to fix. Sometimes as simple as the setting of some HTTP rewrite rules in the .htaccess file. You will need to secure your domain for the wildcard domain including www when issuing an SSL certificate.
If you are using WordPress there are add-ons such as Really Simple SSL to help you with this.
Example of Rewrite
RewriteEngine On # This will enable the Rewrite capabilities RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on # This checks to make sure the connection is not already HTTPS RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com [NC] # Replace domain with your domain. RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301] # Replace domain with your domain.
This .htaccess rule will redirect all visitors from the non-www to the www version of your website.
[https://www.hostinger.co.uk/tutorials/cpanel/how-to-redirect-non-www-urls-to-www](link url)
This is the most common way however if you use CPanel it might be slightly different you might need to set up a redirect.
If you use Cloudflare you can just use some page rules and use a forwarding URL with 301 permanently redirected to the non-www of the domain.
Since we can use both www and non-www make sure your DNS records are updated for both.
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
-
Moving site from www to non www and also hosting to vps what will be the effect?
Hi SEO gurus,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SeoBlogs61
I am trying to move my site from shared hosting to VPS hosting and also moving from www to non www version.
What is the best possible way to avoid any issue and without losing the backlinks.
Is it good or bad to do? URL: https://buylikesservices.com/0 -
Can service request pages be indexed for a service site?
I think there is no point in indexing service request pages for a service site. And it causes the indexing of the main pages to be done with a delay. Does anyone have experience with indexing service request pages and their results?
On-Page Optimization | | sora.ya04680 -
Can I use £ character in title tag?
Hi - Can you use something like "save £££s" in the title tag. Have looked but can't see an answer. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | StevieD0 -
Multi-Site SEO using Host Headers
Hi - I'm working on a proposal for a client who runs 3 different career websites. He uses "host headers" to direct the website visitor to the correct website. For example, if the visitor comes from Washington he goes to one url. If he is in Kansas, he goes to another URL. Does anyone have any experience doing SEO with this type of system? What do I need to know? What are hurdles I'll encounter? Thanks, -Hunter
On-Page Optimization | | HunterW0 -
Altering site structure
I work for a business that operates several sites that were developed a very long time ago. We've been making many different changes over the past 12-18 months to improve these sites in several different ways. One area that we've never discussed or attempted is general site structure. Its pretty obvious that when the business was started they had never heard of information architecture or usability design. To make matters worse, the internal linking strategy appears to have been link everything to everything. Well after being told that it couldn't be done - I'm getting our team to say we must focus on this, if for no other reason that to help consumers figure out how to navigate through our site. Today we essentially have a series of category / information pages. In some cases, we hang more detailed topical content related to a category /informational page in a hub and spoke manner. Although remember what I said about linking everything to everything. In reality there are a series of subtopics that should been designed for every category / informational area. Instead, what happened is in some cases the subtopic is integrated into the hub or category page, in other situations is hung off the page as a spoke page and in others the subtopic isn't even covered. The plan is to standardize - each category will have 'n' subtopics (~10-12, we're still working this out). From a navigational standpoint users will be able to easily navigate both across categories as well as subtopics within a category as well as between categories within adjacent/similar subtopics. This is essentially a grid if that makes sense. The question is this - we have some keywords that do well in SEO and many many more that do not and the trend has not been our friend. We're considering keeping the URLs of the pages associated with strong keywords the same within the nav structure, even though this might mean the URL for a spoke page will be inconsistent with the spoke page name from a different category. I don't see any real danger for pages that either are not associated with any ranking keywords or only very weak keywords. Maybe I'm wrong. What things should we consider in this change? We believe that this standardization should help consumers find the information they are looking for in a much more efficient manner, so page views/visit should go up. Additionally, this prepares us for category and subtopic comparison pages and other added functionality being added in a logical manner. We also think that as we add depth about a subtopic, it will be easier for us to acquire links to our site because the subtopics within a category will appeal to different websites. This is by no means a small project. We have hundreds and hundreds of pages. Do folks think this is a worthwhile endeavor? We've spent a lot of time cleaning up H1 tags, structure of our pages, anchor tags, page load order and speed, image caching, etc. Site structure, URL length and internal link structure are essentially what is left. Once these are done we intend to really get going on better and more organized content on our site. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | Allstar1 -
Site Architecture: How do I best Optimize for Similar Keywords?
Hello Moz Community! I'm really struggling trying to decide on an improved site architecture. I run an online proofreading & editing website. This leaves us targeting many different niche keywords. For example: blog editing/proofreading, essay editing/proofreading, book editing/proofreading, resume... you get the point. I feel like editing & proofreading are similar enough to target on the same page(s). However, the issue is that I'm also having to deal with what I'm calling derivative keywords. For example, when I try to optimize for 'essay editing/proofreading', I also have to think about: paper editing, paper editor, paper correction, edit my paper, etc. I would have no problem optimizing the page for 'essay editing' in the title, H1, etc. and then targeting these words as secondary keywords within the body text, etc., however, I keep thinking 'a large slice of a small pie is better than a small slice of a big one.' You see, the keyword 'essay correction' has only about one-third the monthly searches as 'essay editing', but it is 50% less competitive. The same is loosely true for the rest of the 'derivative' keywords. I'd have no problem building specific pages for these derivative keyword groups, however, I'm very concerned how this would effect my site from a user experience perspective. I don't want to have a master "services" page with links to book editing, resume editing, essay editing, etc. and then also show paper editing, essay correction, etc. To me, this would be confusing... "What's the difference between essay editing and paper editing?". Any guidance is much appreciated. This has got my head spinning! Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | TBiz0 -
Site Redesign: Potential Problems?
We're looking at a cleanup of our site and making our navigation menu simpler and more visual. The problem is there's a massive fear that we will incur some sort of SEO hit at a time when we can ill afford one. The bulk of the changes are around some tertiary pages that have some SEO value but are not primary targets or traffic sources. The pages with content aren't moving URLs or changing, nor is the core content of the site, just the template. The new template, I feel, is easier to navigate and easier to spider (menus are flyout divs with images). So are there any tips or tricks to changing the layout of your site without hurting SEO? Anything we need to avoid?
On-Page Optimization | | Highland0 -
How can I reduce my webpage load time?
According to google 'On average, pages in your site take 4.6 seconds to load (updated on Apr 3, 2011). This is slower than 71% of sites. These estimates are of low accuracy (fewer than 100 data points). The chart below shows how your site's average page load time has changed over the last few months. For your reference, it also shows the 20th percentile value across all sites, separating slow and fast load times.' My website: http://ablemagazine.co.uk I've installed Cache plugins, Minify plugins, reduce the amount of posts on my main page. But my website is still taking too long to load and I'm afraid I'm being penalised for it. Any tips?
On-Page Optimization | | craven220