Am i missing a trick with URL's

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ollylucas

Registered Member

Mar 1, 2013

63

12

• Jun 6, 2013

• #1

Hi,

Don't know much about this.

Noticed one of my competitors was ranking before the update with there url in the search results - www at the front and now he is ranking for the same keywords but his url is without the www at the front

Is this something that they are doing to get their rankings back?

 

weblues

Elite Member

Oct 4, 2008

2,548

532

• Jun 6, 2013

• #2

It's possible they are changing the way Google displays their URL through the Google Webmaster Page, by removing the www

 

marketmonster

Junior Member

Dec 19, 2011

112

51

• Jun 6, 2013

• #3

Did their rankings go down? The way you describe it it seems they never went anywhere and just removed the sub-domain. Maybe they didn't have their htaccess set up properly before and are now 301'ing to to the naked domain.

 

M

Martin Coleman

Newbie

May 28, 2013

17

7

• Jun 6, 2013

• #4

I agree,I think there is an advantage in rewriting URL from both user prospective and ranking prospective. If you do any search in Google you will discover that many sites on top have rewritten URL. Even google webmaster blog also use it.

 

Endire

Elite Member

Mar 27, 2012

1,756

1,075

• Jun 6, 2013

• #5

Ollylucas,

I can?t say whether or not there is any benefit to having a www or not at the front of a URL (my guess would be no) but in general, keep in mind that it is never one thing that makes someone rank well but a combination of many factors. I sincerely doubt that having no www in your competitor?s URL made any difference what so ever.

Best,

Shawn

 

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ollylucas

Registered Member

Mar 1, 2013

63

12

• Jun 6, 2013
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #6

Thanks for the replies.

I noticed they were ranking well with www then during the penguin update their rankings dropped possibly to the second page. Then they have returned to their original positions without the www in front.

 

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ollylucas

Registered Member

Mar 1, 2013

63

12

• Jun 6, 2013
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #7

Also there is no 301 redirect if you type the www address it doesn't redirect to the naked url?

 

Last edited: Jun 6, 2013

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dinkish

Power Member

Apr 19, 2013

689

159

• Jun 6, 2013

• #8

That is a poorly written htaccess file then, isn't it? lol!

 

masterjani

Elite Member

Jr. VIP

May 10, 2011

6,104

534

• Jun 6, 2013

• #9

ollylucas said:

Thanks for the replies.

I noticed they were ranking well with www then during the penguin update their rankings dropped possibly to the second page. Then they have returned to their original positions without the www in front.

Click to expand...

If most of the inner pages are indexed without www and main page is indexed with www then there must be conflict. So, they might change everything in htaccess and sorted it, thus rankings are returned.

You can use any version www or non www. But, do it consistently rather than moving back and forth often.