Domain Redirect? -Dumb question but I need to ask it. (thanks)

Hello all,
Dumb question. Just had a Wordpress site built and I am in the process of generating sitemaps for search engines etc.

While link checking and generating sitemaps, I have been getting an error 'Main page redirects to a different domain :'

Now when I submit my site, I have been submitting 'www' + domain. ...it tells me it redirects to same domain with No 'www' ....Is there a difference? It seems odd that they note this as a redirect. ...and will this 'redirect' (if that is what I even call it) create any SEO issues? Did they set the site up wrong?

Thanks and sorry for the dumb question.

It is a redirect and yes, technically domain.com is different from the subspace www.domain.com, but for most practical and functional purposes, the two tend to be one in the same.

Web crawlers can see the two as being separate, and this could theoretically hurt SEO, but you should be fine as the www redirect is a 301 redirect, so web crawlers should treat the two domains as one, I believe.

If u need a SEO for your site I can do that for you
PM me for more details..

Thank you for the response. I guess my follow up question is, which default format is preferred (industry standard?)? (Use the www? or no www?)

I am new to Wordpress but have built a few html sites (basic ones) over the years and for some reason, never came across this.

Thanks again.

DaveCowboy said:

Thank you for the response. I guess my follow up question is, which default format is preferred (industry standard?)? (Use the www? or no www?)

I am new to Wordpress but have built a few html sites (basic ones) over the years and for some reason, never came across this.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

SEO isn't my field of expertise, but I don't think there really is an "industry standard" as much as there is simply a default. The natural state of a domain, and thus the default, is simply domain.com.

Since modern web hosts automatically enforce a 301 redirect from www to domain.com, the two domains are functionally one in the same; however, your "true" domain is always just domain.com. That's why the service you were using generated the redirect error, because from a machine's perspective www is just a redirecting subdomain. So, to be on the safe side, just stick with using domain.com.

It doesn't really matter, in terms of SEO, which you use BUT be consistent in using whatever you select.

Skipping out the www would make the site easier to type and seems to be increasingly the trend.