Is it better to build links to yourdomain.com or www.yourdomain.com

Does it make much difference which one you create backlinks for?

I was reading that if you do the 301 permanently moved redirect to forward the one with www to the one without or vice versa - that you lose the link juice for the one being forwarded.

So if you were building all your backlinks to yourdomain.com but you have it set up to 301 redirect to www.yourdomain.com - that now you have lost all your linkjuice that you created from those backlinks.

Does anyone know the best way of setting this all up from the start?

Thanks.

Yes, it does matter. They are different URLs and can have different PR.

You should pick one, the www one, and build links to that one. That's going to be the url that others use to point links to your site. It's best you stay in sync with them to maximize your PR potential.

If you already have several backlinks going to yourdomain.com, then its probably better to stick with that one right? And redirect www.yourdomain.com to it? Or is it always better to use www?

Thanks

If, for any reason, you should need the url www.domain.com in place of domain.com make always a redirect HTTP 301 in mod_rewrite, this means that the site is permanently moved to a new domain and you won't lose PR and links equity.