To www or not to www

DFunny

Regular Member

May 26, 2009

282

116

• Mar 7, 2011

• #1

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on whether to use h**p://domain.com or h**p://www.domain.com. When I first started got into this over a year ago I made the mistake of building links to both versions of the domain name.

This ended being a real b*tch because sometimes my site would jump around in the SERPS, sometimes with a www and sometimes without. I finally ended up switching to www in Webmaster Tools but sincce then I've always wondered about whether to use www or not too.

So what do you think?

 

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flymethod

Regular Member

Oct 27, 2010

221

64

• Mar 7, 2011

• #2

I use www because I like how it looks, and most people associate the www with a website.

Although most of the time when I'm typing in my site I just type site.com. It really doesn't matter as long as you have a 301 redirect from one to the other.

It's all personal preference really.

 

nambooooo

Regular Member

May 21, 2009

215

71

• Mar 7, 2011

• #3

^^^ Yes, it's just your preference. Put it the way you want, just make sure you 301 the other version. And build backlinks to only the version you have by default.

 

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enochstek

Newbie

Oct 14, 2009

19

0

• Mar 7, 2011

• #4

Yeah, I perfer "www"

 

noph34r

Regular Member

Sep 17, 2009

254

216

• Mar 7, 2011

• #5

I prefer without www because people is getting used to read domains without 3w.
Simply redirect with ModRewrite.
Never do that again, building links to www and wihout www versions, G see this like duplicate content.

 

artizhay

BANNED

Nov 21, 2010

1,867

1,340

• Mar 7, 2011

• #6

I started a web/print design company back in 2008, and back then I was against WWW for whatever reason. It still ranks in the SERPs, but every page around it has WWW and it doesn't, so it looks kind of stange. I'll probably be changing it to WWW soon just so it looks nicer; I also think it looks more professional as well.

As for actual SERP placement, I don't think it really matters. I have another non-WWW site ranking high for several keywords, and I also have a WWW site ranking high for other keywords.

 

Last edited: Mar 7, 2011

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frenchboy

Power Member

Aug 19, 2008

769

1,377

• Mar 7, 2011

• #7

I use no www, it just looks cleaner.

 

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ManicMystery

Newbie

Mar 4, 2011

16

30

• Mar 7, 2011

• #8

I always use it because the last thing I want is for users to get confused and think they've ended up on the wrong page and leave. We know the difference but your average user doesn't understand, all they know is that websites start with WWW

 

noiddemo

Junior Member

May 17, 2009

109

19

• Mar 7, 2011

• #9

I think one should use WWW only if there domain name is short.... and the pages/subpages names are also short.... but if one have a long/middle domain name and short/middle/long pages name ...i think it`s a must to use without WWW

why?

well... because of the way you see in in the SERPS... sometimes it is necessary that people can see your page name (e.g yoursite dot com / this-is-what-your-looking-for.html ). ...if you`ll use www... they`ll probably see just the first 3 or 4 words and not the hole page title...

so www - for short domain name .... with-out www - for long domain name

 

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fnd80

Regular Member

Oct 27, 2010

202

79

• Mar 8, 2011

• #10

i always use www the average internet user is dumb, and the last thing i'd want to do is confuse them when 95% of domains start with www and they come across one that doesn't. sends up a potential red flag that can be easily avoided with a simple modrewrite

 

NapsteR

Elite Member

Mar 2, 2011

3,027

2,428

• Mar 8, 2011

• #11

I prefer www too. But don't forget the 301 redirect. I feel like my that make my website professional.