In my opinion, either you go for "mywebsite.com" or "www.mywebsite.com", but specifying the protocol on a communication supports looks like a mistake to me.
In terms of tech, your site should allow both www and no-www and redirect to your preference. Beyond that... Yeah, doesn't matter. There's no SEO benefit one way or the other, just in consistency. There's no technological reason to have it or not, either.
In terms of pure preference, I go no-www as it's less typing and looks cleaner when typed out.
Besides, when's the last time you said, "it's on www.amazon.com" over "amazon.com"?
Although, I did find something interesting the other day when talking to someone at Google. I haven't had time to verify or look into it at all, but she mentioned that you can see in Google Webmaster Tools that both the www and non www are treated differently. Since the "www" version was being crawled more often, she recommended we switch the site from no www to actually force the www. Very weird.
But unless something like that happens - I'm with those that point the www to the non www url.
Cheers all, I'm thinking for moving forward with customer sites I'll recommend the non-www.
Our own site it' too late, we've finally got into the top 3 for all of our search terms so don't want to fiddle with it.
As others have suggested make sure you setup HTAccess properly to redirect to your chosen configuration regardless of which people may be typing in. Nothing frustrates me more than getting a 404 for a domain without www redirecting.
@Paulie_D with or without is all the same to Google (they have publicly said as much). What they say is just make sure you're as consistent as possible and to use the canonical meta attribute to make sure search engines see it as one page, with or without www.
Hi all,
What do you guys choose for your URL's, do you force WWW or force non www via HTAccess.
I usually force WWW but, I'm interested to see what everyone else is doing.
Forced WWW using .htaccess
@andy_unleash
I prefer to not have the www prefix, it looks nicer on stuff like business cards for example;
http://stevenwatson.co.uk
as opposed to;
http://www.stevenwatson.co.uk
Just my thoughts on the matter.
I hid it with .htaccess. When it comes to URL, the less the better.
@Watson90 Why on earth would you lose the www on a business card and not lose the http:// too?
@Paulie_D - What would/do you have it laid out like?
In my opinion, either you go for "mywebsite.com" or "www.mywebsite.com", but specifying the protocol on a communication supports looks like a mistake to me.
Non www. I find it humorous when people say "go to www dot mysite dot com".
Well you don't have to give out www dot - I'm talking an HTAccess redirect.
Hmm, fair point, it's just my personal preference, everyone will have their own opinions I suppose.
I feel like it's personal preference, but I recall reading a few articles that have me leaning towards non-WWW... now only if I could find them...
(apologies but I have to be facetious and not really helping the OP) You could always tell them to type 'mywebsite' > ctrl+enter ;)
In terms of tech, your site should allow both www and no-www and redirect to your preference. Beyond that... Yeah, doesn't matter. There's no SEO benefit one way or the other, just in consistency. There's no technological reason to have it or not, either.
In terms of pure preference, I go no-www as it's less typing and looks cleaner when typed out.
Besides, when's the last time you said, "it's on www.amazon.com" over "amazon.com"?
Non 'www' every time. There is no need for it; it's basically a relic these days. But you should definitely allow both URLs to resolve.
I agree with Josh. I point my www url to my non-www url.
I'm in the "non" camp.
Although, I did find something interesting the other day when talking to someone at Google. I haven't had time to verify or look into it at all, but she mentioned that you can see in Google Webmaster Tools that both the www and non www are treated differently. Since the "www" version was being crawled more often, she recommended we switch the site from no www to actually force the www. Very weird.
But unless something like that happens - I'm with those that point the www to the non www url.
Cheers all, I'm thinking for moving forward with customer sites I'll recommend the non-www.
Our own site it' too late, we've finally got into the top 3 for all of our search terms so don't want to fiddle with it.
As others have suggested make sure you setup HTAccess properly to redirect to your chosen configuration regardless of which people may be typing in. Nothing frustrates me more than getting a 404 for a domain without www redirecting.
I could be wrong but I hardly think the addition (or lack of) a WWW would affect search rankings but as you say, better not mess with success.
@Paulie_D with or without is all the same to Google (they have publicly said as much). What they say is just make sure you're as consistent as possible and to use the canonical meta attribute to make sure search engines see it as one page, with or without www.