The difference between http://domain.com and http://www.domain.com
Hello everyone.
I need a little clarification and direction about the difference between http://domain.com and http://www.domain.com.
Should I use one over the other or both. Does it matter for SEO. Do I have control over it? Sorry about the newbie question but my rank tracker just pointed out to me that I am ranking for both and I didn't do it intentionally. I would like to know how to better control it.
Thanks everyone!
All the best,
Albert
Hi Albert,
Good question!
I need a little clarification and direction about the difference between http://domain.com and http://www.domain.com.
Should I use one over the other or both. Does it matter for SEO. Do I have control over it? Sorry about the newbie question but my rank tracker just pointed out to me that I am ranking for both and I didn't do it intentionally. I would like to know how to better control it.
Search engines treat www.domain.com and http://domain.com as different pages, so both can have different page rank, etc.
Make a decision on which one to use, and only even use that in all your links to your website and internally.
Don't choose one and then later change.
Add the code below to your .htaccess file, and it will automatically redirect http://domain.com to www.domain.com, meaning www.domain.com will be the only link used for backlinks, etc.
Reverse the order if you want www.domain.com to redirect to http://domain.com
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.domain\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
Cheers,
Anthony
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People who build a lot of sites find it just too expensive to keep buying servers to host their sites. They purchase a better server selection which allows add-on and sub-domains. The site retains the original registered name and everything else just uses the server space. Many people never actually put anything onto the original site and just use it as a "boarding house". Sites can be put up and taken down at will. Without ever affecting the integrity of the original site because they are all put into their own folders.
http://yoursite.com is an add-on domain. When you subscribe to a server and register a domain name, a lot of them will allow you to add more domains to the site but only the original site retains the "www".
An add-on domain is exactly the same as a registered domain name and uses the same domain server set up (for example dn1.abcserver.com dn2.abcserver.com) the same ones that you used originally. This DNS example is exactly the same and is used for any future add-on domains.
My server allows 1000 add-on domains and unlimited sub-domains.
First purchase a new site name at goDaddy, NameCheap or wherever. ( Not my affiliate links!)
An add-on domain works exactly the same as any other registered site. It can access cpanel using http://mysite.com/cpanel and have its own mailing address at the site. (i.e. info@mysite.com) The new name that you purchased you add into cpanel at the little add-on domain icon. Just put in mysite.com click on the next row then on the third where you add a password. It will take a couple of hours to propagate through the system so don't try looking at it for awhile.
The next step is to click the file manager icon and the click the folder at public_html and add a new folder with the new site name, just the name, no net, com or anything else and no spaces.
Fantastico will recognize it as a single, individual site.
A sub-domain, you do not need to purchase anything and it does not need to be registered. Just click the sub domain icon and when it opens up just add a site name where there is a space with your real site name following i.e. chairs (the dot is already there)furniturefactory.com Your new site will be http://chairs.furniturefactory.com or you can use it in an add-on domain name . . . .
example:
http://dieting.healthyeatinginformation.net - to expand the original theme.
You could then use things like http:// diabeticfood.healthyeatinginformation.net - http:// sportsnutrition.healthyeatinginformation.net - etc. and have a sub domains about diabetic food and sports nutrition and link them all together.
The original site can host something completely different say, "fishing" and be totally independent of all the add-on or sub domains. The add-on sites can be anything, like http:// babyfood.net - ]http://elephantsforsale.info - Get the idea?
It is helpful to carry on a theme with the original name.
I hope this helps to clear up the differences in add-on and sub domains.
And to answer the original question, NO it makes absolutely no difference. Just get your main keywords into the domain name. Make sure your first and last paragraphs contain keywords in them also, try chucking a few around in the middle. No, Not too many!
To use the sub domain do as before in public_html just make a new folder with the name. When you are in Fantastico and it asks where you want to make the new site click on the little down arrow at the side of the display box and it will open up and show you all the sites you have - add-ons and sub domains. Just pick the one you want and continue as usual.
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Last edited by Ryath; 5th August 2010 at 11:42 AM.
One problem over looked on the www/No www issue is that it's easy to end-up with duplicate content.Originally Posted by Albi68
You can use the "Platinum SEO" wordpress plugin to get around that problem for a blog. Just check the
Automatically do 301 redirects for permalink box in the plugin.
For an on-site redirect use the .htaccess script that Anthony posted above.
Google sees them as two separate sites with essentially the same address and counts them as duplicate. I don't know if the other SEs have the same hangup but Google does.
RT...
Search engines take www and non www domains as different domains and dont take as single domain.. you can prefer the domain you want to display into the search engines by going into google webmaster tool and can prefer your domain..
Right your are again Jeff. That's an end-around for the 301 script.
RT...
Hi..
Google treats these two as different urls and websites. This is very bad if these urls are not redirected. Between these two urls you should pick one and go with it and redirect other url on it.
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Last edited by brett; 17th November 2011 at 01:49 AM.
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