Choosing Preferred Domain

Does choosing a preferred domain between non-www and www make any difference in search result. I see very few sites that have their preferred domain non-www, mostly have www. Any priority between the two two. Please help.

 

Hi,

It doesn't make any difference, but a problem arises if both are used, as this shares rank between two URLs when only one page exists. Decide which one you want to use and then 301 redirect the other.

So, if you pick the www version, make sure anyone leaving out the www is redirected to the www version. This way you don't have to tell the search engines your preferred version.

 

I also, observed, it does not make difference if the domain is non-www and indexed pages are non-www let the domain be as it is do not set preferred. But, still I find maximum websites with www, is it just taken as a good SEO practice?

My website is non-www and pages indexed, cached are all non-www so 301 rediect to www will be useful or not??

 

If your pages have been indexed you should not change your preferred domain, as this might cause you to lose rank and have to start again.

Whether you use www or not doesn't really matter, but you should 301 redirect the version you are not using. So, if you are using http://yourdomain.com/ you should 301 redirect http://www.yourdomain.com/ to http://yourdomain.com/.