Difference between www. and http:// ?

Discussion in 'Google' started by mini_m, Nov 22, 2006.

  1. #1
    mini_m, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  2. BrianR2

    BrianR2 Guest

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    #2
    No. Whether a site has www before it or not doesn't matter in and of itself.
     
    BrianR2, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  3. thedark

    thedark Well-Known Member

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    #3
    google is smart :)
     
    thedark, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  4. disgust

    disgust Guest

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    #4
    that's not exactly true.

    there is a difference. they're considered two different pages, and often have two different pageranks.

    if you want the link popularity of one to go to the other you should 301 redirect one to the other.
     
    disgust, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  5. BrianR2

    BrianR2 Guest

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    #5
    oops, i was thinking that you were talking about linking out to sites from your blog. yes, it makes a difference and in addition to 301'ing, it might be a good idea to choose your preferred domain in Google sitemaps.
     
    BrianR2, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  6. tflight

    tflight Peon

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    #6
    I disagree. Google isn't always smart in this regard. Google will do its best to determine if the www version and the non www version are the same, then try to figure out which one you prefer, then try to index your site that way. However Google doesn't always get this right and I've seen cases where both versions of the site were indexed.

    In that case it is reasonable to assume that you are not getting the full weight of your backlinks if Google doesn't recognize that both versions of the site are the same.

    The best thing to do is to add a 301 redirect from whatever version you don't want indexed to the version you do want indexed and then try to have the backlinks point to one version. That is the safest way to go about it.

    There is also an option in the Google Webmaster Tools to set your preferred domain (with or without the www) which will also help Google figure out which way you want your site indexed.

    So yes, it can impact your rankings if Google can't figure out your preferred domain, or can't figure out that both domains are the same, and thus essentially split the weight of your backlinks.

    Generally speaking you don't want any exact copies of your site content to be accessible from more than one URI.
     
    tflight, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  7. mini_m

    mini_m Active Member

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    #7
    I'll do a google search about this 301 as I'm not familiar with it

    Also, the site I'm talking about is my blog and not sure whether that URL can be re-directed to a main on?
     
    mini_m, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  8. Motter

    Motter Peon

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    #8
    you are supposed to have google.com redirected to www.google.com so you do not end up getting two different pages indexed with duplicate material.
     
    Motter, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  9. disgust

    disgust Guest

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    #9
    do you have regular access (ftp, etc) to the blog, or is it hosted on something like blogger's domain? if it's the latter you can't do much. if it's not, then you can, quite easily.
     
    disgust, Nov 22, 2006 IP
  10. mini_m

    mini_m Active Member

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    #10
    Nah, it's hosted on blogger. But if I just give the link: http://celebritat.blogspot.com out to people it should be fine I think.
     
    mini_m, Nov 23, 2006 IP
  11. disgust

    disgust Guest

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    #11
    you could also sign up for google sitemaps and tell them non-www is the same as www, and that non-www is the main link. :)
     
    disgust, Nov 23, 2006 IP
  12. earticles

    earticles Well-Known Member

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    #12
    Generally, google makes difference between www.domain.com and domain.com the same way as it consider different anysubdomain.domain.com and simply domain.com

    In some cases could be different...
     
    earticles, Nov 25, 2006 IP