site:www.domain.com vs site:domain.com

Question... site:www.justanswer.com returns about 2K google listings, whereas

site:justanswer.com returns over 200K. I feel like I should be able to figure out for myself why, but I can't. Anyone know why this discrepancy exists on sites?

-Sunny

 

Google initially uses a strict interpretation of the structure of URLs. In the case of the common 'www.' subdomain prefix, it will consider the www version of a URL and the non-www version to be separate and distinct. This can lead to duplicate content issues and interruptions of a sites rankings. Over time, Google eventually merges the two versions of the URLs (ie. 'canonicalizes' them) into what it decides is the predominant usage and the site's rankings are normalized. Of course, when its your site, 'eventually' can feel like a very long time. This is why it is commonly recommended that webmasters pick the preferred version of their site's URL and install a server code 301 redirect for requests using the 'bad' version and redirecting them to the 'good' version. This is also why Google has made available a 'Preferred Domain' setting in the Webmaster Tools console - to enable webmasters to notify Google of their preference and to speed up the canonicalization process.

 

I prefer with the www

 

wow rain... that's a serious, rock solid answer. thanks.

 

I am have the same question.
but i think "www." is accurate than non www

 

i dont like www.

its too common to be written or read

 

Me too.

But what is the industry standard nowadays?

A few years back I would insist on telling people that "www" is the standard name.

But some people now prefer non-www URLs. Is there a industry consensus on which one is best?

 

everyone knows its the world wide web i think

so there isnt any significant need to use www

 

Very well stated.

 

I changed my solar blog to www. as it's preferred in google webmaster tools, a function I did not know exists until today...

Thanks guys

 

Personally, I'd go with www.example.com. It just looks better.

Otherwise, it doesn't make a difference.

 

I think www is better than non www also. It usually works to be more accurate to me

 

with out www brings up subdomains as well

 

The new version of Wordpress has a build in feature regarding this issue.

Check out the following link for complete information.

http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/wordpress-23-canonical-urls/

Very useful info thats not being discussed to much.

 

when you do site:www.domainname in google then only subdomains including www will be shown

if you do site:domainname then all subdomains will show.

eg site:justanswer.com
will show the subdomain computer.justanswer.com in the results
whereas site:www.justanswer.com will not.

This is the cause of the big difference in numbers between the two searches.

 

I think you're confused on what a subdomain is.

www is a subdomain. So of course specifying a subdomain won't return others unless they are preceding the www. so the only way your example could work would be destination.www.domain.com

The only way to see all your links would be breaking it down to the most basic URL. domain.com then it will show everything

 

Is that meant to be in answer to me?

 

No, in fact you said the same thing I did.

 

lol, i thought what I said made sense, wasn't sure if the termology was right

 

Most Of The User Like WWW In My Openinon.