301 Redirect for non-www to www

Hi, my main page contains the www. and I know that makes a difference, should I do a 301 redirect if you don't type www? Will that help me, in SEO terms?

If it helps, how do I do it?

I noticed I have a PR5 with and without the www, so I guess I could have a boost on www, right?

 

I do it and I like to do it so that way if anyone were to link to domain.com instead of www.domain.com, I still get all the benefits. Take a look at this yes, www.yes-www.org

 

add

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.free-phphosts\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [L,R=301]
</IfModule>

to .htaccess then store in server root

then test with

phphosts.com

and

www.free-phphosts.com

 

Hi, thanks for the quick anwser, I already have the lines
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase / on my htaccess

Can I just add
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.free-phphosts\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [L,R=301]
?
Or do I need to add those lines
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
</IfModule>

I don't really understand the code you give me, but why both have www?

Well, I only added
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^free-phphosts.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [R=301,L]
I think it worked, right? free-phphosts.com automatically goes to www, did I succeed, lol?
How about /index.php goes to / ?

By the way, is there any difference from http://www.free-phphosts.com/ and http://www.free-phphosts.com ?

 

Not trying to hijack your thread here, Webace, but rather then start a whole new thread I thought I might ask for some help implementing this into my .htaccess file too.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Code (markup):

If some kind soul would be generous enough to help me out then you will be handsomely rewarded with rep.

 

Don't forget the no-case(NC) flag in the rewritecondition that makes it case insensitive.

The example below it has "! - sign" which means "if not", in the RewriteCond.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.free-phphosts\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [L,R=301]
</IfModule>

Code (markup):

You can just as well do it like this:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^free-phphosts\.com [NC] 
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [R=301,L] 
</IfModule>

Code (markup):

And if you are putting .htaccess in your root folder you don't need "RewriteBase", unless - I think - if mod_alias or mod_userdir are
involved...

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^free-phphosts\.com [NC] 
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [R=301,L] 
</IfModule>

Code (markup):

If you already have RewriteEngine On you don't need that again. Also if you already have the if module statement the only interesting parts lines are these:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^free-phphosts\.com [NC] 
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.free-phphosts.com/$1 [R=301,L] 

Code (markup):

Just put them within your existing

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
</IfModule>

Code (markup):

 

Thanks, kurtsfar. I had to tinker a little with the code to get it to work with mine but it pretty much did the trick.