Basic difference http://www., www without http:// or www.

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by johnk681, Sep 27, 2009.

  1. #1
    Hi

    I am newbie I am little confused about some technical use of the above. Before starting optimization I wish to know about the implementation benefit

    My question is :
    Let my website is www.abc.com

    What should I do ? For optimization my site

    1) http://www.abc.com
    2) www.abc.com
    3) http://abc.com
    4) abc.com

    My website opening for all the above 4 option what is the best?

    What is the beneficial (if) in respect of SEO, if other not why?

    Thanks in advance
     
    johnk681, Sep 27, 2009 IP
  2. kder86

    kder86 Peon

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    #2
    The http:// in the beggining doesn't matter. If you leave it out, your internet browerser will automatically enter it for you.

    However a search engine will see www.abc.com and abc.com as 2 different sites and view them as duplicate content.

    You should choose one and setup a 301 redirect so that either www.abc.com redirects to abc.com or abc.com redirects to www.abc.com.
     
    kder86, Sep 27, 2009 IP
  3. HomeComputerGames

    HomeComputerGames Peon

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    #3
    HomeComputerGames, Sep 27, 2009 IP
  4. sanco

    sanco Peon

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    #4
    I advice you to choose the url which includes "http://".
     
    sanco, Sep 28, 2009 IP
  5. Gemma Shaw

    Gemma Shaw Peon

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    #5
    I would reckon you using 'hxxp://'. Thats a good option supppose you have a lot internal links flowing throug as 'hxxp://www' then its better to perform a 301 redirect.
     
    Gemma Shaw, Sep 28, 2009 IP
  6. Generation6

    Generation6 Active Member

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    #6
    Agree with the above comments of having the redirects, however if you choose to use Wordpress - it will automatically do it for you.
     
    Generation6, Sep 28, 2009 IP
  7. atniz

    atniz Well-Known Member

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    #7
    There are only one that you need to concentrate on from
    1) http://www.abc.com
    3) http://abc.com

    Remember, when building links, alway input http:// as abc.com may not appear as a valid link.

    Choose any from 1 or 3 and do a 301 permanent redirect from one to another.
    You can use .htaccess to do permanent redirect or you can simply select your preferred type of URL on google webmaster.

    Choosing preferred URL in google webmaster doesn't mean that other search engine will recognize 301 permanent redirection there. So, I suggest do a manual permanent redirect.
     
    atniz, Sep 28, 2009 IP
  8. Canonical

    Canonical Well-Known Member

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    #8
    If other sites link to you with both the www and non-www version of your URLs and you do not have 301 redirects in place to force it either to the www or non-www version of the URL, then you create URL canonicalization issues. Each page on your site should have a single URL that can refer to that page called the canonical (or preferred) URL. All other URLs that can be used to render that same page (the non-canonical URLs) should be 301 redirected to the canonical URL.

    If you fail to pick a single canonical URL and enforce your canonicalization policy using 301 redirects then your site can suffer from duplicate content issues and split page rank issues. It doesn't matter from an SEO perspective whether you choose the www or non-www version as your canonical URL. Only that you pick one and put code in place to enforce your URL canonicalization policy.

    Trying to fix this using Google's Webmaster Tools is not the ideal way of correcting the problem. Yes, Google's WMT does allow you to set the preferred/canonical URL. Unfortunately, it only fixes the problem within Google. It doesn't fix your URL canonicalization issues detected by all of the other search engines. This is why a 301 redirect solution is far more preferable than simply setting your preference in WMT and forgetting about it.
     
    Canonical, Sep 28, 2009 IP
  9. mit

    mit Well-Known Member

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    #9
    mit, Sep 28, 2009 IP
  10. theapparatus

    theapparatus Peon

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    #10
    While that's correct, I believe the poster is talking about link building. If you leave off the http:// bit, the browser will think the url is for an internal page of the site you;re currently looking at and you're links will be broken.

    My vote:

    Either http://www.abc.tld or http://abc.tld

    It's really a personal choice today. I would stick with one though and setup the htaccess file to redirect from the one you don;t use to the one that you do use. It's easier to strip out the www bit though than to add it in.

    http://drmikessteakdinner.com/2009/09/28/remove-the-www-from-urls/

    Hope this helps,
    -drmike
     
    theapparatus, Sep 28, 2009 IP