Different PR with and without 'www.'

For some reason my site has PR 2 when the URL is entered without 'www.', but has PR 0 when the 'www.' is included. I tested this on googlerankings.com and from the Google toolbar.

My questions are:
1. Why does this happen? All my backlinks that I know of include the 'www' in my domain name.
2. What can I do to increase the PR for my 'www' domain? If necessary I'd rather sacrifice the domain without 'www' and let it have PR0 as long as I can increase the PR for the 'www' domain.

Thank you very much.

 

this is called canonicalization update
check more details here http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/canonicalization-update/

no need to afraid of it.pr will forward to url with www

 

Yes that works differently with each domain depending on how you build backlinks..

You can set a 301 redirect to show similar PR with or without www.

 

You get an option to specify at your webmaster tools account too, about your preferred domain. 301'ing is a good idea too.

But looking at your queries, I have a query. Can you give the URL? Without analysing, we really can't say much.

 

1.) Because a site with www is different with sites without www in terms of link building
2.) Build links using your URL with www.

 

Thanks very much, everyone.

gr8liverpoolfan: I've updated my preferred domain in the Google webmaster tool now. Hopefully I can see the result soon.
The URL is: http://www.php-etc.com
I built this site some time ago, but then abandoned it, and now just about to continue working on it again.

 

You can fix this in your .htaccess file and be sure to tell your link partners to use one or the other. I always opt for www. because most webmasters in the general popluation are used to linking this way.

the .htaccess file redirect doesn't work with some html software that automatically changes the file with each publish (Frontpage Yikes!).

 

hello there,

maybe u can help us and tell how to do that with .htaccess please

thank u.

liran

 

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^site.net [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.site.net/$1 [L,R=301]

 

Hi Liran,

Check out this page for further help:
force www on all your web pages

That page was written for a ecommerce program, but follow the instructions and it should work on any site on a linux-style server (not windows).

Hope that helps!

 

I use without the www.

I can see why people would opt for the www though, I would like to see a study on this one day.

 

Thanks for everyone for the help.
I'd like to add reputation to you guys, but don't know how (can't find it in the FAQ). Anybody care to give a quick hint or should I ask in a different section of the forum? Thanks again

 

Just click on the BALANCE thingy, in the right corner of my post

 

its funny I was posting something similar to 2 other forums that asked about PR www vs no www