When linking, does it matter if you have "www.domain.com" or "http://domain.com" or "http://www.domain.com", I mean, if you have links and there are lots of differences between the exact link, as with the examples I gave, does that effect keyword optimization or SEO in general at all?
Keep consistent so each link points to the exact same place. There is a difference betweeen www.domain.com and domain.com. I have not personally seen where having the http:// in front makes a difference. Still, I prefer to be exacting with the links when possible.
Keeping uniformity in your links help the bots recognise the uniform pattern which is good for your overall promotional campaign.
your link should be consistent, if not, search engines might penalize you for duplicate content read this for more info: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/
Can you pinpoint the exact place where Matt Cutts says/confirms you can possibly get penalized because you are not consistent in the way you link to your (home)page? Warkot
How the hell could you get penalized?! If other people are linking to you, and you're (supposedly) not making the decision, why would you get penalized?
Calm down kaabi - Joel is correct. It is a question of duplicate content. Google is incapable of realizing that www.example.com is the same as example.com - so, they see two copies of the same content. BLAM! Duplicate content penalty. You said you didn't want to 301 redirect, so Google gives you a penalty. Sorry - that is the way the cookie crumbles...
I'm sorry, I just read that link, and now I understand. That is referring to internal links, I thought he was talking about outgoing. I think I will go a 301 redirect, and by I, I mean I'll have my programmer do it for me. Once again, APOLOGIES.
Surprisingly canonical issues like this can make a huge difference in terms of a dupe content penalty. Google really hates dupe content and thus it's always important to avoid such a penalty.
I'm trying to get my friend to help with a 301 redirect but he's all like "No it doesn't matter". Maybe I should link him to this thread.
Well Nintendo helped me out, he gave me this code and I just put my URL in, uploaded it, and now it works! Check it: http://w4t3r.com It redirects! Awesome.