I am moving a website to a different domain and know thta I should redirect the original domain to the new one with a permenant redirect as this is what the google gods favour. Should I redirect from the original domain name to the new one at "abc.com" or "www.abc.com" ? All of the internal pages are located at urls with the "www" ie http://www.abc.com/anywebpage.html if that makes any difference or not? Which way is best for google serps and pagerank? TIA
I've always gone for and unless I see any good reason to otherwise (unless for a subdomain) 'www'. People automatically type www. when entering a web address, you have to remember your customer/visitor will most likely be an average joe/jane and typing in the 'www' is so ingrained in peoples general surfing habits. The only logical way I can see not using 'www' affecting your serps is if you replaced the 'www' with a relevant keyword subdomain.
But the www. is useless, and there's no need for it. The only advantage of it is for sites & programs that automatically link addresses. Typing www. bob.com is easier than typing http:// bob.com, but typing bob.com is easier than typing www. bob.com. I don't think it really makes a difference, but I personally support no WWW.
thats your opinion, you are a webmaster... most people aren't webmasters though nor do they care that you don't actually need 'www' ...therefore I don't believe www's will be disappearing anytime soon!
I have a site I just had to fix. I was getting indexed on my non-www version and my www version seperately. The non-www started gaining ground, while my www was dropping ranks. One quick re-direct later and things are starting to fix themselves. I re-directed all the non-www links to my www, I'll let you know how it goes.
I would recommend www too. I have a site that I went with the www, and I found when people link to it they often put the www in there anyway.