About link juice... to WWW or not too WWW

[intrigue]

As you know, if you own a domain it can be...

http://domain.com

or

http://www.domain.com

They will both essentially link to the same website depending on what you set as the default.

Now lets say that your default is www.domain.com. Will backlinks that go to domain.com (without www) still give www.domain.com the link juice? And vice versa?

 

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[FastNAwesome]

If nothing has changed, the answer is no, these are considered like 2 different locations.

Best thing to do is have non-www redirect to www, and then always use www version for link building.

As for keeping existing non-www juice, you can probably keep that too using 301 permanent redirection:

How to 301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URLs | StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

 

[77startup]

Fastandawesome is correct. You want to pick one and stick to it as soon as possible. Go to google webmastertools and tell them which site to index. I picked the non www version because my main domain sockstoyourdoor.com is long enough.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I think most people default link to www. versions -- therefore that's where you want the redirect to go. Redirect http://domain.com to http://www.domain.com

If you don't believe me, will you believe the biggest web companies in the world?

http://amazon.com redirects to http://www.amazon.com
http://apple.com redirects to http://www.apple.com

That should suffice as your answer. =0

 

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[biophase]

I think most people default link to www. versions -- therefore that's where you want the redirect to go. Redirect http://domain.com to http://www.domain.com

What I was told in my SEO class two years ago is that people over 30 usually type in www and people under 30 do not use www.

All my websites use www.

Whenever I ask a 20-something if they use www, they always say no. They want amazon, they just type amazon into the browser. They don't even type in .com.

I think it's because that by the time they got on the web, browsers were automatically re-directing to the www version (if needed) or the search engines were in the browser bar so there was no need for www.

 

[77startup]

Biophase that's really interesting. I never thought about it like that.

 

[intrigue]

Okay guys, after a lot of reading... simple go to:

Server Header Checker Tool | StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Enter your non-www website into the domain to see if it already 301 redirects.

In my case, it already does... there was no need to fool around and modify anything.

I guess either my theme (thesis) or wordpress already handles the redirect.

 

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[FastNAwesome]

I think most people default link to www. versions -- therefore that's where you want the redirect to go. Redirect Domain.com to Domain.com

If you don't believe me, will you believe the biggest web companies in the world?
Code:

Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more redirects to Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more
Apple redirects to Apple

That should suffice as your answer. =0

Totally right. Also google, facebook and many more can be added to the list.

I'd also like to emphasize there's another, very important technical reason too for choosing www.

Quick explanation:

1. It can make your site much faster, which directly affects SEO too. Read on to find out how.

2. It can save you from some headaches if you ever need to use your subdomains.


A bit more detailed explanation (will try to keep it very simplified):

1. When a user visits your web page, it usually takes a number of HTTP requests until the page loads. For example, this page you're reading right now, it had to load the website logo, other images, css file(s), javascript file(s) etc. Each of these files = 1 more HTTP request. Now, the thing is -browsers limit number of concurrent connections from a single domain, which means only so much files can be loaded simultaneously (approx 2-8 depending on browser). And this obviously increases your page's loading time, especially if someone's on IE6,7 and has files loading 2 by 2.

Now, there is a super cool solution for this, something the big boys do (and every website that keeps up with the trends):

Serving content from subdomains. See, as far as browser is concerned, static.example.com and example.com are 2 different websites. So if you decide to load all your images from static.example.com, they will load simultaneously with the rest of your page, not in queue. And that gives you performance boost.

Just go to Wikipedia (also uses www!), browse around the site, and notice how it also loads stuff from subdomains - directly making it faster and hence more user friendly and SEO friendly.

So back to the subject - when you use example.com, which is a domain, as opposed to IANA — Example domains, which is a subdomain - any cookies set - are set for all subdomains. You cannot have a cookieless subdomain. And whenever an image, javascript file etc. is requested from server, the cookie is sent as well. For each file. So all this adds up and decreases page loading time.

2. If you ever decide to use any of your subdomains for some separate purpose, you'll be able to set separate cookies for each domain - if you chose www way, or may have some headaches if you chose non-www.

All my websites use www.

Whenever I ask a 20-something if they use www, they always say no. They want amazon, they just type amazon into the browser. They don't even type in .com.

That's cool, I also type without www all the time, and without http Browsers don't mind, servers don't mind, and it's just faster and easier. Just let www redirection will take care of this tedious typing

Btw.maybe you've noticed, but most regular users don't even type urls in address bar, but directly to Google. So SEO is really important, not just for free traffic, but for any. And with search suggestions and ads, it happens that someone who actually wanted to visit your website ends up elsewhere.