Are there any differences between domain names with and without www? And how do these differences influence your website?
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Domain Names A to Z
When typing a domain name to a website, do you use www? This used to be commonplace, but recently, you can see just as many domain names without. Are there any differences between domain names with or without www? Which is best? And are there any consequences to that choice? Let’s do a deep dive and find out.
Www What?
Adding www, short for World Wide Web, to a domain name used to signify that it was linked to a website. This was necessary because they ran on separate servers. Today, using www is no longer required, so you can decide for yourself if you want to include that in your domain name.
What About SEO?
Which is more advantageous to your rankings in Google, a domain name with or without www? It actually doesn’t make all that much of a difference. Www is seen as a sub domain of sorts, which means that Google regards it as a part of the website.
A website that runs on both the www as the non-www version of its domain name can often be seen as two duplicates of the same website. Google will take this as a bad sign and possibly penalise you by ranking your website lower in search results. The best way to go about avoiding this, is to decide which version you prefer from the get-go.
How to Find Out if Your Website Is Available on Both Versions
Enter your domain name with www in your browser, and if it remains unchanged, your website is available on the www domain name. Now do the same but without www. If both versions of the domain name remain unchanged, you might want to change that. The easiest way of doing this is by accessing the .htaccess file on your website and adding the right script. Below are some examples of scripts you can use after entering your own details.
Below are some examples of scripts you can use after entering your own details.
Redirect www to a non-www URL
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.domainname\.be [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://domainname.be/$1 [L,R=301]
Redirect non-www to a www URL
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domainname\.be$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.domainname.be/$1 [L,R=301]
Can You Still Change to a WWW or Non-WWW Version?
While you technically can change whether or not your domain name includes www, we recommend only doing that if absolutely necessary. And if you do, make sure to redirect all old URLs to the new ones, otherwise your online visibility and Google rankings will be impacted.
Which Do You Prefer?
Do you prefer a domain name with or without www? Hopefully, we’ll have helped you make an informed decision. You now at least know that, so long as you clearly define which one you’re using from the start, it doesn’t really matter if you include www or not. Are some things still unclear? Don’t hesitate to reach out, we’ll happily help answer your questions.
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