To WWW Or Not To WWW: Is That The Question?

Search Engines don’t care if your website is http://www.example.com or http://example.com. The problem occurs when both versions are used to access a website because it can create conflicts where Search Engines are indexing both versions of the same web page. This can create duplicate content issues and also result in a situation where you have two versions of the same page competing against each other in SERPs. The search landscape is competitive enough without having to compete against yourself.

All this is fine and good but the question remains: To WWW or not to WWW?

Since Search Engines don’t have a preference, it comes down to users. Virtually every radio or television ad that refers to a website starts off with the www. I’ve seen discussions claiming that people are used to the www but since it isn’t necessary, should you just go with the flow and keep the www? I think not.

People are generally smart and while many are still typing www before the web address, the only real purpose it serves is familiarity. Familiarity is something that can be changed over time and the new generation of web surfers likely will be leaving off the www. Just my opinion. I’m not a soothsayer or anything like that but it makes sense, doesn’t it?

If you currently have a situation where visitors are arriving to your home page using www and non-www URL’s, then your decision may be easier to make after taking a look at your Analytics. Making an informed decision is always better than going on a hunch, so look through the stats for people who came via both paths and make your determination based on that information. After you’ve come to a decision you can stick with, consider setting up a redirect that will push all visitors to one URL to the other.