Preferred domain
-
In GWT it gives an option to do the following but which is best? and why?
If you specify your preferred domain as http://www.example.com and we find a link to http://example.com, we'll consider both links the same.
| <label for="no_assoc">Don't set a preferred domain</label> |
| <label for="use_www">Display URLs as ** www.example.com**</label> |
| <label for="use_nowww">Display URLs as example**.com **</label> | -
if you wouldn't like to use subdomains, I would go for non-www.
-
Thanks for replying.
It looks like it's better to set a preference one way or another but which way?
I won't be using subdomains. I don't need extra charactor space. I have always used www in the past (just in general not in relation to this) but newer browsers don't seem to need it so just example.com gets used increasingly.
Anyone care to vote? we have 1 each at the moment.
Ian
-
it also depends on what domain you have already done link building for. Choose the one that has more backlinks pointing to it.
-
I choose the www or without www depending on my users, in my case if the site is for seniors tend to use the www to be more classic, but if the site id for young people do not use www because It saves space (@Edward R. Jenkins).
But overall there is not much difference, in many cases will be a matter of taste.
PS: Some people say that it looks more professional www.
-
Hey Ian,
choosing the preferred domain depends mainly on one issue: are you going to use subdomains or not?
If not, then probably you can go with the non-www version (but then do not forget to use canonicals or 301 redirects the same way).
If you would like to use the subdomains also, then I would advice you to go with the www version.
Gr.,
Istvan
P.S. maybe somebody else thoughts are different, but this is how I make my decision, when to go for one or the other version.
-
Which is better? Personally, I prefer "www" URLs -- but this is just a personal preference. But either way, I do recommend setting a preferred URL within Google Webmaster Tools, as long as said URL matches the URL set as the default view for your site.
Some prefer non-www URLs because it saves character space in the URL.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Using one domain for email and another domain for your website, but redirects...
Hello - We are rebranding and our new name is fairly lengthy. We own all main domain versions of our brand name - .com, .new and .org - There is a very high search volume for the new brand name as it is a merger of 2 popular existing brands so want to take advantage of that and use our full name within our website domain name. However, since the name is a little long as mentioned - 25 characters - we also own the 3 character acronym of the new brand so we are debating on using the acronym for our new email addresses. ie name@abc.com so it is user friendly. We would obviously redirect the acronym email domain to point to the longer website domain. Are there any negative SEO effects if we do that? Use the longer domain for the website and shorter acronym for our email? Thank you
Technical SEO | | KRBishopBh1 -
Images on sub domain fed from CDN
I have a client that uses a CDN to fill images, from a sub domain ( images.domain.com). We've made sure that the sub domain itself is not blocked. We've added a robots.txt file, we're creating an image sitemap file & we've verified ownership of the domain within GWT. Yet, any crawler that I use only see's the first page of the sub domain (which is .html) but none of the subsequent URL's which are all .jpeg. Is there something simple I'm missing here?
Technical SEO | | TammyWood0 -
Two domains, one unique design?
Hi Mozzers, There are lots of articles on using multiple domains for a company and we all know the story behind that. I have a different question though - I designed and built a really great WordPress theme for my company and it runs on xyz.com and has run on their for well over a year and has decent authority. I would now like to expand my business and offer a different service and I'd like to market the new service on abc.com My question is: If I use unique content on the second domain, but the same WordPress theme, will it have a negative SEO effect on either site? I should mention: I have my reasons for not just using the same domain for both services. I'd love to see what everyone thinks 🙂
Technical SEO | | ChristopherM0 -
Mobile Domain Setup
Hi, If I want to serve a subset of pages on my mobile set from my desktop site or the content is significantly different, i.e. it is not one to one or pages are a summarised version of the desktop, should I use m.site.com or is it still better to use site.com? Many thanks any help appreciated.
Technical SEO | | MarkChambers0 -
Sub-domain dilema - variations
Hi All, We're creating a sub-domain for a new program launch on a client site and we need to choose the "right" sub-domain name that properly reflects the offering and hopefully keyword driven. The client is already using the preferred sub-domain name but until we get clarification that we can take it over, I'm doing my due diligence and expecting a worst case scenario in that we cannot use it. The current preferred sub-domain is only a landing page (not a full site) and it does NOT rank for anything and it's not being built out further. My question: Would pluralizing our preferred keyword have any effect in the way SEs see the two sub-domains as they're very closely related? hardcandy.sitename.com or hardcandies.sitename.com The new sub-domain would be a fully-functional-SEO-friendly site (well that's the plan anyway). Thanks for all your help.
Technical SEO | | Bragg0 -
Canonical tag in preferred and duplicate page
Hi, I have a super spiffy (not) CMS that tends to create some pages at the root level of the site (not where I want it) i.e. www.site.com/page.htm as well as the desired location i.e. www.site.com/category/keyword/page.htm . Now obviously a canonical tag inserted into the URL at the undesired location would be the best option, however the source code is exactly the same for both pages (can’t change this) i.e. if I put the canonical tag that reads www.site.com/category/keyword/page.htm"/> it will appear in the head section of both pages, the desired URL and the non desired URL. Will a canonical tag inserted into the head section of a the preferred URL directing the search engine spiders pretty much to itself cause more grieft than the solution it offers re duplicate content ? Marc
Technical SEO | | NRMA0 -
Subfolder to Root Domain, Should i or not?
Dear All, I am kinda of stuck and need your helps, I have major client's site which is located in subdirectory. Instance: http://www.majorclient.com.cn/cn/ and as you can see domain name is already localized and they are not planning to make any english version of the site, So there will be no /eng/ folder but clients whole website is /cn/ subdirectory which is totally unnecessary and i would like to 301 whole site to **http://www.majorclient.com.cn ** But the problem is that this site has been /cn/ folder forever since the beginning and lot of trusted links are pointing to www.majorclient.com.cn/cn/ So should i move it or just configure 301 www.majorclient.com.cn to www.majorclient.com.cn/cn/ leave it there and don't bother. Help?
Technical SEO | | DigitalJungle0 -
Consolidating domains on root subject
I had several sites regarding a core subject. The main site was xyz.com and then I had multiple sites for the inner categories of xyz.com . I decided to consolidate everything to a single site and so did a change of address in webmaster tools and 301 redirected all niche sites to the appropriate page on the primary site of xyz.com. Shortly after we lost rankings for those niche pages. Any thoughts?
Technical SEO | | Hakkasan0