301 permanent re-direct

[fireman]

My site can be accessed either with or without the www. Does this affect my search positions and do error 301-redirect cause any ill effects?

[GeorgeAndrews]

No problem, happy to help and welcome to the community!

[irvingw]

go into WMT, click on the link for your site

configuration > settings > preferred domain > click the radio button Display URL as WWW

[fireman]

Thanks everyone for your help, no doubt i will return very soon.

As you will appreciate i am quite new to this seo business but learning all the time.

Cheers.

[GeorgeAndrews]

Ok, I think you are talking about the informational information if you are talking about your campaign in SEOmoz Pro. Yes, it is ok to keep your 301 redirects if they are set up correctly, which it sounds like they are.

[fireman]

Thanks George Thanks Robert appreciate your attention.

I can not find where to configure my prefered site i have been on GWMT and searched through my google account and clicked every link but still could not find anything on prefered sites.

With the 301 i don`t think it is an error as such but a redirrect. Should i get rid of the redirrects or would this be ok to keep?

[RobertFisher]

Martin

It should be accessed no matter what is placed in the navigation bar. The thing to look at is whether or not you have a preferred domain set in GWMT. (Google Webmaster Tools). To do that you simply go to GWMT, Dashboard, configuration, settings, and set preferred domain as one or the other.

In terms of an "error 301-redirect" I am not sure what type of error you are showing. Typically, any error would be problematic.

Hope this helps,

Robert

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hello Martin,

Yes, duplicate content can affect your search positions. Since your site can be accessed either with or without the www, you are likely going to have issues with duplicate content. You can fix this either with a 301-redirect or with canonical links.

You can read about 301 redirecting here:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection

And you can read about canonical links here:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization

Hope this helps!