Will implementing 301's on an existing domain impact massively on rankings?

[icanseeu]

Hi Guys,I have a new SEO client who only has the non-www domain setup for GWT and I am wondering if implementing a 301 for www will have a massive negative impact on rankings. I know a percentage of link juice and PageRank will be affected. So my question is:

If I implement the 301 should I brace myself for a fall in rankings. Should I use a 301 instead to maintain link juice and PageRank?

Is it good practice to forward to www? Or could I leave the non www in place and have the www redirect to it to maintain the data?

Dave

[icanseeu]

Hi Folks,

Cheers for the feedback but there seems to be a lack of a consensus on the actual effects a 301 will have.

I am well aware of the impacts of not having a nominated preferred domain and its not the question I was asking about. As mentioned above this is an inherited issue, I would never let a site go live without having the preferred domain set along with a host of other settings.

In relation to the last question I was trying to assess if there is a "standard" in using the www. subdomain. As in is this in Googles guidelines or is it a strong suggestion to have www.<yourdomain>.com as the destination address instead of <youdomain>.com?</youdomain></yourdomain>

Dave

[ReferralCandy]

It doesn't matter whether you use WWW or non-WWW, but what matters is to use only ONE of them, and redirect the other to the one that you are using. Even if you may face a slight fall in rankings, you will want to consolidate your SEO juice in one domain, which will beneficial in the long run.

[TammyWood]

There should be no impact, you are following the best practices and guidelines. And I agree, you want to have it in place.

[CleverPhD]

301ing non www to www or vice versa is best practice to prevent / minimize duplicate content.  You want to have it in place.