Difference between revisions of "Learn/Don't-Lose-People-Who-Don't-Type-WWW"
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===Is your website turning away would-be visitors?=== | ===Is your website turning away would-be visitors?=== | ||
| − | While a website's home is often at http://'''www'''.Example.com/, it's becoming less and less common for people browsing the Internet to type anything more than "Example.com" into the URL bar in their web browser. | + | While a website's home is often at http://'''www'''.Example.com/, it's becoming less and less common for people browsing the Internet to type anything more than "Example.com" into the URL bar in their web browser. |
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Most websites are configured to make both the www and non-www versions work, but if a website hasn't done that, it's possible that the non-www version doesn't resolve and would-be visitors who type "Example.com" without the www won't be taken to the website at all. | Most websites are configured to make both the www and non-www versions work, but if a website hasn't done that, it's possible that the non-www version doesn't resolve and would-be visitors who type "Example.com" without the www won't be taken to the website at all. | ||
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'''''For these reasons and more, it's important that both www.Example.com and Example.com (without the www) exist and take people to the content of your website.''''' | '''''For these reasons and more, it's important that both www.Example.com and Example.com (without the www) exist and take people to the content of your website.''''' | ||
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| + | i.e.: | ||
| + | * '''<nowiki>http://www.Example.com</nowiki>''' | ||
| + | * '''<nowiki>http://Example.com</nowiki>''' | ||
===Point visitors in the right direction=== | ===Point visitors in the right direction=== | ||
Revision as of 20:35, 2 August 2010
Is your website turning away would-be visitors?
While a website's home is often at http://www.Example.com/, it's becoming less and less common for people browsing the Internet to type anything more than "Example.com" into the URL bar in their web browser.
Most websites are configured to make both the www and non-www versions work, but if a website hasn't done that, it's possible that the non-www version doesn't resolve and would-be visitors who type "Example.com" without the www won't be taken to the website at all.
This means that visitors that don't include the www won't get to the website, and worse yet, they may assume that the website and business no longer exist because of that. Also, if someone tries to link to the website and leaves out the www, the link won't take clickers to the website.
For these reasons and more, it's important that both www.Example.com and Example.com (without the www) exist and take people to the content of your website.
i.e.:
- http://www.Example.com
- http://Example.com
Point visitors in the right direction
How to make sure that http://Example.com takes people to your website too:
The best method is to make the non-www version of your website redirect visitors (and search engine crawlers) to the www version via a 301 "Moved Permanently" redirect. A 301 redirect is recommended because it means that your website's content only lives in one place and things that can help your search engine optimization (SEO) like PageRank will be passed to your main website.
For more information and some technical guidance on making it a 301 redirect, see this article.