.biz To www or not to www (For .biz domains)

[Matthew Doucette]

Opinions please! Which is better? Note the domain is a ".biz".

http://www.example.biz/

vs.

http://example.biz/

Does it make it easier to remember the domain is a ".biz" with or without the "www.", or does it make no difference at all?

My thoughts: I prefer http://www.example.com/ if the site is called "Example", and I prefer http://example.com/ if the site is called "Example.com". That's why my own site defaults to xona.com, as I wish it to be known as Xona.com, not Xona.

Now, I am not sure what to think when the domain is a ".biz", instead of a ".com". With a ".biz" domain name, the ".biz" part is something extra to remember. The "www." and the ".com" are so commonplace, that no one really has to remember them. So... that's where I'm stuck.

By the way, the website in question will not be known as "Example.biz". "Example" is the first and most dominant of two words of the company's name. (And, "Example" is just an example, not the actual domain or the comapany name!)

 

[fab]

I don't see big difference. I always try without www first - shorter is better.

 

[HcDomains]

I am sorry that I could not see the difference

 

[sufi]

I dont see any difference either. I like every domain with www though.

 

[amosba]

My preference has always been without the www. www is not necessary, is ugly and is a mouthful to say when telling someone your URL. ("WWW" actually has more syllables than "World Wide Web" - ie, the acronym is longer than the original phrase!)

 

[floatingworld]

most people thing there is a www in front of everything. The .biz reference is irrelevant...applies to all extensions.

 

[Matthew Doucette]

Thanks for your opinions.

Another thing to consider is the text "www.example.biz" is automatically converted into a clickable link more often than "example.biz". I am not sure how much this matters.

Most popular sites forward to their "www." versions (yahoo.com, google.com, ibm.com, microsoft.com, nba.com, etc.), so this is part of the reason people believe it is necessary.

I rememeber when http://dell.ca/ did not forward to the "www." version, but now it does!

I'm still undecided.

Hmm... what's the most popular .biz domain (in terms of traffic, PR, anything)? Just curious.

 

[estibot.com]

I for one can see why you're undecided. I agree that with any .com the short version is better. I generally prefer the non-www version for aesthetic reasons. Also, the www is redundant. But somehow I agree that www.example.biz has a nice ring to it. I always go for the non-www version. If you've got other sites as non-www, be consistent.

I don't think PR will be a problem. Just do a mod rewrite to the non-www (or www depending on your preference). I'm led to believe this will also take care of the pagerank issue, I'm not an expert on that though.

Whichever way you go, make sure you do a mod rewrite to avoid any possible duplicate content issues and also to make sure your visitors will always get a functional site no matter what they type in. It's infuriating that even some very big corporate sites are not functional without the www...

 

[Matthew Doucette]

I for one can see why you're undecided. I agree that with any .com the short version is better. I generally prefer the non-www version for aesthetic reasons. Also, the www is redundant. But somehow I agree that www.example.biz has a nice ring to it. I always go for the non-www version.

I think it has a nice ring to it, too. I think it's because it shows that the domain is not all that different from a .com...

"example.biz" is probably weird to most surfers, but "www.example.biz" is a little more familiar because of the familiar "www.".

I was leaning on the non-www version before I started this thread, and now I'm leaning the other way!

I'm not worried about PR and linking, as I will be sure that both the www and non-www work, and the one I do NOT choose will 301 to the one I choose.

Whichever way you go, make sure you do a mod rewrite to avoid any possible duplicate content issues and also to make sure your visitors will always get a functional site no matter what they type in. It's infuriating that even some very big corporate sites are not functional without the www...

Yes, of course! It's a little irresponsible for sites to ignore type-ins (or links) to the "wrong" version!

 

[dgridley]

I think if for no other reasons, use the www for PR and because using the www usually converts the domain into a clickable link.. just good business sense IMO.

 

[Matthew Doucette]

I think I am going with the "www.example.biz" version.

Another benefit of the www version is "example" (the name of the company) stands out more. "example" is more on its own when it is separated by periods. The "example.biz" version seems to be more for an Internet company, where you want to be known as "example.biz", all together. Look at them again:

http://www.example.biz/

http://example.biz/

This is just something I came up with, so the general consensus on it may disagree with me.

 

[estibot.com]

I think if for no other reasons, use the www for PR and because using the www usually converts the domain into a clickable link.. just good business sense IMO.

That's a good point.

 

[Matthew Doucette]

I think if for no other reasons, use the www for PR and because using the www usually converts the domain into a clickable link.. just good business sense IMO.

I wonder if that's why all the big corps do it. Doing it just because they do it is good business sense, too!

 

[amosba]

http://no-www.org/

 

[Matthew Doucette]

http://no-www.org/

... and the inverse, http://www.yes-www.org/ , who claim www is not deprecated because it serves as a reminder that there are other services on the Internet than webservers (which is very true). This is the point of showing "http" as well, so it is a good point.

 

[cache]

non-technical people think with the www, technical will ignore it.

 

[cache]

non-technical people think with the www, technical people will ignore it.

 

[AndyR]

Just set your hosting to accept either form?? I have www.se.vg, typing se.vg into the address box works as well.

 

[Matthew Doucette]

Just set your hosting to accept either form?? I have www.se.vg, typing se.vg into the address box works as well.

Of course. I have done this.

I have decided to go with the www.example.biz.

The company is really not Internet based at all, but, as with most companies, they will eventually use the Internet more and more to describe their services and what-not.

As for now, their advertising of their website will be mostly on real paper (business cards, documents, etc.), and www.example.biz stands out more as a web address to the average person more than example.biz. I could have them write out http://example.biz/, which clarifies the text is a URL, but www.example.biz is much preferred.

And, to repeat a previous reason, I think the "www." helps bring familiarity to the URL to counteract the ".biz" which does the opposite.

Thanks for all the opinions. The site will not be actively used for perhaps a year or so, so more opinions are are still welcome!