WWW or Not?

[Internet.Domains]

A recent article touches on this subject. What are your thoughts?

"In the early days of the web it was imperative to publish your web address with a ‘www’ prefix. Those three characters prevented confusion; it was more obvious you meant a web domain.
But is the ‘www’ necessary in 2017?"

https://www.sitepoint.com/domain-name-www-or-not/

 

[campout]

I don't know, but I think it is visually more appealing with short domain names to keep the www in there.

 

[hookbox]

With .coms no but it's imperative with new gtlds.

 

[WhosJose]

99% of the time I setup my urls to redirect to www.

 

[platey]

A recent article touches on this subject. What are your thoughts?

"In the early days of the web it was imperative to publish your web address with a ‘www’ prefix. Those three characters prevented confusion; it was more obvious you meant a web domain.
But is the ‘www’ necessary in 2017?"

https://www.sitepoint.com/domain-name-www-or-not/

With a widely recognised extension eg. Com or cctld - no

With new gtld - yes as new gtlds are still so brand new to those not in the domain space and as such many wouldn't recognise a new gtld without the www 's

 

[JoeE]

99% of the time I setup my urls to redirect to www.

I do the opposite 100% of the time. You have to always redirect one to the other. I've seen sites that choose not to use the www but also do not direct it to the non-www version which means lost traffic and site not found.

 

[raceway]

I have always used the www.,

 

[hookbox]

I think there may be some confusion to the question. The op I believe is referring to using the www from a marketing point of view and not from a technical point of view.

 

[mpls]

www is so ....... 90s.
Always without www. on address bar! I redirect all my sites from www. to naked domain.
On stamps, bills, informative papers, always with www (in order to say "Hey! This is a website!").
A user digits www.example.com -> redirect to example.com
A user digits example.com -> ok.

 

[TRY]

With .com, .net, and .org their is no reason to as most people know it refers to a URL. For anything else including cctlds in some cases I think it is a good idea to reference www in the marketing material. imo

 

[Internet.Domains]

I think there may be some confusion to the question. The op I believe is referring to using the www from a marketing point of view and not from a technical point of view.

Good point.......The article mentioned in my OP touches on marketing and technical....Just for clarification any views, thoughts or advice regarding either standpoints makes for good domain conversation.

 

[DomainVP]

Never www. It's unnecessary.

Just remain consistent across linking and don't use the 'www' version sometimes. Bad for SEO.

 

[enlytend]

Never www. It's unnecessary.

Just remain consistent across linking and don't use the 'www' version sometimes. Bad for SEO.

WWW is not bad for SEO.
Which you use is mostly personal preference. You need to redirect one to the other (and http -> https, if you're using https) for 2 main reasons:

• It CAN be treated as duplicate content. Not the kind that gives you a "penalty" but it can dampen rankings.
• If multiple versions resolve without redirection and people build links to the different versions, it splits up your link equity - if redirected, it all goes to one canonical URL.

There are actually some technical reasons why www is preferable in some situations, but for the average small site it's a non-issue..

 

[Julio]

I don't like using WWW in any .com name that I use personally. I redirect www. to non-www all the times and I also do it at google search console and in bing webmaster tools setup that way also.

 

[Canadian]

I pretty much only use www for New G's (for the next couple of years), unless they're used as Social Media url shorteners.

 

[nomen]

Don't know about the rest of the world but haven't seen an URL being advertised with www in the last ten years in Finland.

 

[DomainVP]

WWW is not bad for SEO.

Yes, I agree.

What I was saying is whichever you choose, just remain consistent across linking and don't use the www version sometimes because it splits up your link juice which is bad for SEO.

Conversely if you are using the www version, don't use the non-www version sometimes because it also splits up your link juice which is bad for SEO.

 

[Rhythm8]

http://www.antiquefurniture.com

first it was http:// or not:

www.antiquefurniture.com

then www. or not:

antiquefurniture.com

then .com or not:

antique.furniture

 

[TRY]

.

 

[shorterwinters]

http://www.antiquefurniture.com

first it was http:// or not:

www.antiquefurniture.com

then www. or not:

antiquefurniture.com

then .com or not:

antique.furniture

hahahahaha

 

[TRY]

http://www.antiquefurniture.com

first it was http:// or not:

www.antiquefurniture.com

then www. or not:

antiquefurniture.com

then .com or not:

antique.furniture

Can you Please explain it comparing a 1 keyword . COM? Umm You can't unless the gtld is something generic like .web or .xyz. A dot Keyword can't be a one word unfortunately for them.

I have some logos and banners for some short cctld's and I subtly integrate the www, just to make sure they know it's a web URL.

As for what the customer sees when he visits the site who cares, as long as it's consistent. He knows it's a web URL cause he's on the site! Although I would opt for without the www because its shorter and looks cleaner imo.

 

[Ategy]

This pretty much same discussion was started a few days ago ...

Check it out .. it also shows possibility of visual branding ...

https://www.namepros.com/threads/how-should-i-present-brand-domains-in-advertising.1017510/

 

[Rhythm8]

Can you Please explain it comparing a 1 keyword . COM? Umm You can't unless the gtld is something generic like .web or .xyz. A dot Keyword can't be a one word unfortunately for them.

1 keyword .commies better start learning how to pray to or pay the Devil a.k.a. Google for traffic

 

[frank-germany]

I have never used the www. version
as I thought it doesn t matter and the shorter the better
And www so what, everybody knows it

but lately checking google results
I noticed that most first place search results
have www.

so its a very valid question

 

[Kuffy]

As www. is just a sub-domain, you need to make sure your hosting copes with wildcard sub-domains.