Fixing non-WWW versions of your website
You maybe surprised to learn that there are multiple ways in which your website domain name can be found. No I am not talking about various kinds of traffic, I am talking about the “version” of your domain name. For example, this website could be found by putting one or the other of the following into your browser’s address bar:
www.recommendedwebtools.com
OR
recommendedwebtools.com
So is this really that big a problem? Well it can be if search engines have links to your site that included both the WWW version and the non-www version. The process of creating one main URL that references your website is called canonicalization.
It is best to choose one of the above forms or the other. I personally prefer the WWW version, but thats just my opinion.
How can you canonicalize a URL? You have to turn to your friend and mine: .htaccess. (That is said tongue in cheek, btw. For beginners, .htaccess is a bane on your existence.) However, with the right help you can’t go wrong. 14th Colony has a handy little tool that helps you fix any canonicalization issues that you might have. They provide a little code generator that creates the .htaccess code needed. They also include a helpful explanation of the issue.
Why canonicalize?
One main way of referencing your website will help search engines and that, in the long run, will help you.
Posted by Paul Flyer on Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 in Webmaster
