I use it. Many people on internet (mostly middle aged and some others) are adequate with internet domains starting with www. in their heads and when it doesn't work, they would either feel the site is down or so as they might not try to access without www.
(2012-01-21, 11:37 AM)crazy4cs Wrote: [ -> ]I use it. Many people on internet (mostly middle aged and some others) are adequate with internet domains starting with www. in their heads and when it doesn't work, they would either feel the site is down or so as they might not try to access without www.
Which is why you redirect. Most browsers even try to redirect it for you if it doesn't work. (Safari does, anyway)
I have redirected www to non-www since day 1.
As long as SHIFT-ENTER adds www. and .com then I'll continue to use www as an option.
(2012-01-21, 10:06 PM)labrocca Wrote: [ -> ]As long as SHIFT-ENTER adds www. and .com then I'll continue to use www as an option.
:O I didn't know that happened! However mine seems to add www and .net
(FF)
Of course it matters. You must have one or the other. Why? Google will punish you for
duplicate content errors. You'll be punished in the SERPS (search engine ranking positions).
It's best practice to use a "www" as one user already stated. You may choose to host your static files (.png, .jpg, .js, .css, etc.) on a different domain, and having no "www" restricts your options.
Anyway, there are
different ways to do this -- and you should choose one or the other (I prefer with a www). Merely including something like this in your .htaccess will do the trick:
# Redirect non-www urls to www
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.yoursite\.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
If you're insistent about using no www (not recommended unless your website is already coded that way), use:
# Redirect www urls to non-www
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.yoursite\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
(2013-11-23, 10:06 PM)jpweber Wrote: [ -> ]having no "www" restricts your options.
having no www does not restrict your options on that at all. You can have other subdomains without using the www one..