www vs. non-www redirect?

[fakie99]

hello,

my site is hosted by fq and currently the homepage can be accessed at either www.treasured-earth.com or treasured-earth.com. i have learned that this could be detrimental to my site ranking and wanted to fix it but i don't know how. it seems that a 301 direct would be the way to get either version to end up at my preferred URL (www.treasured-earth.com), but i haven't the faintest notion on how to accomplish this. any thoughts?

thanks,

jim

[Vonunov]

http://www.gabrielharper.com/2009/04/redirecting-www-to-non-www-using-htaccess/ explains how to redirect either way.

[fakie99]

http://www.gabrielharper.com/2009/04/redirecting-www-to-non-www-using-htaccess/ explains how to redirect either way.

thanks....but it says "If you already have a file named .htaccess on your Website you can add to it. If not, create one (yes, include the period at the beginning). Add either of the following rules and save."

i have no idea whether or not i have a file named .htaccess. it doesn't even say what directory it might be in. "on your website" is kinda cryptic....

any other thoughts? thx.

[Bob]

You would be able to view your Directory contents and see if there is a .htaccess file already existing from either FTP or your CNC File Manager.

.htaccess files can exist in multiple directories depending on what they are being used for.
http://Service.FutureQuest.net/kb121

-Bob

[gayne]

the homepage can be accessed at either www.treasured-earth.com or treasured-earth.com. i have learned that this could be detrimental to my site ranking

Is this actually the case?

[sheila]

Is this actually the case?

It's certainly been discussed in these forums enough times, that it seems there is some truth to it. Google doesn't want to list both the "www" version of your site and the non-www version in their results if they both contain the same content. Which makes sense.

Here is another thread with more discussion this topic:
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23688&highlight=google+redirect+www

More searches in this forum will bring up more discussion on this same topic.

[oheso]

Is this actually the case?

Long story short, if 50 people are visiting your site at www.example.com and 50 are visiting it at example.com, then Google sees that as two sites getting 50 visitors each (rather than one site with 100 visitors).

[johnfl68]

Also, if you are using the Google Webmaster Tools, for each site, under Site Configuration, Settings, you can set how Google lists your sites Preferred Domain:


Don't set a preferred domain
Display URLs as www.mysite.com
Display URLs as mysite.com


So you can set your preferred method there as well (this only applies to how Google lists your site in searches).

John