WWW Format Issues

There are two ways by which online users enter a URL address. One is using “www” before the domain name while the other is keying the domain name alone. There seems to be no problem with this. Whether you place “www.npresence.net” or “npresence.net”, you will still be taken to the same website.

Simple issue as it may seem, the “www” poses a huge effect on the websites ranking on the search engines and its link popularity. Unlike the online users, the search engines look at the “www” website as separate from the one without it.

In terms of link popularity, the search engines look at the format of the links pointing to your website. If there are 500 links pointing to a website’s “www” name and there are also 500 links pointing to a website’s “no www” name, the search engines will credit only 500 links. The search engines consider the “www” as separate from the “no www”.

Avoiding The WWW Issue

To avoid getting unfair search engine treatment, you must take steps to correct or avoid “www” issues. How can you avoid getting low number of links due to your website’s www issue? Here are some simple yet effective steps:

• Once you have started with one format, stick to it. Don’t use www.npresence.net on some of your links and npresence.net on the others. This will help you avoid problems like non-inclusion of the links on your website’s total number of links. It is recommended that you use the “www” format since it is the standard format.



• If there are some links that aren’t pointing to the right format of your website, correct them. You can edit your listing or ask the website or directory’s editor to do it for you. It is advisable that you check your listings to avoid possible problems with link popularity later.



• You can opt to redirect the other format to the format you have chosen. For instance you have decided to keep the “www” format, then redirect all the “non www” format to the first. You should inform the search engines about the redirection so that they will forward all link popularity to your chosen URL format.

Building link popularity takes hard work. Would you just let your hard earned links be disregarded just because of the domain name issues? As much as possible, guard your links. One way of doing it is avoiding problems that may arise with the search engines. If the search engines look at the domain formats separately, then do what you can to turn this into your benefit.

The search engines consider the format of the domain names in a website’s link popularity. Need incoming links to your chosen URL format? Please see our Link Building Service now or apply for a Free Website Analysis. For more information, please contact our Link Builders.