@esconsultingca To WWW or to not WWW?? 🤔 #SEO #WebDevelopment #Marketing ♬ Sunny Day – Ted Fresco
When it comes to creating a website, one of the decisions you’ll have to make is whether or not to include “WWW” in the URL. While some believe that the “WWW” is no longer required, others argue that it is still a crucial component of a website’s URL. Here’s what we think–
From a tech perspective, they’re nearly identical for most local businesses. But there are two things you need to keep in mind:
- Certain apps and CDN’s, will only work with WWW.
This is because when using “WWW” in your website’s URL there are two primary features that are restricted:- Cookies do not pass down to subdomains
- No traffic overload protection
Although these might seem important, these features are only worth it for extremely large websites–who receive traffic from all over the world.
- You need to be consistent with only using one option.
If you are deciding to opt-out of the traditional “WWW” URL, then all URLs attached to your domain should have the same designation. Otherwise, Google may interpret it as two different websites and penalize you for duplicate content.
How To Check if You’re Using “WWW”
The easiest way to check is to visit your website! It will automatically default to one or the other. Once you’re on your website, go to your address bar, add in the “WWW” and hit enter. If you’re website does not automatically forward the “WWW” URL to one without “WWW”, or the other way around, you may be operating with two different URL’s attached to one domain.
Should We Still Use “WWW”?
Before technology was advanced as it is today, prefixes such as “WWW” were used to signify what type of server it was. There were a few different servers:
- World Wide Web (WWW)
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- News
- Ect…
Nowadays, websites don’t work in that way. The World Wide Web took first place over the rest of the servers, and since FTP and mail servers typically use the same IP, the prefixes are no longer necessary.
So technically, you can name your server anything you would like, all that matters is that your customers/clients can find it!