WWW (stands for World Wide Web) and Non-WWW (Non-WWW) is a kind of website address (URLs). It seems that by using both, we can show our websites with different names. These are two different URLs of the same domain name. In the case of more than one domain name, non-WWW is used for the secondary one.
Search Engines usually consider WWW and Non-WWW (Non-WWW) as two different sites. So, Fort Worth SEO experts say that you should use both of them to have two different URLs. Now, the question is ‘Is it necessary?’.
Let’s first make a little background about WWW and Non-WWW.
What are WWW and Non-WWW?
“WWW” stands for “World Wide Web,” which is also called the internet. It’s a combination of different technologies working together to show information on websites.
Non-WWW is just an alternative version of a standard website address. You can give whatever name you want to your website addresses but, don’t forget the main one is always WWW.
For example
WWW – www.seoservices.com
Non-WWW – seoservices.com (Both contains the same information)
So, in this way, Google sees the non-WWW URL as a secondary one.
Pros and Cons of WWW vs. Non-WWW
WWW PROS
- It shows that you are following the internet standards.
- Google, Yahoo, and Bing consider these two different sites (Primary and Secondary).
- When you update your website, both will automatically have separate copies.
- Even if some users put your website address as “www” or “non-www,” bots will crawl both of them anyway.
- It has better longevity and increased traffic, increasing your website’s domain authority.
- There’s no risk of losing or forgetting your main website address as it contains “WWW.”
WWW CONS
- It makes you look like a newbie (because users don’t use this method).
- It can cause some problems like misspelling or typing errors of your main website address.
- Your website will disappear from the search engine results if you delete or lose your primary site address.
- Some users use the secondary site as their main website address for loading time/advertising etc.
Non-WWW PROS
- It will show only one website address.
- It increases your search engine visibility.
- Your website will be crawled only by both of your primary site addresses (WWW).
- It has better longevity and increased traffic because one URL will have only one website copy.
- You can delete or change the non-WWW anytime without affecting your main site address.
- You can easily handle non-WWW sites by checking the redirects and linking.
- It’s effortless to remember because it contains only one name.
Non-WWW CONS
- You can not reach your top page to search engines if users misspell or mistype your website address.
- You can not track the visitors/customers if you use a single name for both of your sites (WWW and Non-WWW).
- Your site will be crawled only by the bot of your leading site (WWW) address, even if you have not told this to the search engine.
- Your secondary site will be crawled by a bot of your secondary site address (Non-WWW).
- You have to work quite hard if you want to load your secondary site address faster than WWW.
- It’s not easy to update both of your sites.
WWW vs NON-WWW – Which is better in terms of SEO?
Both of the URLs have their own importance and usage. It depends on you how you use them.
Google says: “We spontaneously treat www and non-www versions of a domain name as separate domains so that both versions will be crawled, indexed, and ranked independently”.
Also, Google gives some extra preference to www sites. We saw many SEO company experts explain this fact in different ways. Yes, you can win higher rankings with your www site, but this doesn’t mean that you should leave your non-www site for Google. Google has definitely increased its preference for www sites, but both have the same importance.
You don’t have to follow the internet standards blindly. You can even use only one name for both sites. But you should make sure that there’s no other website with this same name.
If you are getting more benefits from www sites, then go ahead but if not, use only one name for your website.
In Conclusion
Finally, it’s clear that both of the sites are equally important for your SEO. You can go for either one or both of them. So, there’s no point in creating confusion among your visitors. However, a Fort Worth SEO expert would urge utilizing both websites with distinct names for greater exposure. It will help avoid misspelling and typing errors if your website addresses increased longevity and traffic.
As you can’t control the users how they type your website address, you have to go for www and non-www both of the sites. Use one website as a primary site with WWW and another as a secondary site with Non-WWW. Don’t use more than two websites with different names for your business or personal website.