People often wonder if it is best to have a web address with or without the www. Does it matter? It might look better to have a web address without it but in general visitors should be able to reach your site whether they use it or not.
However, care should be taken in your SEO campaigns when deciding to use www or not.
When it comes to domains it is best to select the preferred domain URL for the site (e.g. using www or not), other wise Google will decide which URL to index. If Google decides to use example.com instead of www.example.com and all your links go to www.example.com this can cause problems with your SEO. Whilst typing the address www.example.com and example.com will take people to the same place they are different URLs.
You can select the preferred domain from within Google Webmaster Tools. Once you have selected the preferred domain you will need to make sure that all the links to your site point to the preferred domain so they benefit the SEO. In addition, you will need to redirect any links going to your non-preferred domain, as they will not benefit the preferred domain’s SEO if they are not redirected.
Setting up 301 redirects will help to pass on the value of inbound links from one URL to another. If you would like to know more about the SEO services Dental Design provide please give us a call on 01202 677277.