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http://example.com versus http://www.example.com

Advantages of one over the other?

         

Cheef

4:43 am on Apr 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'm new to the forums, so hopefully this question isn't too noob.

Anyways, I was wondering how I make my site http://www.example.com instead of http://example.com (which it is right now).

Also, are there any advantages to one or the other.

Thanks

[edited by: Webwork at 4:59 am (utc) on April 27, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

rogmo

2:58 pm on Apr 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I believe it just requires a tweak to your DNS settings.

Below is an example of the settings:

[Host] [Type] [Value] [MX]
*.xyzdomain.com CNAME xyzdomain.com
mail.xyzdomain.com MX mail.xyzdomain.com
xyzdomain.com A 123.123.123.1

The entry with the wildcard should make your domain work with the www (I think)

FYI - if you need to be able to maintain your own DNS records, try www.everydns.net - free and easy to use.

Also many registrars are offering more control over DNS than they used to, so you might have the tools built-in with your domain.

Hope that helps.

jtara

6:51 pm on Apr 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Having BOTH is better. www is a bit of an anachronism. I'd say right now it's 50/50 what users will try for a type-in.

It's (slightly) better to have two A records (pointing to the same address) than to use a CNAME for the www. The CNAME requires an extra DNS lookup.

*.example.com will cause ANYTHING.example.com to go to your web site. You may not want that.

Keep in mind the SEO implications of this. Pick either one to be your "primary" domain. The other is just a convenience. You need to set-up your web server to do a 301 redirect from the secondary domain to the primary. Otherwise, Google and other search engines will penalize your for "duplicate content". This will result in a slight delay on a user's first access in a session to your secondary domain. but this is unavoidable if you want to avoid the search engine penalty.

example.com. IN A 123.456.123.456
www IN A 123.456.123.456

Note the "." on the end of example.com. You will need to double-check with your DNS provider, as there's some variation in the user interfaces between providers. Without the dot, you would be specifying the address for example.com.example.com! With some providers, you would leave the name blank for this entry.

It's unfortunate, but it's hard to give examples, because there is so much inconsistency between different DNS providers UIs.

gpmgroup

10:46 pm on Apr 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



This thread has lots of information on the pros and cons of www v non-www

[webmasterworld.com...]

Cheef

11:22 pm on Apr 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thnaks for the quick responses. Now I am questioning whether or not to use the www at all. We will see though. Thanks