Same URL, but PR difference of 3 points!

if we take out the 'www.' for some site the PR is going to be lower

[haryanto]

Hi guys,

Do you guys have any idea why the PR for my website is 0 when the domain in the address bar is without the 'www.' but the PR is 3 with the 'www.'

e.g.
blahblahblah.com --->0 PR
www.blahblahblah.com --->3 PR

WHY?

[percentages]

Yup, because Google and all it's PHD's ain't very smart, and lack common sense.

Okay, www is literally a sub-domain, but as its use is so common would it really be that hard to implement a bit of logic to combine them :)

Joe surfer types DomainName.com into the Google search box and ends up with zilch, while www.DomainName.com shows the site the user wants. So the user ain't a rocket scientist either, but that is no excuse for a SE IMHO ;)

If Google wants to be "The peoples" SE they need to fix some of the basics.

[doortodoororganics]

i'm new.
i find if i set up a site with all the links pointing to www
the domain has PR only with the www.

[DaveAtIFG]

Most servers resolve both www.example.com and example.com to the same web site. Historically, Google has perceived them as different sites and indexed both, unless webmasters take steps to prevent it. Rage rank is usually split between them based on the incoming links to them.

Regardless of how carefully a webmaster builds his www.example.com site, if another webmaster links to example.com and Google follows the link, Google thinks it has two different sites. Some of the consequences may include splitting PR between the URLs, or a penalty for having duplicate content on multiple URLs.

The solution is to structure your site to present a 301 redirect (moved permanently) from the "site" with the undesirable URL to the desired URL. After implementing this, people occasionally enjoy a slight boost in PR at the desired URL.

[trillianjedi]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld DoorToDoorOrganics.

<Edit : Dave already answered>

TJ

[nakulgoyal]

Does this mean that instead of having our host setup the CNAME for www, we have them setup as a separate account and have a 301 redirect there Dave?

[haryanto]

This is dangerous!
I dont wanna be accused of duplicate content for nothing!

Well at least I am kinda disappointed that google engine is not as smart as I thought it is.

I have sent an email to google regarding this.

[edited by: tedster at 10:43 pm (utc) on Jan. 5, 2005]
[edit reason] no email excerpts, please [/edit]

[flobaby]

I really don't think there's anything to worry about, after all, everyone has www.url.com and url.com.

Thought it was funny though because yesterday I just noticed this and thought the Austin update had messed me up bad. Went (or so I thought) from a PR6 to a PR3. Turned out it was just the www vs. without www.

[haryanto]

Got a reply from Google!

edit note:
Google confirmed the information in this thread - so if many
sites link with the 'www' and few link without the 'www', then
the two URLs will have different PR.

[edited by: tedster at 10:46 pm (utc) on Jan. 5, 2005]
[edit reason] no email quotes, please [/edit]