Why Does Google Treat "www" & "no-www" As Different?

Canonical Question

[Simsi]

...why does Google want to treat the "www" and non-"www" versions of a website as different sites? Isn't it pretty obvious that they are one site?

Or am I missing something?

[Simsi]

However it would be nice to fix it.

Yes indeed. I've also just found using "site:domain.com -inurl www" that there is one entry in Google for a non-www page in this directory that still for some reason will not redirect to www, even if you are logged out! Odd. yet a direct call into other pages of the phpbb directory redirects fine.

[edited by: Simsi at 9:54 pm (utc) on Sep. 28, 2006]

[g1smd]

Another way of looking at what BigDave just explained is also in the post over at: [webmasterworld.com...]

[theBear]

Simsi,

Without seeing the complete setup I'd say that the rewrite ruleset for your phpBB (theBear takes certain precautions, normally needed to deal with hazardous materials) forums may be short circuiting your intent.

Now where is this rule set?

It should be in the .htaccess file after your general fix up the www/non-www issue.

[Simsi]

Now where is this rule set?

It should be in the .htaccess file after your general fix up the www/non-www issue.

Thanks theBear. The rules in the .htaccess file are part of an SE navigation mod for phpBB but I reckon it's flawed as (you suggest) removing them totally fixes the issue above. I'm gonna rip it apart :)

Simsi

[edited by: Simsi at 8:06 am (utc) on Sep. 29, 2006]

[theBear]

Simsi,

I didn't suggest removing the rules completely, just that they need to appear in the proper order in the proper place.

BTW, That particular MOD looks familar, I think I looked at it and went another way.

[Simsi]

theBear

It's okay - I'm not removing it totally, just doing some alterations :-) It's a standard mod I think...I'm sure there are alternatives.

[edited by: Simsi at 3:42 pm (utc) on Sep. 29, 2006]