auto redirects

newbie question

[alra111]

I am a total newbie to web design on my own domain (have previous experience with geocities.com websites, however).

I was told by a friend that I should have an auto redirect for my site from xyz.com to www.xyz.com, because it is better for search engines and your rankings since Google and other sites will only see one URL.

What is the exact line I should add to my .htaccess file to accomplish this? Should it be the first line in the file?

Thanks,
Alra111

[mayest]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld alra111, you'll find tons of great information here. I suggest that you take a look at this post in the Apache Web Server forum for the answer to your question:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[encyclo]

Welcome alra111, you should also check out this guide in the Apache forum:

An Introduction to Redirecting URLs on an Apache Server [webmasterworld.com]