Choose non-www or www for SSL certificate and redirect?

[web2008]

We are starting a new site with long domain name (25 letters). We have to order SSL certificate. Should we order SSL for www.example or example?

Which one is better for SEO?

- Should we force SSL on whole site from the start? To force http:// to https://
- How we should handle Google search results appearance?
- To set Preferred domain in GWT and use non-www or www?

[lucy24]

Should we order SSL for www.example or example?

Both. You won't use both, but you need SSL both ways so you can redirect as needed.

Disclaimer: I only know this because I've got it wrong at least twice within the last month or two, so I haven't had time to forget.

[ah1180]

At the time, most certificate authorities offered an SSL certificate that can secure both versions of your website www and non-www. Recently the Symantec group has announced free SAN for the base domain, it means your www domain name secure automatically.
source: [ssl2buy.com...]


You need to force SSL on your entire website and setting up an HTTPS for data integrity and authentication.
source: [support.google.com...]

You should preferred the domain (www or non-www) which you want to index in the search result.
source: [support.google.com...]