When setting up a website, is it important to ensure that the non www domain (domain.com) is a 301 redirect to the www domain equivalent (www.domain.com)?
Thanks in advance.
jdMorgan
2:18 pm on Jun 16, 2010 (gmt 0)
Yes, or the reverse. Pick a canonical hostname, link to it consistently, and 301-redirect all non-canonical hostnames that resolve (based on the DNS settings) on this server to the canonical hostname.
If the server has a unique IP address and is an IP-based virtual server as opposed to a name-based virtual server, then be sure to redirect requests for the IP address as well.
This avoids duplicate content issues, and removes your dependency on search engines to 'figure it out' that you have the same content appearing on multiple "sites."
