[How to] Setup www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com (www vs. non-www) - With .htaccess 301 redirects

Originally Posted by zems

So if I am using non www in google, should I do it also in .htaccess ?

Your settings in Google only affect Google, your .htaccess file is a global setting.

Originally Posted by zems

So if I am using non www in google, should I do it also in .htaccess ?

I would recommend it as setting it in Google is just for Google to get the best effect you want to set you .htaccess as this is then a global setting.

Ceri

Just set it in .htaccess.
Thank you Neo and Ceri

correct, and also in your vboptions -> BB URL setting. They should all match.

I scanned through this thread and didnt see a full answer..

so far I have

site.com -> www.site.com

and would like to handle

site.com/chat/ -> www.site.com/chat/

do I have to be concerned about the slash at the end of chat. ie if someone puts site.com/chat it wont redirect?

Anyone willing to provide the rewrite?

thanks

Hi,

As long as you don't have another .htaccess file inside the chat folder then the rule supplied on the first page will be all you need it redirects anything after the domain to the new one so site.com/whatever/ will go to www.site.com/whatever

Ceri

Yea, I have tried a few times to get it to work but continue to have it fail in my /chat/ directories. I understand that the root pub html htaccess is recursive and carries over so I have added a new htaccess file to the /chat/ dir.

For whatever reason, it will not rewrite. However, the htaccess is being used as I can break it and disable the site.

Thoughts?

So, which one do we set in Google Webmaster tools then? www or non-www? Which one is better? Currently, we have been using Google Webmaster tools, but have the "Preferred domain" not set.

Help?

Originally Posted by Kihon

So, which one do we set in Google Webmaster tools then? www or non-www? Which one is better? Currently, we have been using Google Webmaster tools, but have the "Preferred domain" not set.

Help?

There is no SEO effect between www or non-www however I use non-www because it's make the URL Short.

What if google has the www listed when you find the site in the keywords?

Originally Posted by marco1

There is no SEO effect between www or non-www however I use non-www because it's make the URL Short.

Originally Posted by marco1

There is no SEO effect between www or non-www however I use non-www because it's make the URL Short.

Totally Agree, I use non-www for my sites for two reasons.

1. no-www makes the URL's shorter. I do a lot of twitter promo and that extra 4chars makes all the difference.
2. the www. subdomain is outdated and not needed now so if you have the choice why use something outdated?
   Clearly if you are already mostly indexed with the www. then keep it because just as much there is no point being re-indexed just for 4chars.

What is important is that you stick to one and use it globally.

Use which ever google has the most results for.

Then, set
- webmaster tools preferred domain
- htaccess
- vboptions -> site url

to all the same, either with or without.


I personally prefer without as its simply un-necessary to use it anymore, but using www's is not bad either.

Results 1 - 10 of about 79,000 for makeuptalk.com/forums. (0.43 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 5,330,000 for MakeupTalk. (0.59 seconds)

I think you mean that ^^^, right?

Originally Posted by Brian Cummiskey

Use which ever google has the most results for.

Then, set
- webmaster tools preferred domain
- htaccess
- vboptions -> site url

to all the same, either with or without.


I personally prefer without as its simply un-necessary to use it anymore, but using www's is not bad either.

Originally Posted by Kihon

Results 1 - 10 of about 79,000 for makeuptalk.com/forums. (0.43 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 5,330,000 for MakeupTalk. (0.59 seconds)

I think you mean that ^^^, right?

That would be the one, now see for you changing to non-www would be disastrous as the 5,330,000 URL's would all need to be reindexed, though it would be recommended you look at your redirect as currently makeuptalk.com/forums redirects to www.makeuptalk.com not www.makeuptalk.com/forums as it should.

here is my .htaccess:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^makeuptalk\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.makeuptalk.com/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(admincp/|modcp/|cron|vbseo_sitemap|redir\.php)
RewriteRule ^((archive/)?(.*\.php(/.*)?))$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !/(admincp|modcp|clientscript|cpstyles|images)/
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ vbseo.php [L,QSA]

How does that look?

Originally Posted by Ceri May

That would be the one, now see for you changing to non-www would be disastrous as the 5,330,000 URL's would all need to be reindexed, though it would be recommended you look at your redirect as currently makeuptalk.com/forums redirects to www.makeuptalk.com not www.makeuptalk.com/forums as it should.

Also, while in Google Webmaster tools, I tried to set the "Display URLs as www.makeuptalk.com " but it keeps saying "Part of the process of setting a preferred domain is to verify that you own http://makeuptalk.com/. Please verify http://makeuptalk.com/."

I thought I verified it over a year ago when Ifirst started using GWT, but now it says that. How do I verify it?