Adding back "www"

My site is RetouchPRO

However, I have one PHP app that (due to some internal coding I don't understand) requires that the URL be written without the "www.". That URL is RetouchPRO Tutorials

The trouble is, I get a lot of Google hits from the tutorials, and if Google navs from there to anywhere else on my site it registers as an URL without the "www.". Consequently I have multiple Google listings, with and without the "www.".

Ironically, the non-www pages have better SERP rankings for my important search terms.

Is there anything I can do so that if the Google spider navs from the non-www pages to anywhere else on my site the "www." will get added back to the URL?

I've already used Googles webmaster tools to list the www version as the preferred domain for the non-www version, but that doesn't seem to be doing any good.

Here you go: 301 Redirecting Domains

Pardon my density, but that will keep all links in the /tutorials subforum without the www, but keep the www for everywhere else on my site?

Ah, no, missed that part. No, it would take additional to exclude those. Oleg may be able to offer additional help.

Hello Doug,

you should be able to exclude tutorials from the automatic redirection by creating tutorials/.htaccess file with one line:

Code:

RewriteEngine off

Thanks. So what would I put in my main htaccess to insure all the links have the www on the rest of the site (in case they nav there from /tutorials)?

You would use the .htaccess rule defined in the thread I linked. (substituting your own domain, of course )

That rule causes anything that is NOT www.yoursite.com to be sent to www.yoursite.com

Thanks, but you posted two in that thread. Do I need both?

One is for the Forums directory, and one is for the Root directory. Depending on your site layout, you may not need both.

(Edit: Just checked, and you are using a forums directory, so you'll need both.)

Will I need other htaccess files for all my other directories, even those not assisted by vBSEO?

Thanks for your patience, I'm not the stupid about all things, I promise

URLs from other folders should be automatically redirected with rewrite rules entered in root .htaccess.