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WPBeginner» Blog» Beginners Guide» WWW vs non-WWW – Which is Better For WordPress SEO?

WWW vs non-WWW – Which is Better For WordPress SEO?

Last updated on February 23rd, 2021 by Editorial Staff
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WWW vs non-WWW – Which is Better For WordPress SEO?

Every now and again, we get asked by users what’s the difference between www vs non-www in site URLs? People often want to know which one is better for SEO, and whether they should change their site URL. In this article, we will help you understand the difference between www vs non-www and which one is better for WordPress SEO.

Before we start: for an average user and small business owner, there is absolutely no difference between www vs non-www. It’s completely a personal preference.

Yes there is a technical difference between the two which we will cover later in the article, but for most people it shouldn’t matter either way.

WWW vs non-WWW - Which is Better For WordPress SEO?

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WWW vs non-WWW – SEO Benefits

There are absolutely no SEO benefits of choosing one over another. Even Google has said that it all depends on your preference.

What’s important is that you stay consistent with the one that you chose at the time of starting your website.

In other words, DO NOT change your site URL to add or remove www from it.

If you’re using All in One SEO plugin, it will automatically set canonical URL in your site header which will let Google know of your personal preference.

That’s all what you really have to do.

Before you even consider asking, yes we’re using www on WPBeginner site, but that was a personal preference. On our other sites such as optinmonster.com, we do not use www.

It’s just a personal preference, that’s it.

Technical Difference between WWW vs non-WWW

When you add www. in front of a site, it acts as a hostname which can help with flexibility with DNS, ability to restrict cookies when using multiple subdomains, and more. Whereas non-WWW domains also referred as naked domains do not have a technical advantage.

For full technical explanation and details, refer to this article on Why use www?

We hope this article helped clear any confusion between WWW vs non-WWW for your site URL. For more SEO tips, see our ultimate guide to WordPress SEO.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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54 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Sean says:
    Jun 12, 2019 at 2:21 am

    What if I have both non-www and www version on my site? I previously use www version and it’s just okey. But, then I need also non-www version to verify with GA. Do I need redirect or it’s just fine. What about the penalty from Google for having same domain and subdomain?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 12, 2019 at 10:58 am

      Google Analytics accepts www versions of sites, you would want to also ensure you set your preferred domain with Google.

      Reply
  2. ARPIT says:
    May 15, 2019 at 6:33 am

    I am Satisfied with this Article. Thanks for This type of Informative article. This article Answered my question.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 15, 2019 at 11:14 am

      Glad you liked our article :)

      Reply
  3. Giacomo Lawrance says:
    Mar 4, 2019 at 3:26 pm

    I changed mine just now to www from non www, will this damage my prexisting SEO? I already have both added to Webmasters and just changed my preference.

    Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Mar 5, 2019 at 11:17 am

      If you set up the canonical url then it should have minimal effect on your SEO.

      Reply
  4. Mintrx says:
    Feb 12, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    When I enter URL directly of my website after clearing cache then store id is displayed along the url is it good for seo or not.
    Here is the url:
    example.com/?SID=1234

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 13, 2019 at 11:32 am

      They can be considered duplicate content when indexed, you can use Google’s URL parameters tool to avoid indexing those.

      Reply
  5. Ahmed says:
    Aug 16, 2018 at 10:06 am

    This is very informative for me

    THANKS, WP Beginner,

    WordPress users exist because you guys exist on internet, otherwise many people got distracted and ruined their business.

    All best for you.

    Reply
  6. Jerry says:
    Nov 22, 2017 at 10:08 am

    What is the risk of changing fron non-www to www site ?

    Reply
  7. Sonam Sinha says:
    Nov 18, 2017 at 1:31 am

    thanks knowledge of url for seo

    Reply
  8. Phil says:
    Oct 19, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    This would be important if the domain was used before buying it so its important to check any existing backlinks as there may be a benefit to www or non www depending which has the best metrics.

    Reply
  9. Khalid Abubakar says:
    Sep 20, 2017 at 4:39 am

    Hello, thanks for this great article I have successfully verified my side with www but to set www based version as my preferred one, I have to also verify the non-www version which fails after I add the tag and use other means of property verification but to no avail please help how I can achieve that… My site is

    Reply
  10. Muhammad Abbas says:
    Jul 30, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    Hello, After setting my preferred domain to www version , my non www version is showing me robots.txt fetch error, while in www version i have no such error. i set 301 redirect from non www version to www version too.
    But due to fetch error i cant see any indexing on non www version so what should i do with robots.txt fetch error for non www version of my site in search console.
    Sir/Mam, i am eagirly waiting for the reply.
    Thank you

    Reply
  11. Prakash says:
    Jun 29, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    Hi,
    I have a domain and Indexed like http://example.com/ (not www) and I added my site(same domain) in webmasters like http://www.example.com/ (www included) and I’m not getting any data like search and traffic info about the domain and nothing is happening there even after few weeks. is including www in webmasters for the domain is a problem for that? If its that how can I resolve it? Please give me some suggestions to overcome it

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 30, 2017 at 1:27 am

      Hi Prakash,

      Yes, this is the problem. You need to add your non-www URL to webmaster tools.

      Reply
  12. Fabio says:
    Jun 4, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    I have always wondered if not including the www in my url hurt SEO. Thanks for the article. Answered my question.

    Reply
  13. Strats says:
    May 2, 2017 at 11:33 am

    Hi guys, I have a site configured as non-www but the www results are better than the non-www ones. Should I switch to www?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 3, 2017 at 10:51 pm

      Hi,

      If you are saying that the same website is indexed with both www and non-www URLs on the same domain name, then this is actually causing the duplicate content issue for Google. You would need to pick one and stick to it. You will also need to redirect users and search engines from the URL format that you drop.

      Reply
  14. Shahas says:
    Apr 2, 2017 at 2:38 pm

    why https is not showing in your url…i assume you have SSL

    Reply
  15. david says:
    Nov 14, 2016 at 8:52 pm

    If your site is on cloudflare, your address will become a www address

    Reply
  16. Nitin says:
    Sep 13, 2016 at 11:33 pm

    My site is without www so is it good or bad ?

    Reply
    • Cezar says:
      Jun 7, 2018 at 1:17 pm

      Did you read the article? Does it matter www or no-WWW

      Reply
  17. Gustavo says:
    Feb 26, 2016 at 7:14 pm

    i just launched a new wp site using a subdomain – new.example.com. One of my friends told me “not working as http://www.new.example.com“. So i checked and sure enough it wouldnt come up with the http://www., just “http://new.swirlspace.com”

    So i went into the dashboard and changed it from http://new.example.com to http://www.example.com and as soon as i clicked “save changes” the site hasnt been able to be located anywhere, not even in wp dashboard.

    not sure what to do to get i back online, and am just reading here to NOT change it after the initial time… so, any ideas? didnt backup since i had literally just finished it enough to announce it but was still working on adding many pages and features

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 28, 2016 at 10:21 am

      As we have mentioned above, the www is technically a subdomain itself. Some web hosts configure their servers in a way that automatically redirects users to non-www url when someone tries to access it with www. It seems your host doesn’t support this by default. This means when you changed URL from WordPress settings to http://www.new.example.com, then it started pointing to a subdomain that does not exist.

      Here is how you can fix it. Connect to your website using FTP. Go to your the folder containing your WordPress files. Then go to /wp-content/themes/your-wordpress-theme/ folder and open the functions.php file. Add this code at the bottom of your functions.php file:

      update_option( ‘siteurl’, ‘http://new.example.com’ );
      update_option( ‘home’, ‘http://new.example.com’ );

      Replace example.com with your own domain name. Save and upload the file back to your server. You should now be able to visit your website again.

      Reply
  18. VINOD KUMAR MAHINDROO says:
    Feb 11, 2016 at 11:48 pm

    i have set my preferred domain with www but i had done my seo submission without www. is their any technical issue in serp.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 12, 2016 at 9:51 pm

      Yes, you will need to redirect users and search engines if they are not already being redirected.

      Reply
  19. Dustin Brohm says:
    Jan 29, 2016 at 11:45 pm

    Here’s the question… just learning about SEO now. Before I setuo my new website I was putting my links all over the web as www. But then my new website shows up as non-www. Is google seeing this as 2 different websites? Are they not connecting the backlinks that have a www to the new website that is non-www?

    If all my backlinks have a www, should I have my website person change my site to include www? This has been so confusing to me, so hopefully you can clear this up

    Reply
  20. Philip says:
    Jan 14, 2016 at 3:22 pm

    Thanks for this tip – what is stupid is that Google gives you the opportunity to change the version in WebMaster Tools but they do not pass the domain authority from the old to the new…

    I saw this option after noticing that no one uses www anymore in conversation and it seems more streamlined (less is more?) so I removed it. I ended up losing massive amounts of SEO juice and that could have ruined my business.

    If Google is going to let you change, then why don’t they send the juice with the change!?!?!?!?!

    Reply
    • Barry says:
      Aug 22, 2016 at 10:27 pm

      Maybe you didn’t understand that www is a subdomain. When you switched, you technically changed your website’s “home”. You moved homes from the subdomain www to the “base” URL.

      Google let’s you update your webmaster to tell them you’ve moved homes. They won’t “send the juice” to your new URL because you didn’t gain the rank using that address.

      Effectively what you’re asking for is “tradeable” SEO. Not happening buddy :D

      Reply
  21. Brittney says:
    Sep 30, 2015 at 11:06 pm

    Where can this be adjusted in yoast?
    After making sure the redirect for www to non-www is in place, how long before webmaster tools will index the non-www version.

    Reply
  22. munish says:
    Sep 12, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    confusing article not clearly said to which is best or which you preffer any way thanks

    Reply
  23. Mike says:
    Aug 7, 2015 at 4:45 pm

    Thank you for the article, it answered a couple questions I have had. I am wondering if we set our preferred domain with Google WMT and set the same domain structure (non-www) in the wordpress settings does that alone define the canonical url? or should we also add a www to non-www 301 in our htaccess file? Thank you

    Reply
    • sid says:
      Aug 19, 2015 at 11:12 am

      Seriously guys I would always choose www.

      I decided to choose non www. because I liked it better but I am now having all kinds of problems later down the line.

      For example.

      My host offers cloudflare at a reduced rate. After spending 19 days on tech questions they now tell me that I cannot have a non www. domain running cloudflare through my control panel.
      Instead I have to go to cloudflare and set up through them at an extra 15 dollars a month. :/

      In changing over I have also had problems with my ssl certificate.

      Non www. just isn’t as flexible at DNS.

      This situation has got very messy the further I have progressed with it and multiple changes in htaccess, server setup and code have been needed to maintain proper operation. It isn’t worth it, it slows your site eventually through all the mess it creates.
      Some of the problems I have encountered have been my own fault but I like you was stumbling blindly into stuff and just did what I was told. The free advice wasn’t always all that great and now I’m in a bit of a mess that could of been avoided if someone would of just warned me against the vanity of the non www.

      When I was first reading this up everyone was like… Oh yeah use non www. if you like…Google doesn’t care. Well I now have all my webmaster tools set up, analytics, company stationary, business cards and all the rest done and my site won’t work properly with cloudflare. I think there may be a work around at cloudflare but to use a cname requires a business account at £200 a month.
      I haven’t fully investigated that option because I can’t afford it before anyone asks.

      Also, I get the redirect thing but it’s not the point? It’s all extra work that can be avoided and when your site gets big it adds up.

      If your coming to this raw I would advise you to set up as www. If nothing else to save yourself months and months of reading and frustration.

      You have been warned.

      Reply
      • Eder Lugo says:
        Oct 5, 2015 at 2:19 am

        Dude. I’m running my domain without www under cloudflare with SSL for FREE, maybe is something about your server. You can see my site here:

        Reply
      • Alin Pogan says:
        Jan 31, 2017 at 3:49 am

        Hi SID,

        I use for several years the www. and no www. for my blogs and its no technical issue, the only problem is with the SSL certificate, you must release it with the www. version so it can work on both versions if you release it on non www. it will work only on your non www. site.

        Hope it helps.

        Reply
  24. James Canning says:
    Jun 28, 2015 at 8:47 pm

    Its so obvious that wpbeginner changes the date on their old posts to make old content look newer.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 28, 2015 at 9:16 pm

      We do not change dates. Actually we display the last updated date of a post and not the published date. We regularly update our old articles with new information. We update screenshots and make corrections when necessary.

      Reply
      • Sacha says:
        Jul 27, 2015 at 3:59 am

        That’s very sensible.

        Reply
      • Lonnie Jones says:
        Oct 30, 2015 at 5:00 pm

        Yeah, I do the same thing. Every year I have to re-evaluate the “best” overall tools. If I find something important sooner than later then I just post it immediately.

        Reply
      • Brandon Still` says:
        Sep 14, 2016 at 12:45 am

        Kudos to you guys for getting proper use out of your blog posts! Seriously folks, if you are a blogger and do not regularly revitalize and update old posts you are missing out on opportunities!!!! I see nothing wrong with updating older posts and displaying the recent updated date as opposed to the original post date.

        Reply
  25. Erick says:
    Jun 13, 2015 at 11:35 pm

    I don’t think you really need to worry if you want to change the url from www to non www or vice versa at a later date. You don’t really need to be consistent anymore.

    WordPress 2.3 version has already improve on this and the only thing that is needed is to go to your wordpress settings->General and add or remove www. wordpress will automatically change all redirects by itself and you don’t have to do a thing, you don’t lose anything, no serp no likes nothing. The only thing you need to change is your webmaster tools url and thats it. Google might take a bit to index all your pages again but google its pretty fast.

    In conclusion don’t worry if at a later date you want to change your url again. You can do it as many times as you want.

    Reply
    • Gillian says:
      Jul 25, 2015 at 8:33 am

      Hi Erick, Was trying to find an answer to this question as I too would like to change my non-www to www domain and am thrilled to hear its really this easy! What about internal links and media stored on the site? Will that need to be redone? Also, will I need to update my settings with plugins like jetpack or will they automatically be informed?

      Thanks so much for your comment, it really makes things so much easier for me as I’m very new to wordpress!

      Gillian

      Reply
  26. heather arnita says:
    May 23, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    So when you list your bog on other sites should you stay consistent and use www or non depending on your preference?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 24, 2015 at 7:08 pm

      You should stay consistent.

      Reply
  27. oescar says:
    Apr 28, 2015 at 1:06 am

    Well if u say so i wont doubt it :))

    Reply
  28. Praying to the Google Gods says:
    Jan 4, 2015 at 10:59 am

    Let’s just say a designer did change your site from www to non www. And your site dropped out of Google. It is advised to wait it out? Or change it back to www ??

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Staff says:
      Jan 4, 2015 at 2:01 pm

      Restore a copy of your website on www. and setup 301 redirects to your new non-www site.

      Reply
  29. Mark Davis says:
    Oct 20, 2014 at 1:18 am

    Thanks for post such a nice blog,
    But my opinion is this,there are no difference between www or without www effects on seo traffic and ranking.
    But technically www is standard way to represents url address so we should prefer with www url.

    Reply
  30. Vitaliy Kolos says:
    Oct 19, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    Thing learned: naked URL :)

    Reply
  31. cyberarm says:
    Oct 16, 2014 at 10:48 am

    The one click install on most cpanels seem to omit the WWW in the setup. This has been my experience anyway.

    Reply
  32. ADOLF WITZELING says:
    Oct 15, 2014 at 6:15 pm

    Interesting-I didn’t know that. Guess God’s in the detail…the Devil too…

    Reply
  33. Chris says:
    Oct 15, 2014 at 11:50 am

    Good article. I would just add the importance of doing a 301 redirect from one to the other, whichever way you choose. Thus way all links get resolved to the same domain (subdomain) instead of splitting backlinks.

    Reply
  34. Becca Heflin says:
    Oct 15, 2014 at 10:25 am

    Great information, but for small bloggers like myself, how do I find out which way I set it up initially? I honestly can’t remember!

    Reply

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