Website address without the 'www.'
Go into your browser and then enter your website address without the 'www.' eg. yourdomainname.com
Press the ENTER key and see if you can still reach your website. If you can, then congratulate yourself and have an early lunch/go home early.
If not, then read on.
This is a simple problem to rectify. If you have access to your web server then you need to adjust the DNS configuration and enable or disable the www/no-www functionality. You can also setup your server to
have both www and non-www so they go to the same pages (multiple headers is what it's called in IIS).
If you don't have access to your web server then you need to telephone your web hosting company and talk to them. If they can adjust your DNS settings then fine, if not then there is another way around this, you can set up a '301 Redirect'. Below are some good articles about 301 Redirects so you can learn how to set one up;
. http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm
. http://www.seoconsultants.com/tips/asp/301.asp
. http://www.jdhodges.com/log/1373
Even if your website does work without the 'www.' then you may still want to use a 301 redirect just so visitors see that your domain name WITH the 'www.' is the preferred entry point for your website. This will
also simplify your website statistics as yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com are usually recorded as separate pages.
Why Do This?
This makes your website more easily accessible to visitors if they don't include the 'www.' when entering your domain name. It also allows you to shorten your domain name when advertising your website online or
offline. For example, 'Visit amazon dot com for the latest books' is easier to say than 'Visit doubleU, doubleU, doubleU dot amazon dot com for the latest books'. There's no need to include the www. everytime as
that can be safely assumed to exist.
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