This discussion has been going on for quite sometime and it still goes on. But should you include the “www” in front of your domain name or not? We have different reasons for doing one or the other but which one should we really stick to?
Yes or No with the WWW?
Honestly, it doesn’t really matter which one you use but whichever one you decide to use, it should remain consistent throughout your site. For instance, if you don’t include the “www” in front of your domain then you shouldn’t all of a sudden include it on certain pages.
The reason is the fact that when search engines come to your website, they see those two as completely different URLs. So, “http://www.datmoney.com” and “http://datmoney.com” are technically two different URLs according to the crawlers that crawl your site.
So, in essence, if the search engine crawlers check out your site, see the two different URLs (although they are both the same), there is a risk of duplicate content and both of those pages not getting indexed. I know there is a whole debate on if duplicate content is just a myth or not but I read that if its duplicate within the same site, then there might be a penalty.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to risk it. Feel free to try it out and let me know though!
But luckily, most of us use Wordpress so there’s an option to edit both the “Wordpress address (URL)” and “Blog Address (URL)”. Both of these should be the same. To access this, go to your Wordpress panel, click “settings” and “general”. (see the screenshot below):
Don’t worry, for you Blogger users, its basically the same thing. They even have a redirect of “http://datmoney.com” to “http://www.datmoney.com”. To do this, simply go to your Blogger account panel in “advanced settings” is where this option is. (see the screenshot below):
What Do I Do?
Personally, I put the “www” in front of my domain names because it looks more formal. Plus, growing up with the internet around me, how many times have you told someone a website address and included the “www” when you were telling them? Like “if you go to www dot datmoney, um, it’s ‘dat’ with a ‘D’, dot com…”
I know everyone has their own preference and some people just could careless. But whatever you end up doing, make sure it stays the same throughout your entire website. It only really takes two seconds, well, maybe like 10 seconds, to make the change if you’re using Wordpress or Blogger anyways.
So, why risk duplicate content with search engines if its that easy to change? But duplicate content is another topic on its own… plus, the more I hear, the more its a “myth” than anything. 
Do you guys include the “www” or not? And why?
of course you should. its the standard that mostly everyone does.
I think I might agree with you on that one. I just went and changed my settings. Thanks for the heads up.
Geez… i didnt know about this until today. Thanks for sharing!
Regards,
Jenn
yes, i am always including an www’s to all of my blog, because, it is really formal to include it to your domain
luckily for me i changed the setting since I started..
I perfer www in front of my websites. Greg Ellison
Yes, one should definitely include www before the URL as that is the usual ractice. As you have said it really does not matter much even without www but one should be consistent with what he uses.
i tried some of the website where you dont have to type http://www..but for most of the government website you need to type it..check it out
i think that you should remain consistent, in whichever you use – and always link to with our without – don’t mix it up
I prefer www. It does have a familiarity & comfort levels with everyone. I would advice anyone to use it strictly if your website being different is significant to you & your niche.
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Consistency is definitely the key, but for me personally I prefer the www, it is just more standard and the way it is suppose to be. Nowadays though, I think the duplicate myth with the urls has been mainly resolved on Google’s end, at least that is what Matt Cutt’s says.
Till then,
Jean
i’m using a blogger blog with a custom domain and I prefer using WWW in my URL structure because thats the standard followed usually. Though it does not matter at all now-a-days but one must remember to use the same url structure while linking too.
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If you are using blogspot and wanted to get ping by technorati, I believe you need to change setting to direct to www.
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No i did not use, any lost from not using WWW in my site?