http://www. vs. http:// and google ranking

[robinev]

And what of the difference between www._.com/ and www._.com (ie with or without the /)

They're the same.

The listing without "/" is technically incorrect, but so common that it is fixed by virtually all servers. Some link checkers will flag a reference to a directory that doesn't include the trailing slash, but you're unlikely to run into a server that doesn't treat the references as identical.

[Conficio]

And what of the difference between www._.com/ and www._.com (ie with or without the /)

They're the same.

The listing without "/" is technically incorrect, but so common that it is fixed by virtually all servers. Some link checkers will flag a reference to a directory that doesn't include the trailing slash, but you're unlikely to run into a server that doesn't treat the references as identical.

I would have to say that is only half the truth.

I believe www._.com is technically not a URL, but as stated it is corrected in some of the players in the chain.

A URL ending with a "/" is a call for a directory listing. Most web-servers are either programmed to list the content of the directory or they are send to a default-index page (usually index.html).

A URL not ending in a "/" is a URL for a file (or any other script that returns a file content like stream). This is true if it ends in ".html", ".php" or not. For example www._.com/happy is a request that might be equivalent to www._.com/happy.html. But www._.com/happy/ is a request to a directory listing. The practically best system is to actually avoid all "file-"extensions. Because it allows you to change your technology from *.html (plain html files) to *.shtml (Server Side Includes - SSI), to *.php or *.jsp or *.pl without changing all your URL's and having to redirect them later on.

Regarding the best way to do a redirect? There is no universal answer, because it depends much on the powers you have over your web-server. Some can only add scripts or Meta redirects (because they are hosted at free - or thrown in to the service - kind of web-servers). Others can influence the .htaccess or use *.php or perl to do the trick (because they have more or less full fledged web-hosting services). And the last group has full control over the virtual host configuration and the DNS, because they have a virtual or dedicated server (or host from home).

and I didn't try to say that it is impossible to figure out, what is your case, but it is more time and resources I can spare to solve your puzzle. And in general there are too many moving parts in combination to figure out. So my strategy would be to do a solid solution that covers most bases and stop worrying about it.

K<o>

[LinkMaster]

To my surprise no one has been able to answer the question, yet.

Here is the answer. Google sees http://www.your-domain.com as a completely different domain than http://your-domain.com, just as it would see http://forums.your-domain.com as a different domain. That's because they are different domains.

Might I add that IP addresses change a lot? Google is going to index the domain name and not the IP address. What if someone changes web hosts? Do they lose their PR? No.

Hope this helps clear things up a bit.

[volastyle]

-deleted.

[poolpartsetc]

take a look at the top search engines...

if you type yahoo.com, msn.com, google.com etc. you will be redirected to the www. version.

if you type webproworld.com you will go to webproworld.com.

i would definately use the www. version of the site

[effisk]

this thread is very interesting.

This problem raised my attention a couple of days ago with the following site:

http://kitesurf.fr and

http://www.kitesurf.fr

The toolbar PR is currently 0 for both addresses because the site is fairly new (a couple of months), but I realized that when you browse starting from either addresses, it remains the same in the address bar (either http.kite... or http://www.kite... ), and you have a 'double content' for the whole site; it made me wonder what Google would make of this.

Now I have the answer.

I have an additional question though...

see the results for:

google search: link:http://www.specialchem.com

google search: link:http://specialchem.com

You will notice that the results are the same, but both http://www.specialchem.com and http://specialchem.com exist (same content, no redirection...). It seems that google makes no difference here.

[DesignsOnline]

Hello,
I have a situation along these lines which I dont understand.

In google I have a PR 4 for the following:
http://www.designsonline.co.uk
http://designsonline.co.uk
http://www.designsonline.co.uk/
http://designsonline.co.uk/
http://www.designsonline.co.uk/index.html

But I sometimes get a PR 0 for:
http://designsonline.co.uk/index.html

To the best of my knowledge all my backlinks point to http://www.designsonline.co.uk

Yet Google have just changed my listing from http://www.designsonline.co.uk to http://designsonline.co.uk

Why is this, will it affect my PR or SERPs and what if anything can I do about it?

I am worried because I have very low backlinks anyway as I only recently learned that I needed them, I am now trading PR4+ links as fast as I can with everyone who wants to trade. But all the links I have point to http://www.designsonline.co.uk will I lose position and or PR now the Google have changed my listing?

[paulhiles]

Why do you think Google is using your domain name without the "www"?
A Google search for Website Design Southend on Sea, returned your site at #14 and the site domain was displayed with the "www".

Anyway, with eleven links in your post above, that may boost your rankings for both variations! ;o)

[wednesday]

How about using images ../img/img.gif
Does this bothers google?