Non www indexed, will this effect rankings?

[activitysuper]

Hi,

I have a domain which has the non www domain indexed.

I did start link building using the www in the URL, will this not work as well?

So,

domain indexed is footballboots.co.uk (fictitious)

I start building backlinks using www.footballboots.co.uk.

Should I have started building backlinks using footballboots.co.uk for this to work better?

Cheers

[Vivamedia]

Hi!

First of all, think of the adress that you want to promote, www.footballboots.co.uk or footballboots.co.uk ? Maybe you are using the www-version in offline marketing, it is important that you choose one and always use that one wherever you show yourself.

When you have decided which one to use we come to the technical part, lets say you choose the www-version.

If someone goes to footballboots.co.uk they should be sent to www.footballboots.co.uk by a redirect 301. This redirect will forward the majority of the link juice from non-www to the www-version. The main thing is to have one unique url that displays unique content.

You can also log into Google Webmaster Tools and tell Google what you prefer, non-www or the www-version, it will fix the address in SERP.

Then continue the great work, building links to the url of your choice (www-version in my example).

I hope this will help you!

[activitysuper]

Thanks,

I have tried that in webmaster tools, I set it up verified the website by adding the tracking code, at this point I can add a sitmap etc BUT when I try to set the www prefix it says you need to verify before you can.

Well guess what webmaster tools, I already have.

[Vivamedia]

I see, you need to add both the www and non-www version in GWT + verify them both, then you can choose the preferred setting.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Once you've chosen your domain of choice as Tommy as explained by using 301 re-directs. It's probably a good idea to throw the other domain in link building occasionally. For example if you settle with http://www.footballboots.co.uk then your link building should focus around using that URL, but you should also use http://footballboots.co.uk sometimes as it helps to make your link profile look more natural.

If you imagine that other people were creating natural links to your site, they're not always going to use the URL you prefer are they?