Non-www or www from outside links to my site?

[Brumas]

I'm new on SEO and recently redid this my website.

This website is a local business that just sell around my city, so I started linking the website on listing sites. I found one directory that didn't allow me to add a non-www, so I change on every listing site or directory to www, It seems you can get your google ranking harmed if there is variations to access your website.I know that everything will arrive on the same page no matter I have a non-www or www, but the Website is Hosted on Godaddy and it seems that they don't use the www version even if you want. So my domain is non-www.

On the other hand I just have been notified that google webmaster tools couldn't verify my account and I did it again and is verified now. Cheking again on WMT, it doesn't show the previous links that were under "Links to Your Site" it just show "no data available". Here in MOZ it show different results between non-www and www

Why is this happening? What should I do? And in which way my google ranking can be affected by this?

[seomozinator]

Hi there.

Well, let's go step by step:

1. www vs non-www.

From SEO perspective It doesn't matter what version you link to, as long as you have proper 301 redirect from one version to another.

RewriteCond %{http_host} ^your-domain.com [nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.your-domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

This will assure that you wouldn't have duplicate content and will give Crawler Bots understanding what version of your website is "canonical". Just remember that "www" is technically subdomain. At the same time you can set preffered version of your website in Google Webmaster Tools. This will "tell" google how to display your website in Search Results.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231?hl=en

2. GMT "no data available"

If you have added new version (http://, www, non-www, https://) of your website to GMT it will require some time to gather all information.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2571221?hl=en

3. MOZ different results

Make sure that you do have proper 301 redirect from www to non-www (or the opposite), if you just did it, it will take time for MOZ tools to recrawl and understand that. If redirect is proper you should see in Open Site Explorer a message like this (when you enter the version, which is supposed to be redirected):

You entered the URL http://your-domain.com which redirects to http://www.your-domain.com/.

Because it's likely to have more accurate metrics, we're showing data for the redirected URL instead.

Click here to analyze http://your-domain.com instead?

So, first, make sure you have redirect, then wait until it's recrawled. (You can request recrawl in GMT).

[Mike.Bean]

There is probably an automatic 301 redirect setup. When necessary use the www. version of your url. When link building, use the non www. version of your url. Not all "Juice" is transferred through a 301 redirect.

[Xtend-Life]

With GoDaddy you should have access to the DNS template for the website, just add a cname record for www or A record if that's what you want to use.

What do you set for rel=canonical? Everything should be consistent.

[Brumas]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

Charles,

1. based on the point number one I don't need to change again the links on the listing sites even though, there, I added the link with www and the site is non-www.

If I add new listings should do the same or add the correct link (non-www)

And what version should I choose on Google webmaster tools? the non-www or the www? I think now is the www, because it shows www.mysite.com

[seomozinator]

For listings and GMT use the version, which is the "end" version for user.

Example:

For my website I use https://www.hyperlinksmedia.com. That's my "end" version,Https and www version, I want this version to be displayed in SERPs, listings etc. So, no matter what version you type in address bar (hyperlinksmedia.com, http://hyperlinksmedia.com, www.hyperlinksmedia.com, http://www.hyperlinksmedia.com,https://hyperlinksmedia.com) they all gonna be 301-redirected to https://www.hyperlinksmedia.com.

So, I use it in listings, if listings don't allow to use https://, I use next best thing, which is http://www.hyperlinksmedia.com.

And I use https www version in GMT. Because that's the version I want to track, since it's the "end product", I'm not interested in transitional steps.

[Brumas]

I'm sorry for coming back again, but I'm fairly new on this and a few things can be misinterpreted.

When you say "end" version, you mean the version people use more or the one that I have on my server.

Example,  people usually seems to always put the www (www.mysite.com) when they type my domain but on the end is always converted to non-www (mysite.com) because is the version I have on my hosting server. So the end version is the one on my server?

[seomozinator]

Sorry for confusion

"End version" as end result people see in browser's address bar after all redirects.

If people type in "www.mysite.com" and it's being redirected to "mysite.com" - then "mysite.com" is end version.

If people type in "http://mysite.com" it redirects to "http://www.mysite.com" then to "https://www.mysite.com" - then "https://www.mysite.com" is end version.

If people type in "https://www.mysite.com" and you redirect them to "mysite.com" - "mysite.com" is end version.

Hope this helps.

[Brumas]

One more question.

Exploring GWT, I got an automatic message from them explaining a few key points to improve the search presence.

At the point one of the list, is mention to add all the versions of my website (www, non-www and https). See file attach.

So I guess I should add all the version ...

open?id=0B-X4U__h0foNNmxwaTZTTW5pQW8