301-redirect

[RyanKent]

excellent point Rene

This works well for links you create but not for any UGC

[ReneReinholdt]

Right back at you Ryan, good point

[seonexgen]

Yes...it should be redirected to www. through .hactess or it can be done through Google webmaster tools.

[danlae]

Does it really matter which direction i redirect ? Is it most common to redir to -->www. ?

[danlae]

Didnt know i could do through google webmaster, thanks.

[ReneReinholdt]

2 things you should keep in mind about with and without www:

• how many pages does google have indexed with and without
• how many links do you have that points towards www vs non-www.. this one is important since not all of your PR will get passed on after a 301. Most but bot all of it

hope it helped

[RyanKent]

To be clear, you would use Google IN ADDITION TO the other changes, not instead of.

Google WMT will alter how your URL appears on their search pages. If you don't address the issue on your site you will still have the same negative effects.

[ReneReinholdt]

There are other SE's out there then google and you don't want to loose that traffic, so as Ryan stated you can't fix it in GWT.

[seonexgen]

On Google WMT, there's an option for preferred domain setting. You can use this. But I do agree with Ryan that it'll solve the issue only for Google not for other search engines.

[KeriMorgret]

Use relative paths, and you lose all link juice when someone scrapes your content and reposts it.