Community Q&A:

URL doesn't contain www

Asked by:
seejillrun / 8 Points Time:
2014-01-21 9:15 pm EST Category:
Domain Names Hits:
1,104
Why doesn't www show up prior to my domain name when you pull up my domain online? I am new to this but it doesn't matter what device I am on the www always drops off. I am not logged into my account on the other devices.

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ANSWERS

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johnpaulb-whh2
Staff
12,339 Points
2014-01-21 10:02 pm EST
Hello seejillrun,

Thank you for your question. This is usually due to the website being setup without the www.

For example, when you install something using softaculous you have an option to:Choose Protocol.

In this step you select from several options, including: http:// or http://www.

You can change the URL after installation, but the steps depend what CMS you are using, because as an example Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, are all modified differently.

We would be happy to provide more specific steps, but we will need additional information, such as the software you are using for your website.

As a side note, the www is not used as often in websites nowadays, and is really just a preference.

If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.
Thank you,

-John-Paul

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Thanks for the answer. I used wordpress and would love to know how to fix it. You have also peaked my interest if there any benefit or disadvantage for not using the www. You mentioned it was just a preference but didn't know if there was anything else to it. Thank you,
Jill
seejillrun
8 Points

2014-01-21 10:14 pm EST
Hello Jill,

WordPress uses a .htaccess file in your main /public_html directory to control how requests are handled on the server.

If you login to WordPress, then under Settings click on General. You should see the settings for Site Address (URL). If you change that URL to read http://www.example.com then your WordPress site should always re-direct to the www version of your domain. If you leave the www off of that URL, then it won't.

There is not really a benefit of using the www version of your domain name. If you're trying to rank in search engines like Google, one thing to keep in mind is canonicalization, or essentially setting the preferred domain (www or non-www) that Google would display in its search engine results for your website.

It's really just a matter of personal preference, but once you pick one method or the other, you should really try to stick with it.

Please let us know if you had any further questions.

- Jacob
JacobN
3,713 Points
Staff
2014-01-22 4:29 am EST
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