Does the inclusion or exclusion of www in the URL affect organic search rankings?
Some SEO professionals claim that domains with www rank higher than domains without www, and vice versa.
In this chapter, we’ll determine whether using or excluding www on your domain is a Google ranking factor.
Claim: WWW/Non-WWW in URL is a ranking factor
Will https://www.example.com rank higher than https://example.com (or vice versa) based solely on the use (or not) of www?
To determine this, we must first define what the www part of the URL represents.
Let’s look at the following URLs:
- https://example.com/page.html – HTML page on the root domain.
- https://example.com/folder/page.html – HTML pages in subfolders/subdirectories.
- https://www.example.com/page.html – HTML page under the www subdomain.
- https://store.example.com/page.html – HTML page under the store subdomain.
Now that we know that www is considered a subdomain, let’s see how Google uses Subdomains and subdirectories.
Evidence against WWW or non-WWW as a ranking factor
exist 2005Google published an article on the use of www and non-www by developers on the Google Search Center blog.
The author doesn’t say whether Google has a preference; only webmasters should choose one or the other.
Google has since confirmed that the www subdomain does not affect rankings.
exist 2017a Twitter user asked Google if it prefers www or non-www for SEO.
Google search advocate John Mueller confirmed that www is a brand preference that has the least impact on SEO.
exist 2018during the Google Webmaster Central Office Hours, someone asked Google if there was a difference between subdomains and subdirectories.
According to Mueller, “by and large, we’re seeing the same thing.”
exist 2019Mueller explained the canonical URL on the Google Search Center blog:
“Sometimes a web page can be accessed using multiple URLs. In such cases, Google will try to determine the best URL to show up in search and use otherwise. We call this a “canonical URL.” way to help us better determine the canonical URL for its content.”
He goes on to explain how to use Google Search Console to determine which URL Google has chosen.
If you prefer the non-www version of your site, and Google has chosen the www version of the page, you can follow the instructions for merging duplicate URLs, updated at 2021.
exist 2020Mozilla has updated guidelines for webmasters to choose a www or non-www version of a domain.
They also concluded that it doesn’t matter which version of your website you choose, as long as you stick to that version as the canonical URL.
They go on to explain how to set the canonical URL.
Using WWW vs. Non-WWW as Ranking Factors: Our Verdict
With no news or research from Google proving that domains with or without www rank better, we have to conclude that this is unlikely to be a ranking factor.
The key to www or non-www success is to choose one and be consistent.
Featured image: Robin Biong/Search Engine Magazine
