Difference between www and non-www
When setting up the website, one of the questions that arise is whether to use a www or non-www domain name.Both variants are popular on the internet, and it does not make much difference to the end-user. But if there are two variant - www and non-www - then there must be differences. Let’s look into the difference between www and non-www domain.
What is WWW?
WWW is an acronym for the World Wide Web. However, when used with the domain, as a prefix, they become a subdomain. For example, www used in www.example.com is a subdomain of the root domain name example.com. However, WWW is the most popular subdomain. WWW subdomain indicates that the site is on the web, not on FTP (ftp.example.com) or mail server (mail.example.com). Mobile sites use m.example.com, and organisations are using blog.example.com for blogs.
What is non-www?
Non-WWW is also known as the naked domain. The early Internet used the WWW as the sub-domain. But as the Internet prospered, people realized that using naked domain is much faster than typing extra www. Webmaster noticed it, and the naked domain became popular too. Right now, both www and non-www are in existence. But Chrome browser hides the WWW from the URL tab.
What’s the Difference Between WWW and Non-WWW?
There are few points where WWW and Non-WWW domains differ:
SEO
For Google, WWW and Non-WWW are two separate identities. Having the same content on two separate properties can create duplicate issues. That’s why you have to prefer any one domain from the Search Console. You can also HTTP 301 Redirect from one type to another. The point is, you have to use only one, be it www or non-www domain name.
Cookie Control
WWW subdomain gives more control to the webmasters over the cookies. When there is no subdomain, the cookies pass down to all the other subdomains, which you may not like to do. For example, you have example.com, and the cookies are set on it. Once the cookies are accepted, they will be passed down to abc.example.com, xyz.example.com etc. By adding the WWW, you restrict cookies, and they stay only on the WWW subdomain. For a website with multiple subdomains, having WWW is a good practice.
Traffic Overload Protection
Naked domains do not have CNAME Records, making it difficult to redirect the traffic from one server to another. Sometimes, one server gets overloaded, so the traffic must be redirected to another server to keep the site up and fast. Without CNAME records, it cannot be done.
Familiarity
WWW domains have a familiarity advantage. It is common, popular and everyone knows about it. It adds to the credibility of the domain name. But again, it is the choice of brand and company to select any variant. It does not make much of a difference.
Conclusion
WWW and Non-WWW domains are the same things for the most part. However, you must not use both at the same time. Pick one and build your site on it. You can add as many aliases and secondary domain from the Breeze pane. All the other domains will point to the primary domain.
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