Redirecting URL to WWW

[Andy]

What's the best way to redirect any URLs pointing to your site to make sure that they always include www in the url?

In .htaccess we can use a 301 redirect but I am not sure how to only make this work for URLs that are missing the "www."

I didn't want to redirect every URL.

This is for SEO reasons to prevent search engines seeing duplicate content. If indeed it is an issue to be concerned about.

[SensoVision]

I'm using this code for URL's unification:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursiteurl\.net$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$  http://www.yoursiteurl.net/$1 [R=permanent]

Would it work for you?

This is for SEO reasons to prevent search engines seeing duplicate content. If indeed it is an issue to be concerned about.

I've got feeling that at least Google perfectly distinguish such cases now and don't consider domain without www. and one with it as different sites.

[Andy]

My customer requested it and I don't personally bother about it.

I think what you posted is OK but you are telling the search engine that every single request is a permanent re-direct I think. This is the problem I see with these techniques, I would rather it is only actioned when the www. is missing.

If there is no solution, then I will just ignore the customer request  anyway, the site navigation structure should avoid this problem naturally, if I did my job correctly.

[SensoVision]

I think what you posted is OK but you are telling the search engine that every single request is a permanent re-direct I think. This is the problem I see with these techniques, I would rather it is only actioned when the www. is missing.

you're wrong, Andy, it's only matching requests to domain which missing WWW, just as you requested.
here is quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression

^    Matches the starting position within the string. In line-based tools, it matches the starting position of any line.

So it's only match domain if nothing was input before, it like subdomain.

to make sure you can try to check with this tool:
http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/
Check http://pharos-search.com and http://www.pharos-search.com
As I have this code installed there.

If there is no solution, then I will just ignore the customer request  Wink anyway, the site navigation structure should avoid this problem naturally, if I did my job correctly.

of course, you should always use one style of URL everywhere, especially in your site.

[Andy]

Thanks Denis, I didn't study it hard. Thanks a lot for the effort you put into this solution.

Andy

[SensoVision]

Thanks Denis, I didn't study it hard. Thanks a lot for the effort you put into this solution.

my pleasure It wasn't big effort actually and I'm almost sure it would be useful for more people who find this thread.
Hope it would work out for your client.

[donecweb]

I'm using this code for URL's unification:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursiteurl\.net$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$  http://www.yoursiteurl.net/$1 [R=permanent]

Denis where would you place this code to make this work?

[SensoVision]

it should be placed into file named: .htaccess in the public_html, www or docs directory on your server(it depend from your server setup, but generally it's where you have your index.php or index.htm file).

IMPORTANT: site could go offline or some bugs may appear if this file not properly used, it's very important to backup first .htaccess file which present(if it exist) on your hosting account first before applying any changes to it.

Let me know if you need help with this.

[donecweb]

Thanks Denis.

[carpmad]

ive just setup my domain tol redirect to my shop but after you go to checkout and click to pay by nochex and go off to there site it still shows as my domain so doesnt show the secure lock in the bottom corner
is there anyway to solve this so the domains limited to just my site
my shop also shows toasteds domain in the links because its hosted on that server is there anyway around that too or do i need seperate hosting for forum and shop?

[Andy]

If it doesn't show the lock symbol it's probably because you are framing the secure page.

Not sure about the other problem. You can't fake the domain name in the URL.

[carpmad]

cheers Andy
so i need to get a seperate hosting package for my www.a-tractbaits.com shop to have it working properly and keep the toasteds.co.uk domain on the same server as it is now?
hope thats not the case lol i cant afford another hosting fee

[Andy]

Yeah, you need separate accounts for different domains. I use www.supanames.co.uk which are cheap. Having secure pages will up the cost though.