26 June 2007
For a while now there have been many different opinions of whether a website URL that had www. at the beginning affects the ‘page rank’ of the website. However over time it would appear as if both www. and non-www. versions of websites are no longer being treated by Google as separate pages, at least where page rank is concerned.
It has always been made clear that we should treat the visible page rank in the tool bar as a loose indication of a website’s actual page rank, but it can still be frustrating when you see a low page rank for the non-www version, and a higher page rank for domains with the www. It has recently been noticed that the page rank displayed for most websites is now the same for both versions. This is certainly a good thing as it is likely a step in the right direction where having both versions will not present any duplicate content issues.
Until the point in time comes where we can be sure that duplicate content is no longer a potential hazard, it is still highly recommended to permanently redirect traffic to one version of your site. This will eliminate the duplicate content.
Keep up to date with industry and Nomensa news by signing up to Nomensa newsletters.
