Search engines might consider http://www.silktide.com and http://silktide.com different websites. This tests if a website is duplicated on the www and non-www URL.
Why do we test for this?
It is considered best practice for your website to appear on one domain only. This is also important for SEO.
How do we test for this?
We check if the web address being tested starts with www. or not in order to determine the alternative version. We try and view the alternate version of the website, and see how the web server responds. The possible outcomes are:
- Permanent redirect (HTTP 301) - This is the perfect way to redirect users and search engines to the prefered version of a site
- Temporary redirect (HTTP 302) - This is good but a 301 is considered better as some search engines may remember and persistently check the wrong web address because they assume a temporary redirect might change in the future.
- A duplicate website - This is bad as search engines could index your website twice and penalise you for having duplicate content.
- A different website - This is very bad as most users won't realise the difference and could get confused.
- No response - This is bad as users won't realise the difference and could get confused and think your site is broken if they visit the wrong version accidentally. This doesn't apply if the website is a subdomain.
What can I do about it?
The ideal solution is to redirect visitors to the correct version of the site using a permanent redirect (301).