www vs non-www unified
"www.yoursite.com" and "yoursite.com" are technically two different addresses. This check ensures both redirect to the same canonical URL, s…
Analyse my site for freeUnderstanding "www vs non-www unified"
A site is technically reachable in two distinct forms: with the www. prefix and without. To a search engine, https://yoursite.com and https://www.yoursite.com are two different URLs, even if they display identical content — without a redirect unifying both to a single canonical version, this creates duplicate content in the eyes of crawlers.
The choice between www and non-www doesn't matter in itself (both are valid) — what matters is that one of the two versions consistently redirects (301, permanent redirect) to the other, uniformly across the entire site.
How TheSiteFuse checks "www vs non-www unified"
TheSiteFuse fetches both versions of the domain (with and without www.) while following redirects, then compares the resulting final URLs. If both converge to the same URL, the check passes. Otherwise, a warning flags that both versions remain separate. This check is not applicable (result "na") if the audited domain is already a subdomain other than www (e.g. app.yoursite.com) — the www/non-www concept only applies to the apex domain.
Why "www vs non-www unified" matters
- Diluted SEO authority — external links pointing to your site get split between the two versions depending on the preferences of whoever created them, artificially dividing the backlink count and the "link equity" Google would otherwise attribute to a single canonical URL.
- Duplicate content — search engines may index both versions separately, creating a duplicate-content penalty risk, even though Google generally handles this case better than true duplication across distinct domains.
- Inconsistent user experience — shared links, bookmarks, or favourites pointing to different versions can create confusion, particularly if a session cookie isn't configured to be shared between both versions.
Fix "www vs non-www unified" step by step
Choose the canonical version (both are valid, choose based on your preference or history):
# Apache — redirect www to non-www
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.yoursite\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://yoursite.com/$1 [L,R=301]
# Nginx — redirect www to non-www
server {
server_name www.yoursite.com;
return 301 https://yoursite.com$request_uri;
}
Complement with the canonical tag
Systematically add <link rel="canonical" href="https://yoursite.com/page"> on every page to reinforce the signal to search engines, even after setting up the 301 redirect.
Verification
curl -IL https://www.yoursite.com # Should show a 301 to the chosen canonical version
Reference resource
To deepen your understanding of the technical concepts behind this check, see the dedicated Wikipedia article.
Wikipedia — www vs non-www unifiedDoes your site pass this check?
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