WWW vs Non-WWW: Which Version Your Website Should Use, and How to Redirect the Other

www vs non www: the short answer

www vs non www is a choice about how the address looks, and Google neither rewards nor punishes it. The question comes up when a business registers its first domain, when it moves the site to a new host or builder, and when Search Console reports almost no clicks for a site that is plainly still getting visitors. The rule above settles the first two; the third is usually a report watching the wrong version, fixed in ten minutes.

The part that matters is easy to miss because nothing on the site looks different. yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com are two separate addresses that can point at the same site, at two copies of it, or at two different things, and Google treats them as two sites until one sends it to the other. Search Console watches one exact address unless told to watch the whole domain. Everything below follows from those two facts.

What www stands for, and why older sites have it

www stands for World Wide Web. In www.yourbusiness.com the domain is yourbusiness.com, and www is a label in front of it, the same kind of label as shop in shop.yourbusiness.com. Early websites used it because one domain also ran email and file servers, and the label told a visitor's computer which machine to ask for. That need is long gone. Today the label is a habit some sites keep and others drop, and both kinds sit side by side on the first page of any search.

Search Console once had a preferred domain setting for this choice; Google removed it, and today the site itself tells Google through the redirect and the canonical tag on each page. That is why the rest of this post is about settings at the host, not at Google.

The three technical differences, and the pros and cons of each version

The two versions differ in three technical ways, and the table doubles as the pros-and-cons list. The www side holds the technical advantages, each felt by a large site with subdomains or its own servers and not by a small one; the bare domain wins on looks, the only difference a customer can see. The last two rows are the ones people expect to differ and do not.

Does www or non-www rank better in Google

Neither. Google ranks pages, and a page is identified by its full address. Whether that address begins with www changes nothing about the words on the page, its speed, the sites linking to it or how well it answers a search, and those are the things that move rankings. Google has no stated preference, and its results mix both kinds.

What Google cares about is that the two versions are not competing. Until one sends it to the other, Google treats them as two separate sites, and three things follow. Duplicate content: every page exists twice, and Google guesses which copy to keep. Wasted crawl budget: Google's visits are spent reading the same pages twice. Diluted link value: outside sites link to whichever version they found, so the site's earned recommendation is split between two addresses instead of adding up on one.

Google usually picks a version on its own, not always the one the owner expects. A permanent redirect settles it: Google follows it, keeps the main address, and carries each page's links and history over. The same logic applies to http and https: a site can answer at four addresses, and the healthy state is that three forward permanently to the fourth.

Which version to pick: a decision rule

What does not belong in the decision: which version looks more professional, which is more secure, and which Google prefers. The first is taste, the second is settled by HTTPS on either version, and the third has no answer. Four rules cover nearly every case; take them in order, and the first one that applies wins.

1. The builder fixes it: use the builder's version. Wix serves connected domains on www and forwards the bare domain to it, with no other direction on offer; Theo serves the bare domain by default and forwards www to it. Neither choice costs a ranking.
2. Existing site with links and history: keep whatever Google already shows in a site: search. Switching later is safe with a permanent redirect, but it is a small move with weeks of settling and no ranking gain to pay for it. Printed material is not a reason to switch either, because the other version forwards and the trucks and signs keep working.
3. Large site with several subdomains or a content delivery network: use www, for the cookie and pointing reasons in the table above.
4. New domain, nothing printed, small site: use the bare domain. It is shorter, and www still works because it forwards.

How to check which version your website uses (one minute)

The check needs a browser and, for the last two steps, a Search Console login.

1. Type the bare domain, yourbusiness.com, into a browser and let the page load. Click into the address bar to read the full address, since most browsers hide the https part, and some hide www, until the bar is clicked.
2. Type the www version and do the same. If both land on the same address and show as secure, one version is the main address and the other forwards to it, the healthy state, and the version left in the address bar is the one the site uses.
3. If each version stays where you typed it and both show the site, nothing sends one to the other, and Google can keep two copies of every page. The redirect section below fixes it.
4. If one version shows the site and the other a parked page, a security message or nothing, that version was never connected. Connect it at the host; on a Theo site the domain panel says so when www is not yet pointing at the site.
5. Run a site: search in Google, written as one word: site:yourbusiness.com. The addresses in the results are the version Google has kept. If they disagree with the browser test, the redirect is either new or missing.
6. Open Search Console and read the property name at the top left. The bare domain with no https in front is a Domain property and covers everything. https://www.yourbusiness.com/ or https://yourbusiness.com/ is a URL-prefix property and covers only that exact version.
7. Still in Search Console, paste the homepage address as the property spells it (a URL-prefix property only inspects addresses under its own version; a Domain property takes either) into the URL Inspection box at the top. The line labeled Google-selected canonical shows which version Google keeps for that page; if it names the version the site does not serve, Google has not yet followed a redirect, or there is none.

How to redirect www to non-www, or the other way, host by host (about fifteen minutes)

The redirect is a setting at the host or builder, not on the pages, and it is the permanent kind, a 301, so Google moves each page's standing along with the visitor; a temporary 302 leaves the old version in the index. Set it once, confirm it with the one-minute check, then leave it alone, because every change of direction sends Google through another round of redirects. If it is not clear which builder or host runs a site, Theo's free what is this website built with check is for exactly that question, and the platform says where the setting lives.

• Cloudflare (DNS in front of any host): open the domain, click Rules, then Redirect Rules, then Create rule. The screen lists templates; pick Redirect from WWW to Root, or the reverse template. It fills in the match on the www hostname and a status code of 301; save it. The rule only fires when the www record on the DNS tab is proxied, shown by the orange cloud. About five minutes.
• GoDaddy (domain only): set the redirect at the host and leave GoDaddy's Forwarding off, because a forward at the registrar replaces the connection to the site. The Forwarding section under the domain offers Permanent (301) or Temporary (302), but it forwards the whole domain, the right tool only when the domain itself should send visitors somewhere else. Two minutes to confirm Forwarding is off.
• Squarespace: Settings, then Domains, lists every connected domain with a Primary label on one and forwards the rest to it. In that domain's settings, switch the Use www prefix toggle on or off; Squarespace says the change takes 24 to 48 hours to apply, as of September 2026, so run the one-minute check the next day.
• Wix: Settings, then Domains, shows the connected domain with www in front. Wix serves every connected site on www and forwards the bare domain to it; the direction cannot be changed, so the only job is to confirm the bare domain forwards. One minute.
• WordPress: Settings, then General, has two fields, WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL). Put the chosen version in both, with https in front, and save; WordPress then forwards the other version to it. On an Apache host the same redirect can also be a rule in the .htaccess file, which most hosting control panels write from a redirect tool; both must name the same version. Five minutes, typed carefully: a wrong address in those fields makes the dashboard unreachable until the host corrects it.
• Theo: nothing to set. The domain step points both versions at the site, by default the bare domain becomes the main address, and www forwards to it permanently; the panel shows Connected once both are in place.

Redirect or canonical tag: use both, and let the 301 lead

A canonical tag is a line in a page's code naming the address the page should be counted under. The builder writes it; WordPress has added one to every page on its own since version 2.9. It is not enough alone: a canonical tag is a hint Google can decline when other signals disagree, while a 301 is an instruction it follows; and a canonical tag passes only the page's standing, while a redirect also moves the visitor, so nobody lands on a duplicate.

The healthy setup is both, agreeing: the unused version redirects permanently to the main one, and every page on the main version carries a canonical tag naming itself there. When they disagree, say a redirect to the bare domain and a canonical tag naming www, Google gets two instructions and has to guess, which is the state the redirect was meant to end. After any change of host, builder or version, view one page's source, search for the word canonical, and run the one-minute test.

What to do after you choose: the checklist

Choosing a version is a one-time decision; keeping it is a short list, most of it done once and re-checked after any change of host or builder.

Why www matters in Google Search Console

Search Console is Google's free report on a site, and it offers two kinds of property. A URL-prefix property watches one exact address, https or http, www or not. A Domain property watches every version at once: root, www, http, https and every subdomain.

The mismatch is common because a property is usually created once, on whatever version the site used then, and the site later moves to a builder that uses the other one. The property keeps watching the old door: clicks and impressions fall to near zero in one step while the site is fine, because Google counts the visitors against an address the report is not watching.

In Theo's audit of 5,974 small business websites, The State of Small Business Websites 2026, 48 percent of the 4,027 sites with search data got an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search. Most of those sites have larger problems than www, which the guide to a website not showing up on Google covers in order. But when the report says zero and customers keep arriving, the property version is the first thing to rule out, because it takes one minute to check and costs nothing to fix.

How to fix a Search Console property on the wrong version (ten minutes)

If step 6 shows a URL-prefix property whose version does not match steps 1 and 2, the report is watching the wrong door. Add a property that watches every door: about ten minutes at the screen, plus time for the new report to fill.

1. In Search Console, click the property name at the top left, choose Add property, and pick the Domain card on the left, not the URL prefix card on the right. Enter the bare domain with no www and no https and continue.
2. Verify it through the domain registrar. Search Console shows a record to add and names where it goes; copy it exactly, save it at the registrar, wait a few minutes, and click Verify. If Verify fails, the registrar has usually not published the change yet; wait and try once more.
3. Keep the old property; its history stays readable while the new Domain property starts empty and fills as Google's reports catch up. Read it as a verdict only once it holds a full week of data.
4. Submit the sitemap again inside the new property. The post on getting Google to index a site covers the rest of the Search Console setup, including indexing requests and page statuses.
5. If the old property fed Google Analytics or a rank tracker, point those at the new one. On a Theo site, Search Console connects inside Theo once the domain is active, and the Google-selected canonical line in URL Inspection shows which version Google kept.

Common www mistakes and how to fix each

Most www trouble comes from one of six settings, each listed with what the owner sees and the fix.

• Both versions live with no redirect. Seen as: each version stays in the address bar when typed, and the site: search mixes www and bare addresses. Fix: set the main version at the host or builder so the other forwards permanently.
• Search Console on the version the site does not use. Seen as: clicks and impressions fall to near zero in one step while customers keep arriving. Fix: add a Domain property and keep the old one for its history.
• Only one version connected at the registrar. Seen as: one version shows the site, the other a parked page, an old site or a privacy warning. Fix: point both versions at the site; on a Theo site the domain panel says when www is not pointing at it.
• Domain forwarding used instead of a connection. Seen as: the address bar changes to the builder's own address after the page loads. Fix: turn off forwarding and parking at the registrar and point the domain at the site; a forward hands the search credit to the address it forwards to.
• The sitemap lists the other version. Seen as: the Pages report shows Page with redirect for every address in the sitemap. Fix: regenerate the sitemap from the main version and resubmit it; it pointed at the wrong side of a correct redirect.
• The version switched with no redirect. Seen as: the site: results still return the previous version, and those addresses now show a security message or nothing. Fix: add the permanent redirect from the old version to the new one, resubmit the sitemap, and give Google time.

What Theo does with www when a domain goes live

A Theo site begins as a preview the owner refines in chat, then publishes. When the owner connects their own domain, or buys one inside Theo, the domain step points both the bare domain and www at the site; by default the bare domain becomes the main address and www forwards to it with a permanent redirect, so Google sees one site rather than two. The walkthrough also covers turning off forwarding and parking at the registrar and leaving the email records alone, and the old site stays live until the registrar's records update, usually within a few hours. The domains page explains the connection step by step.

Theo's own site works the same way: www.theo.site forwards permanently to theo.site, and so does the http version. Buy My Lunch, a customer site on Theo, answers at www.buymylunch.com and forwards it to buymylunch.com, its main address. Theo serves every site as static pages over HTTPS, so both versions show as secure, and the domain panel says so if www is not pointing at the site yet.

Analytics and Search Console connect inside Theo once the domain is active, and the ongoing growth work on Starter and Pro, which includes submitting pages through Search Console, switches on after the domain and both Google connections are in place. A site that was indexed under www is handled like any permanent redirect, and the post on what happens to rankings when a website moves covers the weeks after any move, including this small one.

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