Google: Changing WWW to Non-WWW Doesn't Change Much (For Ranking)

Jan 15, 2024 - 7:51 am 1 by

Google Redirect Blocks

Google's John Mueller said that changing from www to non-www for your domain shouldn't change much. I suspect he means that doing that wouldn't hurt or benefit your rankings that much and Google will likely pick up on the change and the rankings would not suffer much from the change.

John was asked:

We have a large site and had to change the domain url (remove www. ). The Dev guys chose to implement 301 via User Agent “Mozilla”. I expected some impact but it seems to be getting worse over time (3 weeks now). I’m now wondering whether Google recognises this for of 301 when ranking pages?

John responded on Mastodon:

Server side redirects (like 301) don't use user-agents, so I suspect you misunderstood something there :). Changing www / non-www doesnt' really change much, so if you're seeing bigger changes, that would likely be something else.

In general, changing from HTTP to HTTPS or WWW to non WWW, these types of changes, Google is very quick to pick up on these changes and rankings should not suffer from those types of changes. It is when you change some URLs, URL structures and parts of your site that Google is slower to react with.

Forum discussion at Mastodon.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Updates, Site Reputation Abuse Coming, Links, Ads & More

Apr 26, 2024 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Publisher Center No Longer Allows Adding Publications

Apr 26, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Tests Placing The Snippet Date Next To URL

Apr 26, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Breaks Out Googlebot IP Ranges For User-Triggered Fetchers

Apr 26, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google News

Google Ad Revenue Up 13% & Bing Ads Revenue Up 12%

Apr 26, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Diagnostic Tool Low Keyword Quality Warning

Apr 26, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Chrome Following Feed Now Shows Content By Topic