www vs. non-www site redundancy

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InMotionFans
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Oh boy... Let's see how I can write this to explain the situation. My web site was custom created. There never was a "www.panicend.com" version created. There is only a "panicend.com". Yet I keep getting reduntant messages from Google Analytics saying that BOTH versions are being received and affecting my ranking. This all started back in 2010 when my site was being hosted by Yahoo Business Hosting and they evidently split the site into both versions - I don't know how or why but that was when this split occurred with no changes to my actual index file for the web site. So can I place a 301 redirect on some www website that does not exist? I did place it on the non-www site but that didn't change anything - still getting the redundancy messages.

Should I just change my 301 redirect in the htaccess file and switch it all to "www.panicend.com" because that is the only site I have available to work with? After Yahoo's change my page ranking fell from page 2-3 to pages 9 -10.. That was significant. I finally switched to InMotion Hosting this winter. But the www version still exists.

Lost in space

Jeff
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johnpaulb-imhs1
Hello Jeff, Thank you for your question about www vs non-www. I tested both versions of your site, and they are displaying the same content. Yes, I recommend using a 301 redirect, to drive traffic to the domain you want to use. You can create a 301 redirect in cPanel, or in the .htaccess file yourself. If you are using a CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal you will most likely have to update this (www, or non-www) URL in the configuration settings. This will differ based on your setup. If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below. Thank you, John-Paul