DOMAINS WITH OR WITHOUT WWW?

DOMAINS WITH OR WITHOUT WWW?

Should you use domains with or without WWW? Well, that is a good question. In the early 1990’s when web pages had become popular, every website was in the form of “www.CouponFlip.com“. WWW became a synonym for the world wide web. Whenever you see a text in the form of “www.CouponFlip.com” you immediately know that this is a website address. But is WWW mandatory for having a website address? The short answer is NO.

The purpose of domains is to have some easy-to-remember names. These names translate to IP addresses which are needed to communicate over the internet. The domains as we use them in the internet business are organized in an hierarchical naming system. We have a few general-purpose top domains like com, org, net, country top level domains like us, uk, de (each country has its own unique top level domain), and special top level domains like mobi, aero, museum and others. Each of theses top domain has a second level of domain names where you can have anything you like (of course, if it is not registered yet). Each domain name must be unique and not longer than 63 characters.

The level of domains doesn’t stop there. Each second level domain can have any name as a third level of domain. WWW is such an example. Every domain (regardless of the level) must be associated with at least one IP address. We may have various services associated with our domain like FTP or a private access area. In such case it makes sense to assign each service to its own third level sub-domain. One of the services could be web pages at a WWW sub-domain. But having the WWW domain is not mandatory. You could have your main domain pointing to your website. It is the perception of the people that each web address should start with WWW. These days, most people don’t use the WWW.

The majority of domains have no other service other than web pages. Therefore, you don’t have to use the WWW in your website name. But it makes sense to create and configure a WWW sub domain and redirect it to your primary domain. This way you will not lose visitors which will type WWW in front of your domain name. It is also possible to do it the other way, which is to redirect a non-WWW address to a WWW address. For this you need to configure DNS records also for WWW domain and to check with your website how to do the redirection there. Usually it can be done within your .htaccess file.

Domains with or without WWW can have a successful website. Either way, it is up to you which form you will choose. Using domains with or without WWW should be an easy decision by now, and if you decide to use the shorter and simpler version without WWW, you can still make it clear that this is a website by writing http:// before your name and everybody will know that it’s a website address.

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