Web Developers: Understanding The Importance Of Domain Sequencing

One of the most iconic features of URLs since the inception of the Internet has been a sequence of letters reading "www," which is commonly known to reference the World Wide Web. Naturally, the average Internet user is not likely to question its technical relevance and would probably write it off as similar in purpose to markup such as the "https://" letter sequence that begins all URLs, but it is quite common for functioning websites of all sizes to be located at URLs that cut out the "www" sequence.

In truth, the only function of this markup is to designate the website as occupying a subdomain of the official domain listed in the main segment of the URL. The principles at work here match what many other websites do in regard to having separate names comprising the main part of their root URLs and using an extra period to divide them. It would technically be possible for the owner of a domain to host two completely different websites between a subdomain and the root domain encompassing it.

One basic example of this is how Google's support website is located at "support.google.com," where the "support" aspect is the subdomain of the "Google" name. Google, in this example, is partitioning its support website from its search engine service without having to purchase an entirely new domain for the support website to be hosted on. This also avoids the potentially awkward setup of having its support service exist as a subpage located directly "underneath" its universally recognizable landing page.

Generally, it is not critically important whether a website is hosted within its root domain or a subdomain beginning with the "www" sequence. However, since contemporary Internet users so routinely alternate between inputting the sequence and leaving it out, it is quite important that the owner of a website without the sequence creates a complete set of equivalent URLs that all have the letter sequence and exist as 301 redirects to the intended versions. This will successfully redirect any SEO ranking credit from functioning backlinks across the web to the website's official location. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/cl3jrl/ifforexampleyourwebsiteissettoredirect/.