WWW Redirect Checker

The WWW vs. Non-WWW SEO Trap

When you buy a domain name (like startupai.tech), you actually own two distinct variations of that domain: the "naked" domain (http://startupai.tech) and the subdomain variation (http://www.startupai.tech).

Most beginners assume that these two addresses are the exact same thing. However, to Google's web crawlers, they are viewed as two completely different, separate websites. If both of these links load your homepage successfully, Google will assume that you have cloned your own website. This triggers a "Duplicate Content" penalty in their algorithm, which will destroy your search engine rankings.

How to fix Duplicate Content issues

To avoid this devastating SEO penalty, you must choose one version of your website to be the "Canonical" (master) version. It doesn't matter if you prefer the WWW version or the naked version, as long as you pick one.

Once you make your choice, you must configure your web server (usually via an .htaccess file on Apache servers) to force a 301 Permanent Redirect from the rejected version to the master version.

How to read our tool's report

When you run our WWW Redirect Checker, our independent servers fetch the HTTP headers for both versions of your domain.

• If both return HTTP 200 OK: You have a massive SEO problem. Neither is redirecting. You are leaking SEO juice.
• If one returns HTTP 301 and the other returns HTTP 200: Your website is perfectly optimized! The 301 is successfully forwarding all traffic and SEO ranking power to the 200 (master) domain.
• If you see HTTP 302: You are using a temporary redirect. Change it to a 301 immediately, as 302 redirects do not pass SEO authority to the new domain.