UNDERSTANDING THE WWW
I came to the web with an itch to build content, and I needed
to understand the technology utilized to build the Internet. Early on, I confronted the question about whether it was
necessary to use the www. in my website URL. It really began
to be a concern to me when I began to advertise my domain and
I was limited to a certain number of lines and characters in my
advertising. Although the www. only comprised four characters,
those four characters sometimes made a significant difference
in allowing me to have enough space to say what I wanted to
say. Most every website on the planet advertises their website with
the www. included in the URL. I wondered if dropping the www.
would create a problem with people finding my site. The answer
is that it depends on your web server configuration. WHAT MAKES A WEBSERVER DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PC Putting it in simple terms, a web server is put together in
the same fashion as your own computer. Both have a set of
directories, subdirectories and files which let you remain
somewhat organized. The only difference between your computer
and a webserver is the type of software that is loaded onto
the webserver. THE PURPOSE OF THE WWW_ DESIGNATION IN THE FOLDER NAMES A webserver simply consists of software designed to allow
external users to access the computer through a specific
doorway in the system called a *port*. The webserver software handles all requests coming into the
computer for information. All folders that represent different domains on the webserver
are generally marked off with the www_ in the name of the
folder. This reminds the system administrator that the folder
is directly accessible from the Internet. The www_ designation is not needed by the webserver --- it is
needed by the human operators. DOMAIN POINTERS Domain pointers are like shortcuts on your desktop. They are
only files which point to another location on your computer.
Clicking those shortcuts start new programs without your
having to search for the actual program. Most webservers are set up to utilize these pointers to allow
someone to direct access another folder on the webserver. For example, on my server I have a folder called *double-eagles*
which is the home for another one of my domains. If you click
the link http://double-eagles.com , that is actually a domain
pointer directing your browser to open the folder
http://thePhantomWriters.com/double-eagles The same process applies to the use of subdomains, such
as URL's that utilize the www. For example, the URL
http://archives.thePhantomWriters.com points to a directory on
my server called http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content If you cannot access your domain name without using the www.
prefix, then you should contact your webhost to get this feature
enabled. The choice of using the www. or not should be made by
your visitors, not your webhosting provider.
THE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR WEBSERVER RECOGNIZING BOTH All day long when I surf, I type in the URL name without the
www. included in the URL. I am often still surprised to see
top name domains from whom you cannot access the non-www.
presentation of their website! Can you imagine what would happen if someone put yourdomain.com
into their browser and they received a Cannot Find Server error? *Bye-bye visitor... Wish we could have been introduced.* WHAT ABOUT SEARCH ENGINE SPAMMING? Search engine spiders are known to frown upon websites that
introduce the exact same content under two different domain
names. The search engine administrators generally view this
as an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in their results.
In fact, at one time I had read on the Google website that
providing mirror websites could lead to your site being banned
from their database. The common knowledge has always been that the search engines
generally count only the www_ version or the non-www_ version
of a website. They do not list both in their results as they
understand that both versions are the same website. So, for the last two years I have made available the www_
version for my visitors, but only advertised the non-www_
version of the site.
| It is of course not full article. You should login first to show full article. If you have not account, please register. It is FREE!!! |
Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to
helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote
their businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles and
Press Releases. Articles are distributed to 6,000+ publishers
& webmasters as part of the package. http://thePhantomWriters.com
Do you write your own articles? Let us distribute them for you.
|
