www or not to www? That is the Question.

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Most people understand “www” in a web address, means World Wide Web, but is the “www” really necessary?

Many domain names used for the World Wide Web begin with www because of the long-standing practice of naming Internet hosts (servers) according to the services they provide. The hostname for a web server is often www, in the same way that it may be ftp for an FTP server, and news or nntp for a USENET news server. – Wikipedia

Sapphire Solutions owns the domain sapphiresolutionsltd.com and if we named the internet hosts according to the services they provided, we would have:

  • A Web Site at www.sapphiresolutionsltd.com
  • A FTP site at ftp.sapphiresolutionsltd.com
  • A NEWS site at nntp.sapphiresolutionsltd.com

…and so on.

However, in today’s world of virtualized servers, SaaS and advanced routing, this type of naming is largely unnecessary. The routing equipment and servers being used can automatically determine whether or not a connection is intended for www, ftp, nntp or others based on the ports used.

Does the “www” play any role in SEM/SEO strategies?
No!
Does the “www” make it easier for search engines to find a web site?
No!
Can the “www” help improve my page rank?
No!
Does the “www” make it easier for people to get to my web site?
No!
Does electing not to use the “www” create any additional security risk?
No!

If anything, the “www” simply makes your web address longer.

I want to point out, naming schemes using “www” or “ftp” (and others) can be used as a way organize servers by name. It is possible for a company’s web site and ftp site to be on separate servers and networks, even in different locations. For this reason some companies continue to use the “www” or “ftp” in their server naming schemes.

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