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Two hostnames serving the same pages is duplication with no upside — and the failure is almost never which one you picked.
Redirect www to your funnel: choosing one canonical host
A site reachable at both example.com and www.example.com is two sites as far as machines are concerned. They can hold different content, accumulate separate link credit, be indexed separately, and set cookies that do not reach each other. In practice they hold the same pages, which means the duplication is pure cost.
The fix is to pick one and send the other there permanently. Which one you pick matters far less than picking, and the failure mode is almost never the choice — it is a redirect that is incomplete, or one that quietly drops something on the way.
Choosing which host wins
| Choice | Argument for | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Serve at the bare domain | Shorter, and what clients put in their advertising | The apex is the awkward name to point, as why the apex cannot take a CNAME explains |
| Serve at www | A CNAME works, so the host can move its own addresses | Clients often dislike it and type the bare name anyway |
| Serve at a dedicated subdomain | Keeps funnels separate from a main site on another platform | Another name to certify and to keep in the records |
The third option is the one agencies underuse. Where a client’s main site is built elsewhere and only the funnels sit on your platform, giving the funnels their own name avoids the whole question of which host serves what, and it means a change to one does not disturb the other.
Whichever you choose, the decision has to be reflected in three places at once: the DNS records, the platform’s own domain setting, and every link you publish. A canonical host that only two of those three agree about behaves unpredictably.
Making the redirect a proper one
- Use a permanent redirect. A temporary one asks machines to keep checking and does not consolidate anything. If the change is permanent, say so.
- Preserve the path. A redirect that sends every request to the home page turns a shared link to a specific page into a dead end. This is the most damaging version of the mistake, and it is common because the simplest rule is also the wrong one.
- Preserve the query string. Dropping it discards UTM parameters and any campaign attribution attached to the visit — the traffic arrives and becomes unattributable.
- Redirect once. A chain — insecure to secure, then www to apex, then a trailing slash — costs time on every visit and is entirely avoidable by ordering the rules properly.
- Cover both schemes. Requests still arrive over the insecure scheme, and each must reach the canonical host securely rather than being refused.
Certificates are the part most often forgotten. The name you redirect from still needs a valid certificate, because the browser completes the secure handshake before it ever sees the redirect. A certificate covering only the destination produces a not-secure warning for anyone who typed the other name — and if issuance for the second name has stalled, the cause is usually in the same place as a stalled certificate issuance.
What tends to break afterwards
Absolute links to the old host. Anything hard-coded to the non-canonical name still works, through the redirect, but pays the extra hop forever and makes reporting harder to read. Pages cloned between accounts are the usual reservoir of these, which is the general problem in what moves and what breaks on import.
The Open Graph image and canonical tag. Both are absolute URLs and both should name the canonical host. A preview generated against the non-canonical name is cached separately, which is one reason a link looks different depending on who shared it — see the Open Graph image on a page.
Analytics splitting in two. Where tracking is configured per hostname, traffic before and after the change can be recorded separately, and anything loaded by code in the page header that assumes a specific host will need updating.
Booking and form links already circulating. A a calendar clients can book into URL is often given out by hand and lives in email signatures and messages you cannot edit. It has to keep working, which is a reason to preserve the path rather than a reason to avoid redirecting.
Cookies and sessions. Anything stored against one hostname is not visible at the other, so a visitor mid-journey when the change lands may appear to start again.
Verifying it properly
Test four addresses, not one: the bare name and www, each over both schemes. All four should arrive at the canonical host in a single hop, with the path and query intact. Then test a deep page rather than only the home page, since a rule that handles the root and flattens everything else looks correct from the front door.
Check the redirect is permanent rather than temporary, and check it from outside your own network, where caching is not helping you believe something that is not true. The wider set of records that has to agree with this decision is in the full set of records a funnel domain holds.
Afterwards
Update the links you control: the client’s own profiles and directory listings, any advertising destinations, and internal links inside the pages themselves. External links you cannot change are exactly what the redirect is for, so leave it in place indefinitely — removing it later is how a working site loses a share of its traffic without an obvious cause.
Then measure once from a clean connection. Consolidating on one host removes a hop for most visitors and should not make anything slower; if what a page speed score measures moves in the wrong direction afterwards, the likely cause is a redirect chain rather than the redirect itself. And confirm the conversion path end to end — a submission that lands on the thank-you step through a redirect should still carry its source, which is the single detail most often lost in this change.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it matter whether I serve at the bare domain or at www?
Far less than picking one and redirecting the other permanently. The bare name is shorter and is what clients advertise; www can use a CNAME, which lets the host move its own addresses. A dedicated subdomain is a good third option when the client’s main site lives elsewhere.
What is the most damaging mistake in this redirect?
Sending every request to the home page. It turns a shared link to a specific page into a dead end, and it is common because the simplest rule is also the wrong one. Preserve the path, and preserve the query string so campaign attribution survives.
Does the name I redirect away from still need a certificate?
Yes. The browser completes the secure handshake before it ever sees the redirect, so a certificate covering only the destination produces a not-secure warning for anyone who typed the other name.
Should the redirect be permanent or temporary?
Permanent, when the change is permanent. A temporary redirect asks machines to keep checking the original and does not consolidate the two hosts, which was the point of doing it.
What breaks after consolidating on one host?
Absolute links hard-coded to the old name still work but pay an extra hop forever; Open Graph and canonical tags pointing at the non-canonical host cache separately; per-hostname analytics can split; and anything stored in a cookie against one hostname is invisible at the other.
How should the redirect be verified?
Test four addresses — the bare name and www, each over both schemes — and confirm all four arrive at the canonical host in one hop with path and query intact. Test a deep page as well as the home page, and check from outside your own network.
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