tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7710244712476408021.post3885171494874806362..comments2023-12-08T09:32:12.081+01:00Comments on Ask Auntie Web: Getting it up (1) – simple ways to start a web presenceAuntie Webhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08665626341420779357noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7710244712476408021.post-76090185583044145792009-05-20T10:45:46.477+02:002009-05-20T10:45:46.477+02:00"... (anyone still there?)..." Yes, dear decline a..."... (anyone still there?)..." Yes, dear decline and fall! And thank you, you've clarified this expertly. <br />I'm very grateful that we have Google to take the burden of remembering/ to help bring on premature Alheimers ;)<br /><br />AnneAnne Hodgsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14225113474074315864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7710244712476408021.post-83904797769596739792009-04-30T20:12:00.000+02:002009-04-30T20:12:00.000+02:00Combining a normal site with a blog:Yes, indeed. A...<B>Combining a normal site with a blog:</B>Yes, indeed. And you don't need to import the wordpress software onto your server. (It's fun, I admit, and you can while away a long wet weekend modifying the themes: but you need a webspace which has php and MySQL, which the cheaper ones don't.)<br />If you set up a simple, hosted, template-based site, in the way I suggested, you can also set up a free blog somewhere else, then add a link on your main site to your blog page, and vice versa.<br /><br /><br /><B>The "www" thing:</B>I THINK the answers are:<br /><br />1. Short answer:<br />You can use the address with or without "www." I can type in "annehodgson.de" or "www. annehodgson.de" and end up with the same pretty tree.<br />So what name you give people is a matter of taste.<br />It's only an issue if you're worried about the search engine rankings for your site.<br /><br />2. Long answer:<br />This is an issue of "canonical urls". The debate on url canonicalization is more tepid than heated, and, as the name suggests, tends to get a bit theological.<br /><br />But anyway:<br />Strictly the "www." bit is a subdomain. (I could explain what a subdomain is, but anyone who has read this far already knows.) When somebody enters an address, e.g. "askauntieweb.blogspot.com", in the browser, the request for the page gets sent to the server at the domain name ("blogspot.com"). If there's something before the domain name, with a dot after it (e.g. "askauntieweb."), the server then directs the request to that section (subdomain) of the domain webspace, and sends out the appropriate home page for that subdomain. Now, if there is "www." in front of the domain name, the server doesn't redirect the request anywhere: it sends back the home page of the whole domain. So the whole "www." thing is a bit of a waste of time, really. But people have got used to writing it.<br /><br />What remains to be said (anyone still there?) is:<br />- The above applies to a properly set up server, which most of them are nowadays. An old, somewhat buggered server may require either only the www or only the non-www version. So check that both versions can access your site.<br />- If you want a high ranking in a search engine (Google, Yahoo ...), you need to worry about this a bit. Search engines decide how important your site is by looking (mostly) at the number of links to it from other sites. If some of the links are to annehodgson.de, and others to www.annehodgson.de, the search engine will think this is two different sites, so neither will be as far up the rankings as the site should be. There are ways round this, and if it's an issue, type "www or non-www domain" into Google and read on. And on and on.decline and fallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08654366445601471804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7710244712476408021.post-45288963281001682782009-04-30T09:46:00.000+02:002009-04-30T09:46:00.000+02:00Dear deline and fall,
Thanks! Why do some website...Dear deline and fall,<br /><br />Thanks! Why do some websites not have a "www" out in front of them? Mine, for instance. I've always wondered whether that makes it somehow less "real" or "serious".<br /><br />I have tried to combine the worlds by having a website with static pages and blog pages, by using the software package provided by wordpress.org.<br /><br />Thanks again,<br />AnneAnne Hodgsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14225113474074315864noreply@blogger.com