[uwebd] www in subdomain url's

[Robert Robinson]

Dear all,

We're currently going through a major restructure of our web site and part of that is setting up some new subdomains. We've done that and have them redirecting to a single page for now while development of the new sites is underway.

However, the fact that the subdomains we've set up are in the format example.uow.edu.au an administrator is insisting that we set up www.example.uow.edu.au redirects to the new domains just in case people put in the www's "by mistake".

I've pointed out that we've had subdomains for years without the www's and that redirects could have impacts around SEO. 

What does everybody else do? Do you have defined practices around new subdomains?

Should I stick to my guns, are the more arguments I'm missing, or should I just relax and do it?

Cheers & thanks,

Rob

--

------

Robert Robinson

Web Development Coordinator

University of Wollongong

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[Andrew Harris]

From: Robert Robinson <rnlro...@gmail.com>

>What does everybody else do? Do you have defined practices around new
>subdomains?
>
>Should I stick to my guns, are the more arguments I'm missing, or should
>I just relax and do it?

Robert,
it is true that there are a small percentage of people who will get it
wrong, no matter which way you prefer it. I think it's best to be kind and
not show them an error, so I prefer is to capture both as your admin is
suggesting.

We add the www version into the DNS and rewrite/strip it out it at the
server level. As long as the rewrites are handled correctly, nobody ever
sees the www url in their browser, no issues. Certainly haven't noticed
any SEO problems.

...and, just following on from that, there are jolly good reasons for
*not* having the www when the page finally loads in a browser...

We use a 'wild card' certificate to provide SSL to all subdomains.
However, www.something.unimelb.edu.au is a sub-subdomain, and is not
covered by that certificate, which can cause insecure content errors on
login pages etc.

So, unless your admin is offering to pay for all those separate
certificates - go the rewrite!

Cheers,
Andrew

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Online Services, Information Technology Services
Level 2, 258 Queensberry Street, University of Melbourne, 3010, VIC
Telephone +61 3 8344 2865 : Email aha...@unimelb.edu.au

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[Andrew Bauserman]

Rob,

Personally, I agree with you that it's not necessary.

Nevertheless, we have more subdomains with optional www. prefixes than I
care to acknowledge. University politics :^/

If you must have both, you NEED to make one consistently redirect (e.g.,
with a 302 Found message) to the other URL. For instance:
http://www.mason.wm.edu/about/index.php
redirects to:
http://mason.wm.edu/about/index.php

This will alleviate SEO demerits assigned to sites that publish the same
content under multiple URLs.

p.s. Here's a free web tool for testing your HTTP response codes:
http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Testing the URL above reveals the 302 Found header and redirect URL.

--
Andrew Bauserman
Senior Web Architect
College of William and Mary
wab...@wm.edu

[David W. McKelvey]

Rob,

Since it only takes a little extra work to add an alias for the www subdomain and then do a rewrite to redirect based on it (apache anyway) I typically always do this just because it doesn’t hurt anything not to do it. (I suppose I could actually check the logs to see who other than a bot might be using it, but that’s for another day.)

Andrew is right that you should always include redirection when you do, so that your content is not available at two hosts— more than one URL anyway— which search engines typically do not favor. However, unless this is a temporary thing, I would advise using a 301 permanent redirect instead of the 302 found, since the 302 states that the www domain should continue to be checked/used in the future. Well, if the search bots are following their HTTP status codes correctly. :)

Thanks,

David
---
David W. McKelvey
Director of Customer Support
White Whale Web Services
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On May 14, 2013, at 6:02 AM, Andrew Bauserman <wab...@wm.edu> wrote:

> Rob,
>
> Personally, I agree with you that it's not necessary.
>
> Nevertheless, we have more subdomains with optional www. prefixes than I care to acknowledge. University politics :^/
>
> If you must have both, you NEED to make one consistently redirect (e.g., with a 302 Found message) to the other URL. For instance:
> http://www.mason.wm.edu/about/index.php
> redirects to:
> http://mason.wm.edu/about/index.php
>
> This will alleviate SEO demerits assigned to sites that publish the same content under multiple URLs.
>
> p.s. Here's a free web tool for testing your HTTP response codes:
> http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
> Testing the URL above reveals the 302 Found header and redirect URL.
>
> --
> Andrew Bauserman
> Senior Web Architect
> College of William and Mary
> wab...@wm.edu
>
> ---

> You are currently subscribed to uw...@umich.edu as: da...@whitewhale.net.

[Robyn Harcott]

This is something we are struggling with as well. We're a Microsoft shop and therefore using IIS instead of Apache. Does anyone have any good IIS URL rewrite resources that they would be willing to share?

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Bauserman [mailto:wab...@wm.edu]
Sent: May-14-13 6:02 AM
To: University and College Webmasters
Subject: [uwebd] Re: www in subdomain url's

Rob,

Personally, I agree with you that it's not necessary.

Nevertheless, we have more subdomains with optional www. prefixes than I care to acknowledge. University politics :^/

If you must have both, you NEED to make one consistently redirect (e.g., with a 302 Found message) to the other URL. For instance:
http://www.mason.wm.edu/about/index.php
redirects to:
http://mason.wm.edu/about/index.php

This will alleviate SEO demerits assigned to sites that publish the same content under multiple URLs.

p.s. Here's a free web tool for testing your HTTP response codes:
http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
Testing the URL above reveals the 302 Found header and redirect URL.

--
Andrew Bauserman
Senior Web Architect
College of William and Mary
wab...@wm.edu

---

You are currently subscribed to uw...@umich.edu as: Robyn....@ufv.ca.

[Brady, Jason W]

For IIS 6 you can use Ionic's Isapi Rewrite Filter
http://iirf.codeplex.com/

For IIS 7 or above, Microsoft has their own Url Rewrite module
http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite

The only thing to be aware of for the Microsoft one, is that it requires
the application pool to restart, as the configuration is stored in the
web.config file. If you must have it changeable without restarting the
application pool, you can try the open source ManagedFusion Url Rewriter
http://managedfusion.com/products/url-rewriter/

jbr...@sbccd.cc.ca.us.

[Robyn Harcott]

Thanks Jason - we are indeed using the MS URL Rewrite Module (version 2.0)

What I'm hoping to find is some good coding examples of its use - especially where the www is concerned. This is one of the things that I've been trying to get to work - so far with not much luck. I have a huge re-direct map (don't ask) and there are a number of other things I'm trying to get to work.

Thanks!! I will have a look at the other one you suggested.

Robyn

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robyn L Harcott
Team Lead, Web Applications/MSSQL Administrator
University of the Fraser Valley - http://www.ufv.ca
Phone: 604-864-4666

[Brady, Jason W]

I found one that should apply to the www question, but not specifically.

http://weblogs.asp.net/owscott/archive/2009/11/27/iis-url-rewrite-rewrit
ing-non-www-to-www.aspx

This one uses it to do the opposite (to redirect to www addresses). But
you should be able to adjust it. Just change the pattern to the www
address and the action to the non-www address.

This one goes into how to do it graphically and via the web.config file.
If you are used to editing text, it can be a lot faster to do it all in
text, especially if you have a huge map.

If you have a simple re-direct map (simple urls to other simple urls, no
conditions), you can look at Microsoft's example where they use a custom
provider to pull them from an SQL database and from a text file
(http://www.iis.net/learn/extensions/url-rewrite-module/using-custom-rew
rite-providers-with-url-rewrite-module). If you are/have access to a
coder, you can look at the source they provide to modify it further.
Otherwise, they do have an installer that you can use to use these
examples out of the box.

[Philip M. Wisneski]

How about something like this? It goes in the web.config file for your
site:

<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="redirect from www" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="(.*)" />
<conditions>
<add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^www\.yoursite\.edu$" />
</conditions>
<action type="Redirect" url="http://yousite.edu/{R:1}" redirectType="Permanent" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>

- Phil

> Thanks Jason - we are indeed using the MS URL Rewrite Module (version 2.0)
>

> What I'm hoping to find is some good coding examples of its use - especiall=
> y where the www is concerned. This is one of the things that I've been try=
> ing to get to work - so far with not much luck. I have a huge re-direct ma=
> p (don't ask) and there are a number of other things I'm trying to get to w=

> ork.
>
> Thanks!! I will have a look at the other one you suggested.
>
> Robyn
>