This is pretty basic stuff, but it is surprising how many webmasters forget this (even owners of bigger sites).

Search engines interpret the non-www version of your site’s URL (http://website.com) as a different page to the www version (http://www.website.com). This means that links to your site can be split between the two versions and can also effect the accuracy of web statistics.

This re-write condition for an Apache .htaccess file creates a permanent redirect from the non-www version to the www version:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website\.co\.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.website.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]</pre>

If there are no other rewrite rules in the .htaccess file, the rewrite engine will need to be turned on using this line before the above commands:

RewriteEngine On

Search engine optimisation is a subject made for cynics and skeptics.

I read a few SEO blogs and sometimes wonder about the motivation behind some posts.

I mean, if someone publishes something really controversial (or even misleading), it’s likely to generate a lot of links and references to it (good and bad), and therefore help the site’s ranking.You need to be careful not to cross the threshold from healthy skepticism to paranoia, but it is a good idea not to believe everything you read about SEO.

Happy new year to everyone!

Here’s hoping 2007 will be a good year for your site and SEO efforts.

This is a blog about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and website promotion – how to optimise your site so it can be found on search engines and promote your website for free and under your own steam.

All the information here is based on my experiences of optimising my own site(s) and my research into SEO. To find out more about my background check out the About Free DIY SEO page.

Please feel free to comment on anything you read here – its always interesting to hear what other people think.

Note: Free DIY SEO used to be hosted at http://freediyseo.blogspot.com/.