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

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.

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