Preferred domain with google tools

[GoLiaT]

have you guys setup your stuff so that both www and no-www is the same site ?

some days my site is www and some days its not .. at google results
what do you guys recommend ? to add Preferred domain ?

[DaddyMustang]

i think that www is better

[GoLiaT]

i think that www is better

well.. me to
but i get results from both variations so if i change to one as default
i am afraid that i will loose all listings...

[webgeek]

prefered domain thing is mostly for sorting out the duplicate content issue.
for example, your site might respond to www.abc.com/1.html and abc.com/1.html and xcv.abc.com/1.html with the same file.
google thinks you're duplicating the same content on 3 subdomains.
so by setting that you tell google which one is the correct copy which one is the duplicate to ignore.

if I were you I'd check my backlinks and currently indexed pages at google and choose the subdomain that is most indexed and backlinked.
this way you wouldn't lose your PR and indexed pages for the ones that you didn't choose.

[GoLiaT]

prefered domain thing is mostly for sorting out the duplicate content issue.
for example, your site might respond to www.abc.com/1.html and abc.com/1.html and xcv.abc.com/1.html with the same file.
google thinks you're duplicating the same content on 3 subdomains.
so by setting that you tell google which one is the correct copy which one is the duplicate to ignore.

if I were you I'd check my backlinks and currently indexed pages at google and choose the subdomain that is most indexed and backlinked.
this way you wouldn't lose your PR and indexed pages for the ones that you didn't choose.

ok i so have most listed backlinks to www
but some also to nowww
so if i choose www , will google drop the pages with nowww i have listed in the serps ?
and also not count the back links i have to the nowww ?

[Altheon]

That is a nice tool but why don't you just sort it out automatically with .htaccess

Options +FollowSymLinks 
RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^YOURDOMAIN.com [NC] 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/$1 [L,R=301]

[webgeek]

so if i choose www , will google drop the pages with nowww i have listed in the serps ?
and also not count the back links i have to the nowww ?

I'm not really sure about dropping the index but probably they'll have much lower PR. because google will find the same page with www.
www one will be considered the original and nowww will be ignored.
[if you don't do this google will consider your nowww as a duplicate content]

[fris]

htacess is the best

[StarkReality]

That is a nice tool but why don't you just sort it out automatically with .htaccess

Options +FollowSymLinks 
RewriteEngine on 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^YOURDOMAIN.com [NC] 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/$1 [L,R=301]

That's it