Choosing a canonical website address

Your site runs on the www address, so that is the address to standardise on.

The canonical address is the one version of your web address that you want people and search engines to treat as the real one. The choice is normally between www.example.com and example.com.

On our WordPress hosting your site runs on the www address. The bare domain, known as the apex or root, cannot point directly at the hosting, so www.example.com is your canonical address.

What happens to the bare domain

Anyone who types example.com is redirected to www.example.com. No traffic is lost, and search engines follow the redirect and credit the www address.

Why the choice matters

Serving the same pages at two addresses splits the ranking a page earns, because search engines can treat them as separate pages. Picking one address and using it everywhere keeps those signals together.

Use the www address in your WordPress settings, in the links you publish, and anywhere you print or list your web address. WordPress builds it into the links it generates, so setting it once covers most of the site.