Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a popular British computer scientist, invented HTTP and WWW in the late 1980s. His World Wide Web project required HTTP and WWW to collaborate and play critical roles. The acronyms Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and World Wide Web (WWW) are commonly used on the internet.
The primary distinction between WWW and HTTP is that they refer to distinct concepts. Simply put, HTTP is the protocol that allows online communication and data transfer from one machine to another. The World Wide Web is primarily a collection of linked hypertext documents that can be viewed using a web browser respectively as Firefox, Google Chrome, etc.
Removing HTTP or WWW from your domain registrar’s URL parameters is possible. However, the circumstances under which you would remove one of these elements are determined by many factors.
Do You Require WWW in URLs?
It is not necessary to use WWW in URLs. It serves only one purpose: to identify the web address. It is not valid for other important URL signifiers, such as a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server or a news server (news). WWW could be considered a subdomain of a more prominent website.
Most of the time, WWW serves no technical purpose. You can create a custom domain without using it, and the website will still function normally. So, why is WWW so commonly used? WWW has been used since the inception of the internet, and its widespread use as a subdomain was largely unintentional.
It is elaborated that nxoc01.cern.ch was the first web server. The creators fully intended for info.cern.ch to be their home page when they published the website, and WWW was thus excluded. The server’s Domain Name System (DNS) records were never changed, and the use of WWW became an unintentional standard practice.
Domain or Web Address without WWW
A user will not need to type WWW to view your web address or domain in most cases. However, if you’ve used WWW to distinguish between subdomains, ensure your site is set up to provide users with the appropriate redirects.
The addition of the WWW in www.example.com may cause a redirect to example.com for some websites. Others may have two distinct pages on the same domain. Your web hosting provider should be able to assist you in ensuring that the proper redirects are in place.
WWW and non-WWW for SEO
It would be best to use a single URL (either WWW or non-WWW) for SEO purposes throughout the website. All URLs associated with your domain should have the same name. It ensures that your website rankings aren’t split across two domains (e.g., www.example.com and example.com) but only apply to your canonical domain.
