On WordPress.com websites, the www version of your domain name always redirects to the non-www version. This guide explains why you cannot use www as your primary site address and what alternatives are available.
Anyone who types www.yourgroovydomain.com will be redirected to yourgroovydomain.com. You cannot set www as your primary address or prevent this redirect.
WordPress.com uses the non-www version for all sites. Here’s why.
Search engines like Google prefer one version of the site address as the canonical URL. Two URLs (the www and non-www versions) would appear as duplicate content, which can hurt your site’s search engine rankings.
In terms of SEO, there is no benefit to choosing either version as long as the choice is made. WordPress.com uses the non-www version as your domain name’s canonical URL because it is the more modern option.
By hosting your website on WordPress.com, we handle this technical SEO optimization for you. For practical steps you can take to improve your site’s search engine ranking, visit our guide to search engine optimization.
The www prefix is a legacy of how the internet used to work. There is no technical benefit to including it, and most modern websites do not use it.
Web browsers like Google Chrome no longer display www in the address bar, and companies do not typically include www when promoting their websites. You can advertise your site with www if you prefer — visitors who type www will still reach your site via the automatic redirect.
There is no setting to add the www prefix to a domain name on WordPress.com. If a visitor types www.yourgroovydomain.com, they will be redirected to yourgroovydomain.com.
If you need a subdomain as your primary site address, you can use a prefix other than www, such as blog or news. See Use a different subdomain as your primary address.
You cannot use www as your primary site address, but you can use a different subdomain such as blog.yourgroovydomain.com or news.yourgroovydomain.com. To set a subdomain as your primary address:
The www prefix cannot be connected as a separate subdomain — it always redirects to the non-www version of your domain.
