www vs non-www: Canonicalisation Benchmark 2026
Enterno.io checked canonical URL choice for the top-1M sites (March 2026). **Non-www** chosen by **63%**, **www** — **34%**. **3%** have both versions reachable without redirect (SEO duplicate-content issue). Trend: post-2020 sites pick non-www 80% of the time. Legacy (before 2015) — www in 55%. Runet: non-www 58%, www 38%, both 4%.
Below: key findings, platform breakdown, implications, methodology, FAQ.
Key Findings
| Metric | Pass / Value | Median | p75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| non-www canonical | 63% | — | — |
| www canonical | 34% | — | — |
| Both versions live without redirect (SEO issue) | 3% | — | — |
| Runet non-www | 58% | — | — |
| Runet www | 38% | — | — |
| Sites younger than 2020 on non-www | 80% | — | — |
| Sites older than 2015 on www | 55% | — | — |
| 301 permanent redirect used | 91% | — | — |
Breakdown by Platform
| Platform | Share | Detail | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Next.js/Vercel | 9% | non-www: 94% | — |
| WordPress | 22% | non-www: 61% / www: 38% | — |
| 1С-Bitrix | 14% | non-www: 48% / www: 50% | — |
| Shopify | 4% | non-www: 82% | — |
| Tilda/Wix/no-code | 8% | non-www: 71% | — |
| Custom PHP/Django/Rails | 31% | non-www: 65% | — |
Why It Matters
- No SEO difference between www and non-www — Google ranks equally. Choice is stylistic
- 3% with both versions — duplicate content. Google picks canonical itself but 5-10% equity lost
- 302 redirect (9% of users) does NOT transfer link equity. Always use 301
- Legacy www sites don't need mass migration — keep them. But new project — non-www default
- Choice affects cookie sharing: www + foo.example.com = cookies don't cross (if not .example.com)
Methodology
Top-1M Tranco + top-5k .ru by SimilarWeb (March 2026). For each domain: curl -I http://example.com + http://www.example.com + https://example.com + https://www.example.com. Canonical = final URL after all 301s. Both-version detection: both responses 200 without Location.
Why teams trust us
How it works
Enter URL
Redirect chain followed
Codes & final URL shown
Redirect checker: optimize redirect chains
Incorrect or long redirect chains slow down the site, lose PageRank and confuse search crawlers. The tool visualizes the full redirect chain with response codes and timing for each hop.
Full hop chain
Shows each redirect step: URL → code → URL → code, through to the final destination.
Time per hop
Measures latency at each redirect step for precise identification of performance bottlenecks.
Redirect type
Distinguishes 301, 302, 303, 307, 308 — each has different behavior for SEO and browsers.
Loop detection
Automatically detects circular redirects and warns before the browser throws an error.
Who uses this
SEO
redirect chain audit
Developers
301/302 debugging
DevOps
HTTPS redirect check
Marketers
UTM link tracking
Common Mistakes
Best Practices
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Frequently Asked Questions
www or non-www — better for SEO?
No difference since 2014. Google treats them equally. What matters is consistency + 301 redirect of one to the other.
What to pick for a new site?
2026 default: non-www (shorter, modern). Exception: if you have many subdomains and cookies across the tree — use www (cookies on .example.com work for every subdomain except www.).
What's wrong with both versions live?
Duplicate content, split backlinks, PageRank loss. Google picks canonical itself but you lose control.
How to verify my canonicalisation?
<a href="/en/redirects">Enterno Redirects Checker</a> — enter the domain, see chain + canonical target.