Domains and URL format
Understand how the root domain, the www version, and trailing slashes should work together.
A website can often be reached through more than one version of the same domain. For example, visitors may use the root domain or the www version. Both can work, but the site should have one preferred version to keep URLs consistent.
Root domain and www
The root domain is the domain without www, for example:
yourdomain.comThe www version is a subdomain, for example:
www.yourdomain.comIn most cases, both versions should load the website, but one should be treated as the main version and the other should redirect to it.
Choose one preferred version
Choose whether the public website should use the root domain or the www version as the preferred version.
Keeping one preferred version helps avoid duplicated URLs and makes SEO, analytics, tracking, cookies, and redirects easier to manage.
For example, if the preferred version is:
www.yourdomain.comThen:
yourdomain.comshould redirect to:
www.yourdomain.comDNS records may be different
The root domain and the www version may use different DNS record types. Many DNS providers do not allow the root domain to point to a CNAME, so the root domain may need to point to an IP address. The www version can usually point to a CNAME. This is normal. The root domain and the www version do not always need to resolve in the same way.
Trailing slashes
A URL can also be written with or without a trailing slash.
For example:
www.yourdomain.com/roomsand:
www.yourdomain.com/rooms/can be treated as two different URLs if they are not normalized.
Choose one URL format
From the site variables, you can define whether URLs should use a trailing slash. Choose one format and keep it consistent across menus, internal links, redirects, sitemap files, and campaign URLs.
www or a trailing slash. The important thing is to choose one version and keep it consistent.Updated on: 11/09/2026
Thank you!