Question Cloudflare CDN and non-www

[seoguy1]

Hi there

How are you? I'm new here. A happy new year to everyone.

Can I possibly ask..
Scenario with an ecommerce site:
In search console the https domain name has been forced to a non-www format in the browser, and all permanent 301 redirects from old url's to new url's are in place with Siteground redirects section (the new url's have the non-www format already in place). Siteground have just told me that the Cloudflare CDN will only work when the domain URL has www in the preferred domain; is that true could I ask? So in summary the Cloudflare CDN won't be effective unless the preferred url is https://www.websitename.co.uk instead of https://websitename.co.uk. I'm worried that the site went live yesterday and all the links being indexed by Google present as https://websitename.co.uk, and I am worried about what will happen if I do make the change to a www format instead of a non-www format.

Is there a chance that you could give me some quick advice? What is the impact on the CDN not working unless the domain is in a https://www.websitename.co.uk format.

Bless your day and many thanks for your time.

 

[seoguy1]

..just to add..(is this still the case?)...
Do I have to change or re-write my urls to get Cloudflare's CDN to work?
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/e...rite-my-urls-to-get-Cloudflare-s-CDN-to-work-

 

[Community]

Couple of questions :

• How old is the website ?
• How long has it been redirecting to the current preferred domain ?
• Does it have any backlinks, if so what are the majority of those linking to ? The www or non-www version ?

 

[seoguy1]

Hi there I fully appreciate you getting in touch.

The website is just 2 days old and the domain a few months. I had already created 301 redirects from old urls to the new urls. It's been redirecting to the current non-www preferred domain for just 2 days. The sitemap hasn't been submitted to Google and the search engines 'officially' yet.
The old website was http and now the new website is https, and there are no backlinks linking to the new https other than a couple of posts on social media and also a link in the new You Tube channel.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Community]

You will be fine to change the preferred domain, just make sure you change the preferred domain in Search console and you reform your redirects to match. Also remember to remove the sitemap from the variant in search console and submit a sitemap to the new variant. There will be no effects of doing.

Id also recommend once you are happy you've covered everything, to head back to search console and "fetch as Google bot" , once fetched request indexing and it will speed up the re-crawling.

It may take a week or more to start showing properly, obviously with a new site that could be longer but providing your redirects are in place you will be fine.

 

[seoguy1]

Many thanks your advice is fully appreciated. No 301 redirects in the htaccess file then? I checked Google using a site: search for the domain and all ur;s have been indexed already. Does that change matters? ..also can I ask are there any other free CDN services which will work with a non-www domain without me changing anything? Best Regards to you.

 

[Community]

and you reform your redirects to match

You still need to alter your redirects to force your new preferred domain, whether you do that via cloudflare or via your htaccess is entirely up to you.

URL's being indexed already doesnt matter, its not been online long enough to make a difference so providing the redirects are in place you'll be fine.

I don't personally use any free providers for CDN usage to make an accurate recommendation. I prefer to make recommendations based on your site and setup to justify the usage of a paricular service, rather than a generic answer which may or may not suit your needs, more often than not its not a one shoe fits all answer.

 

[seoguy1]

Thanks a lot. I joined this forum just a couple of days ago and this is my first post. Thanks a lot.