Default URL

[Wezza007]

Hi There,

I am running Shopsite Pro with Readyhosting. It seems that as part of their setup, any link I create in Shopsite goes to a URL without the "www" in it.

eg http://mysite.com rather than http://www.mysite.com

I've read that Google penalises this because it deems it as two different websites with identical content. Regardless of if this is true or not, where is the setting to change the default URL used by the Shopsite fields?

I'm guessing it's in 'Preferences --> Hosting Service' but Readyhosting does not give users access to this part of the card. I'd also like to change my order number which I believe is in here, but I can't get access to that either.

Any help on the default URL would be appreciated. I've sent over 5 emails to Readyhosting asking them to do it for me, but they can't seem to work it out. Furthermore, I've got over 500 products and pages and they reset all my templates back to the default which took me ages to fix. I'm seriously considering paying more and hosting with a company that fully understands Shopsite. You get what you pay for in life!

[loren_d_c]

I've read that Google penalises this because it deems it as two different websites with identical content. Regardless of if this is true or not, where is the setting to change the default URL used by the Shopsite fields?

I don't believe this to be true, it would really not make much sense to treat these differently (and therefore not very accurate as far as search engine results goes) since 99.999% of the time a domain name with or without the www. at the beginning will go to the same site.

Anyway, as far as the URLs generated by ShopSite goes (for links between pages, URL of images, etc), this is based on the licensed URL in your store's authorization file, so in order to change it your host would need to get a replacement license file for your store with the www. at the beginning of the URL.

The order number is not something that can (or even could) be changed easily from the backoffice of ShopSite, it is contained in a file in your store's ShopSite Data Directory. If you do not have access to this directory, your host would have to change it for you, the instructions for changing the order numbers (for orders placed AFTER the change, of course) see the following ShopSite Knowledgebase article:
http://support.shopsite.com/kbase/view_answer.php?questionID=S02469

-Loren

[Wezza007]

Thanks Loren.

Just one last question on this, if I get my hosting company to get a replacement licence file from Shopsite so that my default URL has 'www' included in the URL, would it cause any problems for me? For example, would all my templates revert to the defaults, or would I have to re-set things up?

If it's as simple as getting a new file, then I'll ask them to do it, but if it's going to be an extremely time consuming process, I'd rather read further into the reports about Google penalising sites who use both the 'www' and non 'www' version of their website.