Many customers at some point request to force either the www or non-www version of their site to display in their visitor's browser. For example, you can have www.example.com or simply example.com display in an address bar. There is a common thought that forcing one format is better for search engine optimization. This article will guide you through how to perform this action in your .htaccess file.
You can access the .htaccess file through the cPanel File Manager or FTP Client
You are now in the text editor. Place either selection of code in the file and click on the Save Changes button at the top right corner of the screen. Be sure to replace 'example.com' with your actual domain name. NOTE: do not place both selections of code in the file as it will cause an error.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
