The www vs non-www choice is functionally neutral for SEO ranking purposes. Google treats www.yoursite.ca and yoursite.ca as technically separate domains, but understands they typically point to the same content and consolidates ranking signals when you've made your preferred version clear through canonicals and 301 redirects. What matters is consistency. Pick one version (www or non-www), 301-redirect the other to it permanently, and ensure all internal links, sitemap entries, canonical tags, and external link-building uses the chosen version. Inconsistency creates duplicate content signals, splits ranking equity between two versions, and can cause partial indexing of one version while the other receives links. The practical considerations that influence the choice: (1) cookie scope — non-www domains share cookies across all subdomains, which is a security consideration if you have user-data-handling subdomains; (2) DNS flexibility — www domains can use CNAME records pointing to CDN endpoints, which non-www apex domains cannot in standard DNS (workarounds exist but are platform-dependent); (3) brand convention — most modern Canadian brands use non-www (cleaner URLs), while some legacy brands and large enterprises retain www; (4) typing convenience — non-www is shorter to type and visually cleaner in URLs. For most new Canadian SMB sites built in 2026, we recommend non-www unless there's a specific technical reason to use www (typically CDN configuration with certain providers). Set up the redirect at the server or CDN level (not in application code), ensure HTTPS is enforced on both versions before redirect, and verify in Search Console that you've configured the preferred domain correctly. The migration risk: if you currently use www and want to switch to non-www (or vice versa), it's technically a domain migration. Plan it like one — 301 redirects in place, canonical updates, sitemap regeneration, internal link audits, and expect a brief drop in Search Console reporting clarity while Google reconciles the change. The actual ranking impact is usually negligible if the migration is executed cleanly.