## **🔍 Overview**

When you publish a site in Website Studio, you may notice the URL includes **index.html** by default, or that visiting **www.yourdomain.com** doesn't automatically redirect to **yourdomain.com** (or vice versa). This article explains why that happens, what Website Studio can and cannot control, and how to approach fixing it through your hosting or DNS provider.



## **⚙️ How Website Studio Handles www and non-www URLs**

Website Studio is a visual site builder and publishing tool. When you export or deploy a site, the URL behavior depends on **where and how the site is hosted**, not on Website Studio itself. This is an important distinction:

- **Website Studio does not natively enforce a www or non-www preference** at the application level.
- **The `index.html` suffix** appears when a hosting server is not configured to serve a default document automatically. This is a server or hosting setting, not a Website Studio setting.
- **www → non-www redirects** (or the reverse) must be configured at the DNS level or inside your hosting provider's dashboard.

In short: Website Studio publishes your content, but your DNS provider or hosting environment controls how visitors reach it and which URL variant is canonical.



## **🗂️ Step 1 — Choose Your Canonical URL**

Before making any changes, decide which version of your domain you want as the primary URL:

- **Non-www (recommended for most sites):**`yourdomain.com`
- **www:**`www.yourdomain.com`

Be consistent. Pick one and redirect all traffic there. Mixing both creates duplicate content issues that hurt SEO.



## **🔧 Step 2 — Remove index.html from Your URLs**

The **index.html** suffix in your URLs is controlled by your hosting provider, not by Website Studio. To remove it, log in to your hosting provider's control panel and look for a setting that controls how your server handles directory requests and default documents. Set `index.html` as the default file served for any directory. The exact name and location of this setting will vary depending on your hosting provider — consult your provider's own documentation or support resources for the specific steps that apply to your setup.



## **☁️ Step 3 — Set Up www ↔ non-www Redirects**

To redirect between www and non-www versions of your domain, you will need to configure a redirect rule through your DNS or hosting provider. The exact steps depend on which provider you use. In general:

- Log in to your DNS or hosting provider's dashboard.
- Locate the redirect or URL forwarding settings for your domain.
- Create a redirect rule that sends traffic from the version you do *not* want (e.g. `www.yourdomain.com`) to the canonical version you chose in Step 1.

Consult your provider's documentation for the specific steps that apply to your setup.

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.