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[Say Yebo]

I always thought that if you entered a site via either the www version or non-www version, you would continue to navigate within that version automatically.

Is this correct?

Also, I'm optimizing a site where the navigation has you crossing back and forth between both versions of the URL.

I've traced it to a 301 redirect that directs an old (www) URL to a new (non-www) URL.

They do not yet have redirects in place to address other canonicalization issues between different versions of their URL, which I have advised them to do.

But in the meantime, is the cross-over issue a serious problem in and of itself?

Thanks,
Caro

[Jill]

I always thought that if you entered a site via either the www version or non-www version, you would continue to navigate within that version automatically.

Nope, depends on how the site is set up. Most these days have redirects so you'd go straight to one version or the other at the start. Others that don't might have absolute links to one version or the other, which would put you at that version once you clicked something.

But in the meantime, is the cross-over issue a serious problem in and of itself?

It depends. Most likely Google knows they're the same. There's another thread here on this topic from today where I explained how to check this.