301 Redirect vs Domain Alias
-
We have hundreds of domains which are either alternate spelling of our primary domain or close keyword names we didn't want our competitor to get before us.
The primary domain is running on a dedicated Windows server running IIS6 and set to a static IP.
Since it is a static IP and not using host headers any domain pointed to the static IP will immediately show the contents of the site, however the domain will be whatever was typed. Which could be the primary domain or an alias.
Two concerns.
First, is it possible that Google would penalize us for the alias domains or dilute our primary domain "juice"?
Second, we need to properly track traffic from the alias domains. We could make unique content for those performing well and sell or let expire those that are sending no traffic.
It's not my goal to use the alias domains to artificially pump up our primary domain. We have them for spelling errors and direct traffic.
What is the best practice for handling one or both of these issues?
-
Update:
I used ISAPI_Rewrite from http://www.helicontech.com/ to handle domain alias redirects and it uses proper 301 redirects to the primary domain.
Also I found an article in the Google Analytics Forum Archive http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help-basics/browse_thread/thread/380a839ebd9a7f6a which answered my other question on finding the count of referrals to the primary domain from the alias domains. Apparently it's very simple and their is no setup needed. Just go to Visitors -> Network Properties -> Hostnames for your site's profile in GA.
-
If the site is to simply keep competitors from obtaining them, I would just register the domain and leave it parked. I would not run domains just for misspelled combinations. You start to have too many domains that you have to get to rank which could dilute your efforts for the real site.
How much traffic do you get for the misspelled version, and where does your main site rank for those misspellings? I might try PPC for those misspelled versions and just park those domains. To get them to rank you will have to build content and links. Lots of work for what may be little return. With PPC you can target just the misspelling.
If anything, I would 301 the misspelling to the main site and hope that it will bring the maine site up in the SERPs for the misspelling.
I hope that helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Redirect multiple domains to 1 domain or not?
Hi there, I have client who has multiple domains that already have some PA and DA. Problem is that most websites have the same content and rank better on different keywords.
Technical SEO | | Leaf-a-mark
I want to redirect all the websites to 1 domain because it’s easier to manage and it removes any duplicate content. Question is if I redirect domain x to domain y do the rankings of domain x increase on domain y? Or is it better to keep domain x separately to generate more referral traffic to domain y? Thanks in advance! Cheers0 -
Removing Multiple 301 Redirects
During my last redesign (and migration to Drupal) some of the updated SEO friendly url's on the new site were misspelled. Rather than updating the 301 redirects to point to the correct page the developer just added an additional 301 redirect. So it was redirected like this website.com/oldpage (301 to) website.com/new-paige (301 to) website.com/new-page Instead of website.com/oldpage (301 to) website.com/new-page I'll be finishing another redesign and updating to https soon, should I remove the redirect to the misspelled domain and just have one 301 from the original page? These multiple redirects have been up for over a year. Thanks for any specific advice!
Technical SEO | | talltrees0 -
301 redirect and search engines
How long until 301 redirects get recognized by search engines? I noticed my link on Google isn't forwarding over to my new domain even after the 301 redirect. If I go to the site directly, the 301 redirect works. Anyone know how long it takes for search engines to pick it up? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | timeintopixels0 -
301 redirect from Blogger
Hello, I have a client with a Wordpress network of blogs, each blog is owned by a different blogger. Many of them were migrated time ago from Blogger. I have seen that the way used to redirect them is a meta refresh, so no authority is being passed. I cannot find any reliable way of making a 301 from Blogger, There are some plugins, but I'm afraid of using them. Any of you have experience with this situation please? I have even thought about placing a global rel canonical before the meta refresh, but I think that here the problem is the meta refresh itself.... Thank you in advance
Technical SEO | | Juandbbam0 -
302 to 301 redirect confirmation
Hi guys, Fairly sure of the answer from what I've read so far, but I just wanted to doublecheck I have it right. Page A gets a significant amount of referring, followed traffic, and also ranks in Google. Page A uses a 302 redirect to Page B (on a completely different domain), which means that 0% of Page A's link juice is being passed on to Page B. If I were to change the 302 redirect to a 301 redirect, then the link juice passed on to Page A from the followed, referring traffic will be (mostly) passed on to Page B. Is that correct? Cheers, Jez
Technical SEO | | jez0000 -
301 redirect from root to /index.aspx
I have taken over the SEO for www.domain.net. The way i've inherited the setup is that www.domain.net is 301 redirected to www.domain.net/index.aspx Looking at top pages and linking root domains in Opensiteexplorer I can see that www.domain.net/index.aspx has 1,006 linking root domains www.domain.net has 806 linking root domains. I assume that www.domain.net is passing the value of it's 806 domain links to www.domain.net/index.aspx via the 301 redirect and because of this would expect www.domain.net/index.aspx to be the strongest page on the site and be the url that ranks in the listings for many relevant searches. It appears however that www.domain.net is what is shown in listings and not www.domain.net/index.aspx ?? Can anyone explain why this might be?? If I do a site: search in Google then www.domain.net is indexed and not www.domain.net/index.aspx ??
Technical SEO | | QubaSEO0 -
Not sure which URL to use for 301 redirect
A client has new website design completed by another developer, was launched in April of this year. No 301 redirect was set up so duplicate content is an issue. Client has had a website with same domain name for about 10 years, but has not had any SEO work completed before or since his new site design. For non-www there are 6 referring links - 1 considered to have authority, for www there are also 6 but 3 considered to have authority. More links seem to coming from www than non-www. But for one of the clients keywords they are ranked #1 for their area and that links to their non-www address. And even though no redirects set up by developer, non-www has had far more visits according to Google Analytics. So many basics that still need to be done for site: no meta-descriptions on any page, H1 and page titles could use keywords, call to action moved above fold, etc. Considering this is a new site, and new SEO work and many more inbound links needed, does it matter which address I redirect to? _Cindy Barnard
Technical SEO | | CeCeBar0 -
301 Redirects
Hello, I have a problem with my website. I have a page on my website http://www.ensorbuilding.com/page.php/aboutus but if i type in www.ensorbuilding.com/page.php/aboutus/f8e45e9d9df6140bb5a7ff1173e8d828 or www.ensorbuilding.com/page.php/aboutus/0f0eea5e9ab0a3e8d91fad8fc0d3ce9c it still displays the about us page. Google is seeing this as duplicate content so what I would want to do is 301 redirect anything after www.ensorbuilding.com/page.php/aboutus . How could I implement a 301 redirect in this way?
Technical SEO | | danielmckay70
