Does Google still see masked domains as duplicate content?
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Older reads state the domain forwarding or masking will create duplicate content but Google has evolved quite a bit and I'm wondering if that is still the case?
Not suggesting that a 301 is not the proper way to redirect something but my question is: Does Google still see masked domains as duplicate content?
Is there any viable use for domain masking other than for affiliates?
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To my knowledge, yes.
They have certainly evolved, but in my opinion their evolution would point only to the fact that they will see through masking tricks even better than they once did.
I ran an experiment with an affiliate link in 2008, and because the domain I purchased was the exact match of a product (the owner was trying to brand his name with his domain instead of the product which people actually searched for), and my masked domain was ranked #1 for weeks!
Shortly thereafter though, Google realized it was duplicate content, and while the experiment made over $1,000 in that time, the moral of the story is that they did catch on, and the rightful owner of the site reclaimed the #1 spot (and my masked domain got the boot just like it should have).
If they were able to detect this 3 years ago in my little experiment, I would bet they could detect it now much faster, so in my opinion it would be best to avoid these tactics altogether.
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