Forwarding a .org domain to a .com domain: any negative impact to consider?

[mollykathariner_ms]

Hello! I have a question I've been unable to find a clear answer to. My client's primary domain is a .com with a satisfactorily high DA. My client owns the .org version of its domain (which has a very low DA, I suppose due to inactivity) but has never forwarded it on. For branding/visibility/traffic reasons, I'd like to recommend they set up the .org domain to forward to the .com domain, but I wanted to ask a few questions first:

1. Does forwarding low-value DA domains to high-value DA domains have any negative authority/SEO impact?

2. If the .org domain was to be forwarded, am I correct that an SSL cert is not necessary for it if the .com domain has an SSL cert?

Thanks in advance!

[Lynn12]

Nigel is right, though I did not get if there any website. If yes you need to set redirects, if no - just keep .org for your needs.

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Molly

There is no logical reason for you to do this unless the .org was live and listed somewhere so you would lose traffic. You suggest that the .org needs to be 'set up' so this is my suggestion.

If it is set up already then 301 each page on the .org to the most relevant page on the .com. If there is no relevant page then 301 to the homepage. Do this in htaccess, not on the pages themselves.

If the domain you are redirecting from is https then you will need an SSL on the server for that domain.

If there is a .org then it is most likely doing the main .com some damage anyway through duplication so 301ing is the best thing to do.

If there is no .org set up, don't bother.

Regards

Nigel

[mollykathariner_ms]

Thank you for your response, Kris! In this case, I am glad they own the .org domain—they're a huge organizational entity and not having ownership of it could open up some obvious issues. I do agree that purchasing several domains to forward seems superfluous on a lot of different levels.

[WebMarkets]

From my experience, it is very difficult / cannot forward a HTTP version to a HTTPS version.

I may have to defer to another SEO Pro about forwarding a lower DA to a higher. My educated guess...it doesnt matter. In Google's eyes its not technically considered a link.

It always amuses me when clients purchase multiple domains and want to forward them with dreams of larger traffic funnels. If a branded URL search isnt happening, traffic wont either. For brand protection, absolutely valuable. But when clients want to dominate the internet, this tactic is a pipe dream.