Seo, Google, And Domain Name Forwarding

[charlesleo]

I've recently purchased two domains and TCH was kind enough to forward them to my current website for me.

 

Seeing that these are forwarded domain names, I am wondering about the harm in submitting these 'cloaked' domains/redirects to my website. Am I better off by purchasing a very basic account monthly and just having a simple redirect here? Part of the reason why I purchased additional names was to boost my presence on Google.

 

I came across this article which potentially outlines a pitfall - one which I hope I haven't tripped already:

 

http://www.****/?Domain-Name-...ngines&id=57151

 

To the TCH staff - would your domain forwarding fall into this category considering I already submitted one of these forwarded domains (essentially a duplicate) to Google SiteCrawler? Please say no...

[TCH-Bruce]

Well I have 6 alternate domain names parked (not forwarded) on top of my actual account and it has not had any effect on our search engine rankings.

[charlesleo]

So I guess mine are 'parked' on top of mine?

 

I created a Google sitemap for the new 'parked' domain and threw it in the same directory. I just hope Google doesnt flag it as a duplicate and take me down in the search engine.

 

I wrote to Google - still haven't received a response. Not sure if I will...

[abinidi]

Parked and forwarded are two different ways to arrive at similar results.

 

Parked domains have nameservers that point to the same nameservers as your main domain (ns#.totalchoicehosting.com) or whatever. A parked domain functions as a normal domain. It can have email addresses, subdomains, etc. When a user goes to your parkeddomain/folder1, it is as if they are going to your maindomain/folder1. The parked domain name is always shown in the URL.

 

A forwarded domain's nameservers point to the registrar's site, and then users are forwarded to your website. TCH requires that if you forward a domain, you forward it to the root level of your account, i.e. it has to point to your site's main index.html page. Forwarded domains usually can't have an e-mail address or subdomains, as the registrar's forwarder doesn't often know how to handle them.

 

I have found that parking my domains has always been the best option for me.

 

As for your Google question, I can't help you there. Best luck.

[wampthing]

I have a domain parked on top of one of my sites that has a higher google page rank. If I were to do a redirect, google would not view it as a seperate site, and credit the page rank to the main domain name. Is that right?

[chatbug]

A question though... I'm on the starter plan, and as far as I know, I am supposed to only have one domain name (http://chatbug.org/) for the account. So for now, I am forwarding a couple of other names I have directly to my blog (http://blog.chatbug.org/)... is that bad?

 

If I want to "park" my other .net and .info domains on top of my .org domain, do I just add the same DNS information as with my .org domain to the other two? Wouldn't that be hosting multiple domains on that one site? I'm kind of unsure... as you might have guessed, I'm new to web admin. -.-;;;;

[TCH-Thomas]

I don´t know the technical behind parking, but just give the registrar the same dns info as you have given them for chatbug.org and then submit a ticket to the helpdesk and tell them you wanna park the other names.

[chatbug]

Done... changed by my DNS configurations and submitted help desk ticket. Thanks, Thomas!

[TCH-Thomas]

You´re welcome.

[abinidi]

A question though... I'm on the starter plan, and as far as I know, I am supposed to only have one domain name (http://chatbug.org/) for the account. So for now, I am forwarding a couple of other names I have directly to my blog (http://blog.chatbug.org/)... is that bad?

 

If I want to "park" my other .net and .info domains on top of my .org domain, do I just add the same DNS information as with my .org domain to the other two? Wouldn't that be hosting multiple domains on that one site? I'm kind of unsure... as you might have guessed, I'm new to web admin. -.-;;;;

 

The problem with what you suggest in the first paragraph is that you are pointing another domain at a subdomain on your account. This type of setup would be a violation of TCH's Acceptable Use Policy. You are allowed to have other domains forward as long as they forward to the root directory of your account (the www.YourSiteNameHere.org location).

 

If you park the other .net and .info domains on your account, they will resolve to the same location, however, subdomains won't funtion automatically across domains. For example, let's say you own example.com and example.org. On example.com you have a blog in a blog subdomain: blog.example.com. Users can't automatically go to blog.example.org; it won't work. You would have to set up redirection in order to point blog.example.org to blog.example.com.

 

Parking domains works great, so long as you understand the implications of using subdomains across your main domain and various parked domains.

[chatbug]

oops... I didn't know that! -.-;;;; I've corrected it now anyway....

 

I have a <meta> powered forwarding page for my root directory, so any traffic linked there will be redirected to http://blog.chatbug.org/, wherever they come from.

 

I also have a "you are no supposed to be here" redirection page for any directory that I don't want people have FTP-like HTTP access... once, I accidentally discovered a friend's resume/CV in one of his sub-directories. I think any directory without index.html or index.php automatically have get an FTP-like html interface (if you know what I'm talking about)... like /images/ directories, which I believe most websites will have. A bit of a side-question... is there a technically correct or easier way of preventing such "unauthorized" access to these directories? I can't quite figure out a way with permissions, since for most of those directories, you'll need to set it readable by public for them to access the contents (e.g. images, javascript, etc).

[TCH-Bruce]

In cPanel, turn off indexes (using Index Manager) for what ever folders you do not want people to view the contents of.

[abinidi]

oops... I didn't know that! -.-;;;; I've corrected it now anyway....

 

Yes. I didn't know it at first either. I was doing it without realizing it was a violation of the AUP. Then I began participating in the forums and learned of my mistake and quickly corrected it.

 

And Bruce answered your other question about turning indexes off. AFAIK, you have to set this for each folder on your site. I don't know of a shortcut way to change it for all folders on your site.

[chatbug]

I did read the web hosting acceptable use policy and saw "Your subdomains are allowed to be used for any legal purpose. You may not sell the subdomain space to others, nor may you point other domain names to your subfolders."... but I thought that means having another domain name masquerading as a seperate domain, but using a subfolder as its contents. I know it is possible for domain names (e.g. example1.com) to show the contents of another site (example2.com), but mask the URL such that it appears as if you are visiting example1.com. So I thought a basic redirection without masking would be ok.

 

Paul beat me to it... I was going to ask about how to set all folders to no indexing. But since there is a "system default" option, I'm pretty sure there must be some way of setting it... though, it might be at a level beyond regular user's control?! Hmm... can any techies answer that?

[Deverill]

You can also add the following line to your .htaccess file (create one if there is none) in your public_html folder that will work for the entire site instead of doing it each folder at a time in cPanel.

 

>IndexIgnore */*

 

Edit: Added

Oops, forgot the original topic.

 

Charles, parked domains won't be a problem. I'm not sure about forwarding in your situation. Do remember, though, that if someone links to Site A and if another person links to Site B then Google will see those as two separate websites even though they are parked together. If you have any marketing campaigns or link exchange things make sure that everyone uses the same domain name to link to you or your rank will be lessened in the search engines.

Edited April 29, 2006 by Deverill

[chatbug]

That's pretty neat... it still shows an index though, even though it's empty. I think "403 Forbidden" seem to send a stronger message, telling others "don't you dare try this".

 

A question though... when I used the cpanel method of diabling the index... I get the "403 Forbidden" message, with a "500 Internal Server Error" error:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /images/ on this server.

 

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/1.3.34 Server at chatbug.org Port 80

 

What's the "500 Internal Server Error" about?

[TCH-Thomas]

From W3.org

 

500 Internal Server Error

 

The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.

[chatbug]

Hmm... is there a way to resolve this problem? Or is "500 Internal Server Error" an expected result from disabling the index? I'm new to web hosting, and don't know much about Apache/Linux either.

[Deverill]

It seems that when it gives out the 403 Forbidden error it goes looking for a custom page (ErrorDocument) for that error message which it's not finding, causing the 500 error. I don't know if there should be a default file but you may try a help desk ticket to make sure all the default error pages are in place.

 

I did find this:

This means that you need to review the path the follows "ErrorDocument 403" in your .htaccess file.

Since you (and I) probably don't have that line in the .htaccess file I believe there is a overall default that may be taking over.

[abinidi]

You set your custom error pages by clicking on the error pages icon in cPanel. In the default theme, it seems to be in the second row, fourth column.

[seo-specialist]

Domain forwarding is used to give the impression that Mr. John has his own Web site, when technically he doesn't. You could get a free website from any of dozens (if not hundreds) of companies, with a name something like freewebsitecompany.com/userxyz123 and then set up a domain such as johnseo.com and point it to the free website. If the company providing the free site goes out of business, you can sign up somewhere else and then just forward the domain there.

Edited July 6, 2009 by seo-specialist

[clark40]

I also have a "you are no supposed to be here" redirection page for any directory that I don't want people have FTP-like HTTP access... once, I accidentally discovered a friend's resume/CV in one of his sub-directories. I think any directory without index.html or index.php automatically have get an FTP-like html interface (if you know what I'm talking about)... like /images/ directories, which I believe most websites will have. A bit of a side-question... is there a technically correct or easier way of preventing such "unauthorized" access to these directories? I can't quite figure out a way with permissions, since for most of those directories, you'll need to set it readable by public for them to access the contents (e.g. images, javascript, etc).

[TCH-Bruce]

Welcome to the forums Clark

 

In cPanel if you are hosted here go into indexing. Set what ever folders to "no indexing" and nobody will be able to view any folder you set that way.

 

If you are not using cPanel then placing a dummy index.html page in the folder will prevent other content from being seen.

[TCH-Thomas]

Welcome to the forum, Clark.