Two domain names, one website.

[covingtonscustoms]

We have a web site that has its original domain name, and a new domain name.
Will having both domains showing the same content cause problems with the search engines?
If so, how can these domain names be set up to fix this?
Also we have the sites email set up to go to the same account regardless of which domain the email is sent to, and we need to keep it this way.

Any help would be great,
Thanks.

[dharrison]

Hi covingtonscustoms

You can set up a permanent 301 redirect so regardless of whatever domain name is used you get directed to the same site. This method is recommended by the search engines.

Either talk to the people that provide your hosting (or look in their Support/FAQ pages) or if you have the control, there are simple tutorials online. Hold on I'm looking.

Not sure about the email address situation. Are you likely to use both?

HTH

[covingtonscustoms]

Also we have an ssl cert on the older domain so it needs to be the domain that people get redirected to.

To make this easier, here are the domains:
the original is: https://www.covingtonscyclecity.com
the new one is: http://www.covingtonscustoms.com
The new domain is setup as a "domain alias" for web+email+ftp

So how would that 301 work?
If some one goes to the new www.covingtonscustoms.com then the 301 would redirect them to https://www.covingtonscyclecity.com, but since both domain names show the same files from the same server, wouldn't they run into the same redirect when they get to the old https://www.covingtonscyclecity.com?

I currently have a flash file in the index page that will redirect the user to the main asp/flash page at older domain name using variables in the url that the asp passes to the flash on the page to tell it what content to load.

And for the emails, we do use both allot, the original has been around for a long time, even used in allot of print ads, its the one that people have used to contact us for years, but it is harder for people to remember when you give them the domain name.
The new domain name is allot easier to remember.

It seems to me after thinking about it, that what we need is to have the new domain setup as just a "domain pointer", but it needs to still have the email forwarded to the original domain.

if an email is sent to admin @ covingtonscustoms.com or admin @ covingtonscyclecity.com it needs to be routed to the same account.

I wonder if the new domain can be set up as a "domain alias" for email+ftp, and as a "domain pointer" for web.
Is that even possible?

[Dubbya]

You can have as many domains as you like as long as they all resolve to one site. I have 13 on one site and 10 on another.

As Deb said, use 301 redirects and you won't have any trouble.

I shouldn't matter where the emails go to, the search engines don't index your email server.

If you're worried about confusing your users with the two URLS, just add a paragraph which explains what you're doing in your "About Us", "Contact Us" or "Terms of Use" page.

[parkquick]

I'm trying to do something similar but different with TelephoneCenter.com and TelephoneCentRE.com. I want them to share content, but one to focus on the UK mobile./wireless/cellular market and one to focus on the U.S. market. How can I build-out these sister sites in a way that avoids the duplicate content penalty?

[danners]

Do you know what server your website is on?

If a Unix / Linux server runnign Apache there is some simple code to put in a .htaccess file in the root folder that will sort out your problems:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?domainname1\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domainname2.com/$1 [L,R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domainname1\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domainname2.com/$1 [L,R=301] 

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domainname1\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domainname2.com/$1 [L,R=301]

This redirects domainname1.com to domainname2.com

[webmikepdx]

Hi - late entry to this conversation--
When using this code, does the user still see the url they entered in the address bar? It doesn't just pop them over to a new domain, right?
Mike