One website, two top level domains

[son]

In addition to a .co.uk domain we bought the domain for an .com domain, but for ease of maintenance/cost would like to have only one website. The hosting is with the already existing .co.uk website.

We are after a method for user typing the .com address to be transfered to UK website without it being obvious (if possible no frames). We would like the domain mydomain.com still to show (althouth user actually is on .co.uk). On website itself price should alter if user came from .com.

Any ideas?

Son

[seiretto]

Hi Son,

You can achieve this programmatically BUT depending how it is done it could screw your SEO (robots seeing duplicate but the same content may mean your site is penalised).

Using server side scripting (PHP, ASP, etc.) you can check the domain for .com or .co.uk and load the appropriate price list. I empathise with your issue but long term two separate websites is the way to go and to have unique content on each (at least ensure page titles and a good deal of the product descriptions are different).

There is no short-cut to success.

[son]

Would the situation for the duplicate content be different if we had a .co.uk and an .ie (irish) domain for instance? I am just asking as it seems that no irish websites come up when using Google.co.uk (I use irish websites as an example as they are English speaking).

Son

[seiretto]

Originally Posted by son

Would the situation for the duplicate content be different if we had a .co.uk and an .ie (irish) domain for instance?

No difference. Same content on two separate domains.

[son]

Understood. Still, to start off with it would cost too much to have two separate hosting packages. To pick up what you said (Using server side scripting (PHP, ASP, etc.) you can check the domain for .com or .co.uk and load the appropriate price list.): What do you mean by that? I know you can have hosting with one domain and then forward the other domain to first domain with some info in querystring to have the programming logic display the correct content. Still, this would mean a user going to mydomain.com would be transfered to mydomain.co.uk. My main problem is: How would you be able still to show mydomain.ie in browser address bar although the user actually is on .co.uk hosting? Hope I make sense.

Son

[incrediblehelp]

if you want to rank in the UK and the US you should host both independently and build quality, unique websites for each.

[spiderbait]

Originally Posted by son

Understood. Still, to start off with it would cost too much to have two separate hosting packages. To pick up what you said (Using server side scripting (PHP, ASP, etc.) you can check the domain for .com or .co.uk and load the appropriate price list.): What do you mean by that? I know you can have hosting with one domain and then forward the other domain to first domain with some info in querystring to have the programming logic display the correct content. Still, this would mean a user going to mydomain.com would be transfered to mydomain.co.uk. My main problem is: How would you be able still to show mydomain.ie in browser address bar although the user actually is on .co.uk hosting? Hope I make sense.

Son

To make this work you'd need to have a hosting package that permits you to "park" a domain on top of the other one. With that, either domain would work properly and assuming all of your internal links are structured as relative links (rather than absolute links) a visitor would be able to browse the site in its entirety using whichever TLD they arrived on.

The next thing you need is to have a script which would check the URL the visitor is using and test it for either .com or .co.uk or .ie and then based on the TLD it finds, it would then dynamically change the variable content you want to control, such as prices in pounds or dollars.

Hope this helps.

[villageloop]

If I have read this correctly, you could just set up a domain alias through your server.
Most hosting control panels will allow you to do this.

You will of course have the duplicate content issue, and probably some complexity with tracking conversions through your analytics program. But a domain alias will allow you to have the exact same website on a different domain name.
Then, through your programming code, just read the domain that you are on and show the appropriate content for that domain.

[Orion]

good advice on keeping separate unique sites but I understand the easy of maintenance...

If you want both domain names pointed at the same site this should ONLY be done one of two ways..

1) at the registrar point the .com domain name to the .co.uk (also called aliasing)

2) at your host provider you can set up the .com as an alias through your hosting control panel not as good as option 1)

Do NOT..

use scripting to forward to the other domain...

Hope this helps!

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by son

In addition to a .co.uk domain we bought the domain for an .com domain, but for ease of maintenance/cost would like to have only one website. The hosting is with the already existing .co.uk website.

We are after a method for user typing the .com address to be transfered to UK website without it being obvious (if possible no frames). We would like the domain mydomain.com still to show (althouth user actually is on .co.uk). On website itself price should alter if user came from .com.

Any ideas?

Son

You are making things very complicated for yourself and search engines for seo purposes. the simplest way would be to use a 301 redirect from com to .co.uk without frames this would show .uk when accessed via the com site but be better seo wise. framed would show com but not so good seo wise. make one price list but with different post & pack rates & other things for different country's to make up price differences,this will be a much better way search engine wise,although not exactly what you want to do.
simplicity is the keyword including when updating or making adjustments to the site. I have my main site as .com (see below footer signature) but own all other domains if you put .co.uk or .co.nz or org or net at the end you will still get .com seamlessly.
from long term use I find unframed is the best way to go. just make clear on the index page that you are international with different country names on the page which will help you to show up for particular country's in search engines also I think the country names in meta tags cosponsoring with those on page may also help. maybe even dedicated pages to particular country's with nothing but info for particular country on page & meta tags with link to index page.the lists of ways is endless.

[Orion]

Originally Posted by ron angel

You are making things very complicated for yourself and search engines for seo purposes. the simplest way would be to use a 301 redirect from com to .co.uk without frames this would show .uk when accessed via the com site but be better seo wise. framed would show com but not so good seo wise. make one price list but with different post & pack rates & other things for different country's to make up price differences,this will be a much better way search engine wise,although not exactly what you want to do.
simplicity is the keyword including when updating or making adjustments to the site. I have my main site as .com (see below footer signature) but own all other domains if you put .co.uk or .co.nz or org or net at the end you will still get .com seamlessly.

It's a LOT easier to just point it from the registrar, no hosting account needed no set up no .htaccess file nothing.. just simply enter in the domain you want to point it to at the registrar and you're done. Also best for SEO as it's not seen at all by the search engines.

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by Orion

It's a LOT easier to just point it from the registrar, no hosting account needed no set up no .htaccess file nothing.. just simply enter in the domain you want to point it to at the registrar and you're done. Also best for SEO as it's not seen at all by the search engines.

You put it better than I did! its what I meant but showing other ways as well. just use control panel of registered site you are redirecting from.

[thai_guy]

Originally Posted by Orion

Also best for SEO as it's not seen at all by the search engines.

Yes best for SEO overall; I think though that dilution of page rank needs to be considered. If you have other sites linking to the redirected domain then there is the issue that the links won't register. If the 303redirect.com starts to become a dominant domain for back linking then the long term SEO may suffer from lost page rank opportunity. Short term gain may lead to long-term grief and, apart from 2 unique websites, I don't think there is a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too solution.

I have a question for the pros. If the instance did occur where the redirected domain became more dominant and a decision was made to turn the domain structure around (make redirect.com the main domain and create a redirect.co.uk) how long will it take Google to figure out the change and what need to be considered to make the change most successfully.

[activeco]

Originally Posted by Orion

It's a LOT easier to just point it from the registrar, no hosting account needed no set up no .htaccess file nothing.. just simply enter in the domain you want to point it to at the registrar and you're done. Also best for SEO as it's not seen at all by the search engines.

I don't agree. You have to have the most of your domain in your hands including DNS settings.
Any redirect from registrar side will end up as a duplicate content for search engines.

In this case I would disallow / in robots.txt file on .com domain and redirect everything else to .co.uk. (except robots.txt).
If you want .com in url and don't want simple frame solution you can install proxy module, but it is a bit more work to do.

Once you want .com as an independent domain you can lift redirections and robots ban without any consequences.

[jordanmcclements]

I agree with incrediblehelp if you want US users to see US content and UK users to see UK content.

But perhaps it would be easier more sensible to do it as ron angel suggests, if your content is identical, and you only want to change prices depending on where the user is..

[jawn_tech]

If you're not interested in the .com domain name ranking, depending on your registrar and if they offer this feature, just use domain forwarding + domain masking, and point it to the other site. See what they offer, whether it be aliasing, forwarding, masking, etc. Sometimes domain registrations include features that are sometimes overlooked.

As far as being penalized, I don't see it penalizing the domain / site you've been using. (If that's the case, someone tell me so I can register a ton of domains and forward them to my competitor's sites... well, not really. I wouldn't do that).

That doesn't solve the issue of prices changing to reflect the referring domain, however. As an alternate suggestion, program the site so the prices displayed are based on the user's IP instead of the referring domain.

Otherwise, if you're interested in both domains ranking, you're best off making two unique sites (with same look, feel, and branding), so both domains would rank in their respective locations. (as incrediblehelp suggested)

[RichAtVNS]

Originally Posted by spiderbait

To make this work you'd need to have a hosting package that permits you to "park" a domain on top of the other one. .

You don't need a hosting service that parks a domain all you need is a separate DNS service that does that for the second domain to point to the first. You could use a simple service like dyndns.org to do this. There are 100s of them out there, And yes some are free!

This is how we manage domains and subdomains on different hosts.

For instance my images for multiple domains have been hosted on one service (a UNIX system) for 5 years and they have the subdomain images.xxxx.com. This way they all can partipate in a high bandwidth, large backed up storage area without me having to worry about any security issues and taking away processing time from the processor for the webites.

And my main domains are all hosted on an inhouse microsoft server which is behind a firewall.

The DNS records control it all. Simple to implement