Is Domain Forwarding Bad?

[jbayer6]

Is Domain Forwarding bad for search engines? Sometime within the last week or two my site has seemed to disappear yet in a few places I still see the fowarding domains still listed on engines. The forwarding domains do give me some position but nothing nearly like I had. The site is www.precolaser.com and the domains that forward to are www.lasermachining.com, www.laserheattreating.com, www.laserconverting.com, www.laserdigitalconverting.com.

All of the position that I had with www.precolaser.com is gone. Any ideas as to what I can do to get it back? I will be happy to further discuss this if anyone has questions regarding what I am trying to explain.

Thank you

[netbaldwin]

You are using meta refresh which is the worst type of redirect and it usually immediately identified as spam by search engines. A java script would work better but is also a browser side redirect. The domains you mentioned are on the same IP. Your web host should be able to help you with a server-side redirect or alias.

That being said, it looks like the damage may be done and you will just have to recover once your redirect is fixed.


Read this article for more information:
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol4/promo_no15.htm

[pedstersplanet]

Try a 301 redirect (.htaccess) to your main domain from the rest.... That'll work....

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by netbaldwin

You are using meta refresh which is the worst type of redirect and it usually immediately identified as spam by search engines.

Simply not true. There is nothing wrong with using meta-refresh, provided you insert a reasonable delay that lets the visitor and/or bot know what you are doing and make it clear you are not trying to hide the fact that the redirection is occurring. The usual rule of thumb is 10 seconds, although some have recommended 30 seconds.

There are legitimate uses for redirects, including taking visitors to pages that have moved or been renamed. However, if you have different domain names (e.g., yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com.au or another regional URL), it is better to have the two domains point to the same IP than to have them in different places with redirects.

[OneMoreBite]

The usual rule of thumb is 10 seconds, although some have recommended 30 seconds.

Yikes! 30 seconds? That seems excessive.

Why did you want to redirect the traffic from www.precolaser.com, and I'm confused in that I went to Precolaser.com and wasn't redirected?

What is it you wanted to accomplish? Knowing that would make it easier to give ideas for the best way to accomplish it.

Kathryn

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by OneMoreBite

Yikes! 30 seconds? That seems excessive.

I think so too... I always use 10 seconds: that gives visitors enough time to read the "this page/site has moved notice" and then I also include a "wait to be redirected automatically or click here" link for fast readers and visitors with ADHD ;o)