Domain cloaking can be harmful for Existing website?

[steveschmidt85]

My client has purchased several domains. When they are not being developed, they want to redirect that domain to an existing website's particular page. Now, for some of them they are using frame redirection. Is this harmful to the existing website? The domain, which we want to redirect, is new and hasn't been crawled.

[jhannawin]

If you have the frame document on the new domain, but the contents of the frame are coming from the existing domain then that should not cause an issue for the existing domain. Obviously, there won't be any benefit for the new domain, other than human visitors will see content. So long as you are not duplicating any content from the old domain on the new one you should be OK.

[bhartzer]

For any domain names that you own, you should be redirecting those domains with a 301 Permanent Redirect to the main domain. There's really no other acceptable way to do it--unless they don't redirect at all, and are just parked domains.

I highly recommend that you NOT use an iframe or any type of redirect (except a 301).

[williamc]

I highly recommend that you NOT use an iframe or any type of redirect (except a 301).

While generally true in most cases, the OP stated this was a temporary measure only, hence a 301 prolly is not the way to go here as that tells the engines it is a perm move. The frame setup they are using won't hurt anything, it just won't help either site other than type in users.

[bhartzer]

I still would not use a 301 redirect or an iframe or any type of frame. A static page would suffice, and even a 302 redirect if it's truly "temporary".

[williamc]

a 302 would be the best option IMO also, and yes, a static page linking to the other domain while under construction would also be a good option.

[manchun]

While generally true in most cases, the OP stated this was a temporary measure only, hence a 301 prolly is not the way to go here as that tells the engines it is a perm move. The frame setup they are using won't hurt anything, it just won't help either site other than type in users.

it may be harmful for a website

[MyRentals]

I have a client who purchased a group of keyword led domains about 5 years ago. Specifically to stop any competition snapping them up. Instead of complicated frames or redirects, I just aliased them to the client's main site in the hosting. So if anybody typed in the domain name, they would automatically land at the main website.

Think about it. These new domains you speak of are probably not indexed inside Google (or far down the pecking order if they are 2nd hand buys), have not had any work done on them regarding search, so they wouldn't normally even be in the public's mind. Hence they are not on the radar with Google and as long as your main site is above board, I really dont think the search engines care either way.

That's been my experience with these kind of things.

[LD]

My client has purchased several domains. When they are not being developed, they want to redirect that domain to an existing website's particular page. Now, for some of them they are using frame redirection. Is this harmful to the existing website? The domain, which we want to redirect, is new and hasn't been crawled.

If I understand correctly, we normally modify the DNS settings, import the domain into a hosting environment, set the condition to "forwarding", choose an URL to forward to (use frameset or not) and we also funnel an email catch-all to that domain as well. I think another term to describe it is domain pointing. I don't believe there is any issue or harm to the site being forward to.

[deepsand]

it may be harmful for a website

Can you back up that specious claim with an explanation as to just what harm might ensue, and how so?