I've built a website for someone but the name has a number in it, so to avoid traffic loss they have 2 domain names ie mysite1.co.uk mysiteone.co.uk In my hosting's cpanel both domains point to the same directory. I've submitted both to google, plus added a sitemap for mysite1 to webmaster tools and it's currently sitting at #1 for the exact search term. mysiteone currently isn't indexed but if I add a sitemap for it, is google going to recognise duplicate content and bin both sites? I want google to index both urls as the main method of driving traffic to the website will be radio advertising, so some people may interpret the name as mysite1.co.uk and others as mysiteone.co.uk As they'll have the same content will google penalise them as duplicates? I also have alternative hosting where I could host the other domain but again would google spot the duplication and penalise? I'm not trying to do anything dodgy here, just to get the best solution for a client.
just give 301 redirect from less desired one to most preferred one...that will tell Google to not penalize u for duplicate content...without affecting the traffic from either domain! or else use "canonical tag" for main URL
What the 301 redirect does is point the second domain to the first url, so it doesn't need to index both because it sees both as the same.
I need google to index both. As I said in the first post, 99% of traffic will come from radio ads where end users may type in either mysite1 or mysiteone, so I need google to index both. I'd rather not go down the path of having to re-write the content and it seems crazy that there is no alternative!
If the 99% traffic will come from the radio ads...ppl are not going to find ur sites in Google...they ll directly type the url in the browser....then why do u want Google to index both of them? let Google index any 1 of them...and redirect will make Google consider the 2nd url as the copy of indexed 1...so no "page rank split" as well.... still if u want google to index both then, Yes...there is no alternative than making the unique contents for both sites. intermediate way wld be....for 1 of them write whole unique content and for the other 1, just create a single page with different content(not much of work)......then just provide a link on that page to navigate ur users to main site.... something like..."welcome"....or "click here" will do!
I agree that most people would just type in the address but the owner always googles to find things (as does my wife) so he thinks people will do that. I guess I'll just have to change the second site and re-submit to google. Thanks for all responses
Don't worry. If you have 301 directed it only one copy of the site needs to exist. It will see both urls as the same domain, so there will only be one to be indexed. Basically the one you are redirecting can be a blank site with the .htaccess file in with the rewrite rules.
As long as you do as stated above, set up a 301 redirect, it will treat them as one website and there won't be any penalties.
According to google ..............one website should have only one domain name........but by the concept of domain parking some smart user give more than one domain names for one physically exist website............if you are parking domains at one website then you should use 301 redirection for your main domains. 301 redirection is permanent redirection to that domain name and google will transfer your whole value at one domain. In Linux hosting(or mode_rewrite enable), you can make this redirection with the help of .htaccess file...........in few line simple code........which easily available at internet.............