Google penalises multiple domain names to one site?

From an earlier posting about lack of Google SERPs for a site, it has been suggested that Google penalises variations on a domain name pointing to one site?

For example,
www.xxxyyy.com
www.xxxyyy.co.uk
www.xxx-yyy.com
etc.

My original reason was to make it more user friendly - in case users could not remember whether it was a .com, .co.uk or if it was hyphenated.

Opinions please - is Google penalising on these grounds?

 

if you have the extra domains do a 301 redirect to the original domain no harm will be done.

 

That is the main difference. If you are not using redirects, then you will end up in trouble (more than likely). Disgust is bang on and you should listen to her on doing this...

 

Managing Link Campaigns will then also be a lot easier since you daon't have to spread your efforts/focus over 3 domains. 301 them like I said in the other thread and you will see some decent rankings and still catching those who keyed in the spelling variations in the address bar.

 

Is a cpanel re-direct the same as a 301 re-direct?

 

I don't think so, maybe Shawn can chime in here...

 

I don't think it is, I believe that just forwards the domain. I think you can only do a 301 from an .htaccess file or from httpd.conf

 

I'm not sure if it's gonna penalize you, but it's gonna make your SEO work more difficult.

At work we use 8 domain names (4 in English, 4 in French) for 4 our divisions. Every domain name allows you and the bots to visit any of the 4 sites in the language of your choice. Each division's website is identified by it's directory (www.anydomain.com/XXX).

We haven't been banned or been penalized, but our pages are only indexed with 1 domain at the time and it changes with my SEO. Basically, we are fighting against ourselves to have each page indexed under 1 domain name or the other and the SE are the judges. To give you an example, I have 120 BL indexed with the corporate English domain and 225 with my division's for a particular page.

( I know it is wrong and doesn't make any sense, but the "manager" and the server admins don't know anything about technology (I doubt they know what a server is). As we all know, the web was perfect in 1994 and has been declining since then and Netscape 4, 5, 6, 7 are all the same, so why bother with server-side stuff, redirects and other flavor-of-the-month technologies. )

Try to stick with only 1 domain and redirect the other to it otherwise you'll end up with the same problems as I have of competing against yourself.

 

I have had sites penalized for using 2 domain names that point to the same site. Don't do it. Use a 301 redirect and call it a day.

 

Yes, a cpanel re-direct can be a 301 redirect. Do the redirect and then double check it here.

 

301 response(Moved Permanetly) for the redirected hostname(s) and it should be no trouble at all.
http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

 

Do your redirect and then check the headers returned to make sure you get a 301 Moved Permanently response

EDIT: Oops I jumped down to reply before reading all the posts Sorry ResaleBroker

 

IMHO it is retarted to penalize on that basis. We have multiple domains under various TLD's for our sites, not multiple variations of the name, like "find-dumb-sat-dsl-real-estate-lame-offer-web-sites-bs.com, etc..

I really think Google should make a distinction between the two. It is one thing to have:

mccoypottery.com
mccoypottery.org
mccoypottery.net and so on, than it is to have mccoy-pottery-lame.com, mc-coy-pot-tery-lame.com, and so on.

We have the variations to insure that (like you said above) visitors can get to our site under an TLD. We have other variations, obviously, like mccoysearch.com but this does not lead you to our mccoypottery.com web site, it takes you to our McCoy Pottery specific search site. In any event, I think a distinction needs to be made.

 

Thank Jeffrey, good resource there.

For me it would seem using the link you provided that a cpanel redirect is :
HTTP/1.1 302

So I guess that isn't good then?

 

302 is bad.

 

If the server is set up correctly; you will get a 301 using a cpanel redirect. You have to make sure select the permanent option.

 

Thanks guys, my mistake it wasn't a cpanel redirect it was my own PHP header() redirect.
I have now added Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); to make it a 301 redirect rather than a 302.

 

So, if I have domains with NetworkSolutions and use their forward feature to forward my .net and .org domains to my .com...is that a 301 redirect and something that is ok? What if I forward another .com to my main .com? Is that ok? I would think that hundreds of thousands of domains would be forwarded this way.

 

I really don't think there is anything penal about having more than one top level domain, pointing at the same site. That just would not make sense.

 

I wouldn't call it "Penal" but I would call it "Duplicate Content."