Multiple domain name forwarding best practices

[jbcobbs]

I have a real estate site that contains pages specifically for agents. Every agent has their own domain name and forwards it to their individual page. The agent-owned domain names do not need to have any seo value. Currently we have about 50 domain names pointing to the site. Obviously, I dont want the main url to be penalized for having multiple domain names pointing to it. If all of the agent domains are using a 301 redirect, should I be fine? If so, could I point all the agent domains' nameservers to the same host and have one htaccess file containing redirects for all of the domains? Im just trying to figure out the easiest and most automated way to accomplish this. Any help would be appreciated.

[jdMorgan]

That sounds like too many 'doorway' domains to me...

You might be better off simply giving each agent a 'page' or a section on your own domain, and 'playing it straight' with the search engines.

If your server has a unique IP address (or if you can get one by asking for "IP-based virtual hosting" instead of "name-based virtual hosting"), you can implement your proposed 'many-domains-to-one' redirect .htaccess file. If not, you will have to add each domain to your 'control panel' one at a time. With this latter method, there may be a limit to how many you'll be allowed to add, and 'sharing' pages and scripts among the multiple domains can be difficult or impossible.

Aside from the 'doorway' issue, giving each agent a page on your site has a huge advantage when you terminate a relationship with an agent; You won't have to beg that agent to quit pointing his/her domain to your site...

One more note: The individual agents' domains and/or names *are* important from an SEO standpoint. You certainly want your site (and the individual agents' domains, sections, or pages) to be easily-findable for searches on the agent name resulting from "SOLD"-sign, media, and word-of-mouth referrals.

We primarily discuss server technique in this forum; I'd advise that you inquire for more opinions on the SEO aspects of your problem in one of our search engine forums.

Jim

[jbcobbs]

The agents page has a unique referral string which does not exactly "roll off the tongue" to easily so we give them unique domains. Our site has great seo value so even without the domain names the agents show up on our site as intended. I will post these issues in an seo forum as well. Thanks. I might be back to ask about the multiple redirects in one htaccess though!