dns alias or 301 redirect

[Digital Worker]

Hi I have just launched a new website and have several domains for the same site.

I obviously only want to promote one because they all will point to the same content but I want my users to be able to get to the site if they type one of my other domains in the address bar.

eg.

My main domain that i would like to promote is:

www.mysite.com

My other domains are:

www.mylovelysite.com
www.mygreatsite.com
www.wonderfulsite.com

What would be the best solution for this

a DNS alias?

or

A 301 redirect?

Many thanks

[gethan]

Hi Digital_Worker welcome to WebmasterWorld

If the content is duplicate then your best approach is to use 301 redirects on the domain from day one. You don't want the duplicate content leaking in to the SE's and causing problems.

[Digital Worker]

Hi Gethan

Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome.

I thought as much. Do you think this might cause problems with Yahoo as they said a while back that they dont follow 301's

Is there any new news on this?

Many thanks

[ritch_b]

This thread [webmasterworld.com] at the start of the year mentioned Yahoo not following 301 redirects and - as far as I've been able to tell from other threads and forums - this was still the case as of last month.

I can only guess it's a legacy thing from an earlier incarnation of Inktomi, but why they wouldn't follow a permanent redirect is beyond me though - a 301 is supposed to be final after all.

Does anyone else know any different?

R.

[gethan]

Some SE's have a few problems with 301's (Yahoo did for a while - not sure now) - but if you use a 301 from the first day all your visitors will see the correct site and therefore - links, bookmarks etc will be correct. The chances of a SE even attempting to spider the wrong site is much lower. Best approach for mistyped url scenarios.

The other approach to try is just a very plain "welcome page" with a single link to the official site. The best approach for strategic domain registrations - opens up oppurtunities to develop sites later as well.

[Digital Worker]

Cheers Gethan u have been a real help

I was just wondering would google view the splash paged domain as a doorway page?

I suppose if there wasnt a great deal of content and no links coming in on there it would just bury it in the listings anyway but just want to make sure that this is he best way forward

Many thanks for all your constructive thoughts anyway