Domain forwarding - Whats the best option for SEO?

Domain forwarding, what's the best option for SEO purposes?

[bendavid25]

We have 2 domains that we need to point to our sales site.

The 1st domain is our company name (and corporate site):

"name.com"

The 2nd domain is our company sales site (where customers actually buy products):

"namesales.com"

Due to the large number of customers that land on the corporate site "name.com" (because of our name recignition) we have moved the corporate site to another domain.

Now we want to point the former corporate url: "name.com" to point to: "namesales.com" (because most people searching for our name want to buy products).

This will mean that customers entering the url with our corporate name "name.com" will now land on our sales site and not the corporate site (along with the "namesales.com" url, which also points to the sales site and is the primary url).

Our programmer is recommending a 301 re-direct for "name.com" to also land on the "namesales.com" site.

My question is: Will this kill the SEO for the site? If so can we leave some content on the "name.com" server to feed the spyders and still have visitors land on the "namesales.com" sales site?

What is the best way to keep the SEO of the url and at the same time redirect it to another sites server?

Another factor we also face is that all our company e-mail is attached to "name.com" which cannot be changed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jamie

[Webwork]

The standard advice given by SEO's and non-SEO-SEO Matt Cutts is to employ a permanent redirect of the "additional domains" to the website. In theory there is or should be no SEO-benefit derived from the act of 301ing additional domains to your website. In theory, the 301ed domains ought to not be gaining or losing anything whilst in this status. Some folks focus on "aging of domains" but there's a bit more to it than the date of the domain registration, such as the age and quality of inbound links to the aged domain, etc.

[bendavid25]

So if I am understanding correctly, the 301ed domain shouldn't loose or gain SEO? If this is correct then we are in good shape with the redirect.

Thanks,

Jamie

[Webwork]

I'd like to say "you can take it to the bank" but even Google doesn't answer such questions and, if they do, all such answers are subject to change once people start to exploit the system.

I don't have "the answer" any more than anyone else who isn't a Google or Yahoo or MSN or Ask search engineer. I just have a bit of information from some reliable sources and from some personal experience.

There are always "rules changes" and there is lots of room for subtle differences and distinctions. IF you are looking to have your cake and eat it too - to have the domains driving some current benefit AND to preserve "any rights" the domains may have to be useful in future SEO strategies - then you might consider creating distinct websites on each domain, with unique content, and then not go overboard on interlinking them, plus cover your trails with the WhoIs info, different IP address C-blocks, . . . etc., etc.

SEO is a world constantly in flux. There are no assurances of anything, except perhaps the likelihood that if you use the domains as part of a plan to manipulate or spam the hell out of Google then the domains might have a somewhat more permanent problem.

I wish I could offer more concrete guidance but the only source of concrete guidance is the office of search engineering and they're not talking and they're constantly battling with those who figure out what's on their minds by rewriting the rules that play into SEO.

My basic advice is "don't do any dirty tricks with the domains" and live with it - whatever happens. I operate from the basic assumption that irrational assumptions or rules, such as "301s are bad" or "domain parking is bad", don't serve the interests of search engineering as they're . . well . . simply not robust.

[bwnbwn]

Why don't you just leave the company site alone and make it near impossible for them to miss Purchase Products Click Here.

This way the company domain that is getting a ton of hits doesn't lose the traffic and your customers still have the link to select to go to that domain to buy.

Moving the company domain to another name will cause the old company domain to go away and the new one will only take it's place.

maybe add a well positioned spot on the company site with a pic of the produts selling with the link make it really really hard for them to miss this won't hurt the image of your site as it is somthing you sell and the customers can as well read about the company before they go by the product.

I say leave tham alone add a link to the other sites

[bendavid25]

The reason we want to have the name.com domain point straight to our sales site is because, despite a huge button that says "buy #*$!xx products now" customers still, for some reason, only known in the heavens, they still can't find it.

We nicknamed it the "ugly button" because it is so hideously out of place and off color on our corporate site. But people STILL e-mail in from the corporate site asking where to buy products.

Plus the less clicks the better. Most of our incoming traffic is people looking for products and we want to harness that impulse while it is still hot.

We are not trying to "get over on the system" or have our cake and eat it too, I could care less about the second domain - namesales.com but I don't want to lose SEO on both domains and I can't kill either domain because one carries our e-mail and the other is bookmarked with many customers and referenced in a lot of online marketing material.

In short we have decided to point the name.com domain to the sales site while keeping the corporate site still on the server for SEO purposes.

Thanks for all the help from everyone.

Jamie