Multiple misspellings pointed to main site

Can I send mispellings via URL redirect

[interbuy]

Hello,

One of our sites is quite popular but the name is often misspelled.

We have registered all the common mispelled type-in words and forwarded them by URL redirect via the domain control panel at the registrar to our main site URL index page.

Is this okay with Google or there a better way to do it.

Thanks

[interbuy]

We do not want to penalized for duplicate content.

[DerekH]

There are two - possibly three - types of forwarding and I think you need to spell it out.

The posh way - the 301 redirect - essentially seamlessly maps the misspelled domain to the new one. But maybe you can't do that with your ISP.

Another is the Meta Refresh in the HTML. I used to have a site with a MetaRefresh on its domain name, which refreshed me to the top of a site I'd placed on a free ISP. The domain name was indexed, the redirect was mapped out of Google as being identical, and the rest of the site did just fine.

Another is the captive frame forwarding that one of my domains has. Visitors with a frames-compatible browser see the domain name and inside it a single frameset with the redirected page. Google, however, sees the no-frames content, which ISN'T a duplicate, it's just a "click here to enter the website". And the wording is such that if you had multiple ones of these, they'd all have different text in Google.

So which is your forwarding? Then we can help!
DerekH

[interbuy]

Hi,

I forward all the typo domains to the main site by my domain name control panel at the registrar.

I just did a URL redirection so if you type blony it goes to my main site balony.

Does g penalize for this.

interbuy

[DerekH]

Yes, I know what you do, but as I said, there are three ways of achieving it.
It depends which one you use what will happen to duplicate pages.

Which one of the three does your control panel use?
DerekH

[interbuy]

Hi,

I do it with a non frames URL redirect.

When you type the typo in the browser you end up at the main site with the main sites name not the typo in the browser window.

[DerekH]

If you mean a meta refresh with a zero timeout then one of my sites used to use that, and Google indexed the forwarding site with the destintation's content. And it removed the destination from the index.

This wouldn't be what you wanted, I think.

Might be better to replace the auto redirect with a page that says

"Welcome to #*$!xx

Buy widgets on-line

Enter Here"

And then do an ordinary link to your (common) site.
DerekH

[conor]

301 redirect is the easiest and cleanest way

[DerekH]

Absolutely, but not easiest if he has the same sort of control panel that I've seen - very constrained access to what can and can't be done - hence my questions!

Let's hope between us we get the best solution.
DerekH

[interbuy]

Okay thanks

I use the control panel at enom.

I could put the .htaccess in the main directory with the 301 re-direct for each typo site, but then I would have to host all 12 domain names. I do have my own servers so no cost but why bother.

If G does not mind my current URL direction.

[phpmaven]

What I do is to put the following rewrite rules in my httpd.conf file. They could also be used in .htaccess

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}!^www\.mydomain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ [mydomain.com...] [R=301,L]

Basically these rules will check the domain of any incoming request and will do a 301 redirect to www.mydomain.com if the domain is anything other than www.mydomain.com

[interbuy]

phpmaven,

Thanks for the info I will try it.

interbuy

[lost in space]

interbuy,

I assume if you're running servers you are running BIND or some flavor of DNS, why redir at the registrar? Instead handle this stuff at your own DNS.

Also using MOD ReWrite as outlined above basically points all of the URL's to the same site with 100% of the same content, this will most likely trigger the dup content filter at G.

I use to do the same thing for a website I have and I got penalized by G.