Domain Name Causing Problems?

Redirects

[beckyc]

I use a domain name that redirects to another URL (I am not cheating - it is unfortunately how the domain name works). Could this be causing problems with Google?

My site keeps dropping off of Google every few days.

[DerekH]

Redirects how?

I used to have a site with a meta-refresh on the domain name, pointing to a free ISP - that was fine.

I still have two that use Frame-based redirection of the domain name (ie a captive frameset with the free ISP page in the frame, plus a no-frames click here that Google indexes)

Both those approaches gave me stable listings, though not as fast to see changes as a properly hosted domain.
DerekH

[beckyc]

It is an ISP redirect - a free ISP as you use.

My domain has vanished again today. It has been up for a couple of days but is nowhere to be seen!

[AAnnAArchy]

Domains are cheap. Hosting for a small site is cheap now too. You'd be so much better off in the long run if you bought a domain and some hosting.

[The Cricketer]

My site has been up for nearly 3 years. During this time it has been hosted with my ISP. Because the free ISP domain name was not personal enough I bought one from another company which I just pointed to my ISP web space homepage (unframed). During those years there have been no problems with doing this really.

There was a problem from google's end though. The Google index included both pages i.e. www.myboughtdomain.co.uk and www.myfreeisp.co.uk/index.htm

Although it didn't duplicate the page in any one particular search, both 'pages' were in the index and when doing a link: search, both domains returned the same results.

In the last 4 months things have changed. It looks like Google has tried to eradicate domain names which point to web space in this way. www.myboughtdomain.co.uk is no longer in the index and no longer shows any links.

I first noticed the links disappear when typing in link:www.myboughtdomain.co.uk and then about a month later it disappeared from the index.

Whether a coincidence, or related directly or indirectly www.myfreeisp.co.uk/index.htm has also now disappeared which is extremely annoying.

Funnily enough I was aiming to move to a new paid host anyway and in a short time I will transfer my www.myboughtdomain.co.uk to the new account where it will be attached to every page in my website.

This is probably the best option, definitely in my case. Whether or not I'll see my index page back is another matter.

[DerekH]

I moved one domain, affected like this, to virtual hosting on 19th December. That's to say that all the "free ISP pages" now appeared under the domain name, rather than through this one-single-link bottleneck from domain name to free ISP.

It was 95% indexed in 5 days.
Many pages are spidered daily.

Be sure to put <META ROBOTS="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW"> on the old free ISP pages, or link them to your new site and turn FOLLOW on.

It will be money well spent, though curiously, the day I set the domain up, loads of old free ISP pages that had been URL only for a month (that's why I bought virtual hosting) suddenly reappeared.
Sod's Law!
DerekH

[The Cricketer]

When I finally move I'm planning to put 301 redirects into place. Hopefully this will do the job.