Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I have many domain names that I want to use via domain forwarding. I have a single hosting account, generic domain name. I have several domains with Godaddy using free domain forwarding pointed at specific folders off the generic domain name.
So, Domain: "http://generic.tld" has a hosting account.
Domain: "SpecificDomain1.tld" when hit with browser forwards un-masked to:
"http://generic.tld/specificdomain1/"
Domain: "SpecificDomain2.tld" when hit with a browser forwards masked to:
"http://generic.tld/specificdomain2/" But, with masking, the browser still shows "SpecificDomain2.tld" in the address bar.
Sorry to be so basic with this, I'm sure you guys know what i'm talking about. My question is, what affect does this have on my number of URL's and quality or ability of search ranking in Google and others.
I have over 800 pages of content. It seems as though Google will never give me more than about 45 URL's to my main generic doimain.
If I want all 800 pages to show up in Google, how do I get past that.
Is it because of the domain forwarding?
Is it better to use masked or un-masked?
Do I need to have all my domains running without any forwarding to get decent search results. I do have one domain that is forwarded with masking, shows up in all engines with keywords and all. But seems like others are not working as well. Any insight on what I need to do to get all my 800 pages into google?
[edited by: ciml at 1:29 pm (utc) on April 3, 2005]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]
I had three sites with URL forwarding on (using a frame to hold the original URL and the frame content to display the forwarded page), using a <noframes> section to move Google across to the forwarded page.
Before Christmas two of the sites did really badly, gradually falling out of the index. The other stayed doing well.
I moved one of the failing sites to its own virtual host, and it shot back up the listing and has done brilliantly ever since. 99% of the 420 pages are indexed, and Google visits daily.
The other failing site I left alone, and after 3 months, it spluttered back into life and all the pages (37 pages) are indexed, but Google visits rarely, except the URL forwarding page, which it visits daily.
My own take on this, which isn't easy to explain, is that the URL forwarding creates a bottleneck - there's only one way into the site from outside, and that's via the URL forwarder. Evidence on my site seems to lead me to think that such a bottleneck - just one way in - discourages Google from indexing the site at the forwarded address. With virtual hosting, though, the homepage is no longer a forward to one page in the site, the homepage is a 12-way split into the 12 main sectons of the site, and Google wanders in much more readily.
One would think that Page Rank, links and all that would mean that a site with forwarding, and a site on a virtual host, would get treated approximately the same, but I have a deep-seated feeling that the forwarder's bottleneck (one high PR link to the forwarded site) is somehow less effective than a virtual hosts (many lower PR links all over the site).
That's make take on it, and if anyone understands my poor description, then I've done more than I ever realised...
DerekH
Since posting I found a cPanel host with unlimited domains. So now I can have actual DNS with my own control and point all my domains to a folder in that cPanel hosting account. Wow, my other host charges $20 ea. lifetime and limits me to only 6.
I think your post sizes up my thoughts too. Without any proof, I just logically knew it wouldnt be as good as having actual DNS right to a shared host account folder. Thanks so much for the reply. Have a good Day.
