2 domain names point to 1 site - the .com goes supplemental

[Patrick_010]

Hello,

For one of my websites i have 2 different extensions.
.com and .nl

Now i noticed that my homepage for my .com PR5 site has arrived in Supplemental Hell a few days ago :-( However my homepage for the .nl site is still in the main index.

Will google see my website as duplicate content because im using .nl and .com?
Is there a way to solve this so that google see's .com and .nl as the same website?

Thank you for reading!

[WiseWebDude]

It depends on HOW you did it. I would redirect .pl to .com using a 301 permanent redirect ONLY. Do not EVER park the domains on top of each other or it WILL see both sites as the same and acquire a duplicate content penalty. I noticed this with text-link-ads a while back then they started using textlinkads and it resolves WITHOUT a 301 redirect to the same domain...it has killed them because of it. They used to be #1 for a long time, then when they did that BAM it dropped them. I had the same thing happen years ago on a new site I was screwing with so I know for a fact Google will drop your site like a hot potato if you are not using a proper 301 redirect.

[internetheaven]

Google will drop your site like a hot potato if you are not using a proper 301 redirect.

What Google considers to be a "proper 301 redirect" is also up for debate. MSN normally gets it right but Yahoo are completely hopeless with this still ...

[Patrick_010]

Both domain names point to 1 website. How do i add a 301 permanent redirect for a domain name?

[WiseWebDude]

Personally, I would do it from your registrar IF you can. Most let you do this now...forward the .pl domain to .com domain by clicking on domain name, forward, 301 to .com name...you can do it from your server as well. What is your server? Linux or Windows?

[Patrick_010]

Hello,

I send an email to my registrant asking on how i can do this. My server is hosted on linux and i have full access to this machine. What would be the best way? Use registrant or add the 301 redirect on my server?

[WiseWebDude]

I would use registrar to be on the safe side. If they don't have the feature, you will have to make an account for the .pl domain and put a 301 redirect of entire domain in the .htaccess file to the .com domain.

Put this in the .htaccess file for the .pl domain:

RedirectMatch permanent ^/ http://www.example.com/

[edited by: WiseWebDude at 2:42 pm (utc) on Dec. 13, 2007]

[Patrick_010]

Registrant is not an option as they are asking 20$ per domain to do a 301 :S

The website files are hosted on my own server.
the .nl and .com point to the same files on my server.
So i dont think i need any sort of acount to do this at my registrant?

I just have to make a htaccess file in my root folder and put your example code there?

Sorry kinda new to this.

[WiseWebDude]

Yes, make an .htaccess file in root .pl domain and put that code in it. OR, if you only have ONE hosting account and they are just both pointing to it, use this in same file:

RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^example.pl [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Someone correct me if I don't have that just right, please.