Two domains for a single website is a problem?

[matrix_neo]

I registered two domains for the same website both the domains resolve in the same web directory one is keyword specific and other is brand specific. What I did wrong is I submitted both the domains to google. Last month my brand domain was listed on the second page for a key word pharse after the google update it is not listed but my keyword domain is listed in the third page. I want to use only my brand domain in the future. Still my brand domain is also listed in google but only for unique key words. What should I do now will there be any penalization for my doings? Please guide me. (My site is only a few months old)

[Marcia]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, matrix_neo.

Are there any inbound links to either of the domain names? If so, to which one?

[imagingideas]

I find this question relevant to a couple of sites I have also.

Situation 1

Client has two different domains for two different aspects of their business (house reblocking and underpinning). Currently I have both domains pointing to the same site. I was thinking about building separate doorway pages but I read that google does not like this. I was also planning to submit both domains to SE’s. It might be better to just put them on two seperate sites with the same front end but point to each other for content as required?

Situation 2

Client has a business with established country specific domain (PR4). A couple of months ago I added a top-level version of the same domain name (still not ranked). I had expected google to see them as being the same. How does google view such multiple domains pointing to the same site?

[matrix_neo]

My brand domain has about nine inbound links from pr2 pages and one link from pr4 page. Keyword domain also has a couple of pr2 links.

[matrix_neo]

When I do a search site:yourdomainname.com yourdomainname.com for my brandname domain (which is the one I want to keep) It shows only four pages excluding the home page. Keyword domain search shows all the pages indexed I doubt whether my brand name domain is dropped? Any thoughts on that? And how do I get my prefered url indexed?

Thanks
Matrix

[Marcia]

You can do a 301 redirect from the alternate domain name to the one you want to use, then get links changed to that. Do a site search on 301 redirect and also mod_rewrite.

IMHO there should be one domain for a site. There are sometimes good reasons to have another, like to cover mis-spellings or avoid losing type-in traffic, but the only way I know to safely do that is with a permanent redirect to the primary domain name. That avoids duplicate content showing up and avoids confusion.

[matrix_neo]

Hi Marcia,

Thanks. I found this searching this site.
<?
if( strtolower($HTTP_HOST)!="www.mydomain.net" ¦¦
strtolower($HTTP_HOST)!="mydomain.net" ){

header("Location: [mydomain.net");...]
exit;
}
?>

I am not a programmer I am web designer. Will this code Work for me? my site is hosted on php support server. Or should I contact my hosting providers to help me out(if they can do this redirect for me). Even I dont mind sacrificing the other domain name which is just keyword based.

Thanks
Punniya