Duplicate Content?

Two domain names pointing to the same content.

[Roscoe]

I have a website - www.domain.com which is doing ok, however I know that some people are typing in www.domain.co.uk - and tying to get to me. So I've purchased it, and have asked the ISP to point the .co.uk domain towards the .com

The possible problem is the URL address does not change i.e. the website can be view with the address staying as www.domain.co.uk.

So the pages can be seen on both www.domain.com/pages.html and www.domain.co.uk/pages.html

Will this affect my rating?
Both are on same IP address - is this duplicate content?
Should I try and get the ISP to modify the redirect method (its a IIS (no htaccess system))?

THanks for any advice.

Roscoe..

[SevanB2]

That sounds like duplicate content, but you would NOT get penalized for it. It is the kind of duplicate content that would get detected by the filters and only the one site having more links will survive. You don't have to worry about it. That is a legit way of owning two domains.

But if your prupose is to have both domains listed, then you will need to place different content on each.

[scoobontour]

Until recently I had a major problem with 2 domain names pointing to the same content/website. Initially (6 months) this wasn't a problem except that 1 url had built up a number of links and dmoz entry, and the new url had done the same. Google was a little strange about it, on many occasions it would treat the 2 domains as one in the listings, and on others in the same top 10 it would include entries for both. Even wackier was that the PR for one was obviously higher so it would get refreshed quicker. But what was for certain was google was confused, and what I didn't want was to be penalised.

So anyway in the end i did a formal redirect at dns level from old domain name to the other. The listings have now jumped, from nowhere to top 10, links and references all combined within 2 days.

[sloney]

I have a similar potential problem. My main site www.domain.co.uk is doing fine and last year I purchased www.myactualcompanyname.co.uk which simply redirects to www.domain.co.uk.

All was fine until December/January when Google started seeing www.myactualcompanyname.co.uk as a separate site with entries alongside www.domain.co.uk in SERPS and all the same links.

I get an increasing amount of traffic through it and do not want to lose it however, reading posts about sites being dropped by Google for duplication, I am extremely worried that this will happen to me.

This despite the fact that very well known companies employ this technique (eg. one well known DIY company started by Mr B & Mr Q),

Can anyone reassure me? Thanks in advance

[johnwards]

I'm not sure if this helps but I have domain.com and domain.co.uk but I would rather people browsed the site all using the .co.uk domain name.

I have this in my html:

<base href="http://www.domain.co.uk/">

And make sure all my links start with a /

This way if you vist thru the .com the links then point you to the .co.uk.

I belive this forces the spider to do the same.

HTH

John

[scoobontour]

yep did the same thing initally
but if you want the benefit of all links and refences, and so that of course includes PR to point to 1 place you need to redirect, and not using meta refresh either.
Besides which as long as the user enters any domain name and then end up at the same site thats fine. Unless of course you want multiple entries and are trying to spam...

[johannamck]

You can set up a 301 on IIS using this asp code (sorry for the poor code formatting)

<%
sQueryString = Request.QueryString
if Trim(CStr(sQueryString)) <> "" then sQuestionMark = "?" else sQuestionMark = ""

If Instr(lcase(Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_HOST")), "co.uk") > 0 then
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
Response.addheader "Location", "http://www.yourdotcomdomain.com" & Request("URL") & sQuestionMark & sQueryString
Response.End
end if
%>

The code is simplified because I took out some extra code I had put in there, to do the non-www. to www. redirection etc. as well.

I set up my domains months ago and this method above has served me well, putting all necessary 301's in place. No problems with google or otherwise.

I put it into my header include file that is referenced in all asp files. I guess it could be put into global.asa instead.

Once you've set it up, use the server header checker

[searchengineworld.com...]

to verify that the pages report a 301 redirect.

[Hissingsid]

Hi johannamck,

Thanks for that. Is asp the only way to do this on a shared IIs server? On Apache it is easily done on a sitewide basis using .htaccess but eh IIs server I'm on for one of my sites does not allow this.

If asp is the way to go any chance you could please post the non-www to www redirect code.

Many thanks

Sid

[martinibuster]

Google can resolve the correct url. Some months it can put it in there twice, otherwise it usually figures it out.

Although I discourage the practice, I've not yet seen it harm anyone. It's a good practice to make Google's job of understanding your website as simple as possible.

[Hissingsid]

Google can resolve the correct url

How does it do that if it gets back a 200 OK from both of them?

Also have you seen duplicates in there recently. I've got one site completely dropped (still in index but not in SERPs) and I'm convinced its a dupe problem. By the way I've discounted the other Florida/Austin possibilities.

Best wishes

Sid

[martinibuster]

Also have you seen duplicates in there recently.

Not in a month (speaking of mine).

I've got one site completely dropped (still in index but not in SERPs) and I'm convinced its a dupe problem.

If Google could goof up and list the same site twice, it's in the realm of possiblities that Google could goof up and not list the site at all. Only a Google engineer can give you a definitive answer.

I haven't personally experienced an adverse effect, although I've seen a rare anomaly. But as I said before, it's a good idea to make things as simple as possible for Google to understand.

[PhoneGuy]

I have a similar situation and have done very well with each of my domains for a few years now.

Basically, I have a main site with 1000's of products but I also host smaller sites (product subsets) dedicated to a specific manufacturer or group of products. In many cases the main site comes up as well as the dedicated site for specific terms.

I am hoping that the new algos don't turn this upside down for me.

Any thoughts on this?