Advice required on duplicate content

permanent redirection issue

[NetSeek]

I'm currently re-writing a major non-profit US health site. They have a .org and a .com. Two years ago, they moved to a .com, and set up a perm redirect through the .org site, hoping that in time, Google would drop the .org and serve up only their .com site.

For the most part, my client enjoys top rankings for most key phrases (as market leader), but Google continues to only shows their .org, which although serving up the same content, has 0 PR. What's confusing is that their .com has a PR of 6, but doesn't appear in the listings. We want to remove the .org for good. Do we risk loosing all the rankings? I’m surely missing something simple, but rather than make a risky presumption, would rather seek advice first!

I guess there is a duplicate filter at work. Can anyone shed a little light on the possible ramifications of removing the .org.

It's an issue I've not been involved with before and would very much appreciate any advice from reliable sources.

Thanks
MB, London.

[MikeBeverley]

When you say you're using a permanent redirect do you mean you're using a 301 or are you using a meta refresh/javascript to forward users?

[NetSeek]

Mike

Thanks for your response. Our .org is running on a separate IP address. .org is actually a separate instance of the webserver, which runs a mini-website essentially, that issues a 301 permanent redirect to the web browser

It's the web's largest smoking cessation community site, so we are keen to sort this out soon!

I will email you more details.

Any reliable advice appreciated!

Thanks
MB, London.

[SyntheticUpper]

How come they're both market leaders, and non-profit?

[NetSeek]

My mistake: was non-profit until recently.