Redirects and the NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW Meta Tag

Preventing Google from indexing duplicate content?

[tlhmh1]

I have a number of domain names in one category point to a particular site of mine. I get a decent amount of type in traffic. I use domain name forwarding at GoDaddy (a redirect) to point to the real site so that the website's real URL pops up in the browser window.
For example...

Someone types in WidgetWorld.net. He is redirected to WidgetWorld.com. The browser shows WidgetWorld.com as the URL (I am not using domain name masking).

I recently discovered that both WidgetWorld.net and WidgetWorld.com are indexed. I am not sure how this happened since I cannot find any links to WidgetWorld.net on Google or AllTheWeb. I do not want WidgetWorld.net to be indexed. Nor do I want to get in trouble for duplicate content. I simply want to get type in traffic from a few other domain names.

As a test, I created a link to WidgetWorld.net on a different site called Website.com. When I clicked on the link to WidgetWorld.net that was on Website.com, I found that in PHP:

$_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"] = "WidgetWorld.net" (and not "Website.com")

...because of the redirect.

So I added this code to my header:

if ($_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"] == "http://www.widgetworld.net") {
echo '<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">';
}

This way, if Googlebot goes to WidgetWorld.net...

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">

...will be added to the header.

My questions are...

1) Will this prevent Google from indexing WidgetWorld.net? (What I want.)

2) The meta tag will not be present so long as Googlebot did not visit the site via WidgetWorld.net. If however, by some chance, Googlebot DOES visit via WidgetWorld.net, will this also prevent Google from indexing WidgetWorld.com, since WidgetWorld.net redirects to WidgetWorld.com? (What I DEFINITELY DON'T want.)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[nancyb]

I can't help with PHP, but I had a noindex,nofollow meta tag for googlebot for over a month and the site pages remained in the index. The next month I addded a 301 to the .htaccess file and the pages remained in the index until this past update.

To make sure you aren't penalized, I would do the 301 redirect AND get google to remove the pages [google.com...] (I hope this url is ok, if not, I apologize)

[tlhmh1]

Since GoDaddy is doing the redirect, I cannot control how it is done.

I simply cannot afford to pay for my webhosting company to "host" all of my domains so I can control the redirects.

[nancyb]

then just vist that google link and so you can get google to remove the page before they see it as a duplicate

[tlhmh1]

I am not concerned about removing the second URL as much as I am concerned that my script will end up causing Google to NOINDEX my primary URL, the page to which the second URL is redirecting.

Can anyone answer my question?

[jdMorgan]

tlhmh1,

Since there are (as you state) no incoming links to your .net domain, I just flat wouldn't worry about doing your scripted robots metatag. Since you are not "publicising" a secondary domain, there is no duplicate content.

Also, since there are no links to your .net domain, your scripted robots metatag should have no effect on the pages in your .com domain being indexed.

You don't have to pay to have alternate domain names hosted - All you have to do is set them up in your "zone file" - You host your site on a server, and map your domain(s) to the server's IP address. Using a 301 redirect on that server to "standardize" all requests to a single domain name will avoid duplicate content penalties and prevent visitors from bookmarking your alternate domains.

I've got .org and .com for one of my domains. Both domains point to the same server. Requests for the .com domain are external 301-redirected to the .org domain, because that's what we are (a nonprofit org). But visitors who "misremember" our domain name as "widgetsig.com" can still get to "widgetsig.org". It's been set up like this since March, with no ill effects in any SE.

Jim

[tlhmh1]

I am afraid, however, that there may be links out there to some of my domains that are redirecting (I own quite a few and I haven't checked them all.) I own them for type-in traffic. I do not want them indexed, nor am I trying to trick search engines.

Perhaps I just do not understand, but I do not have direct access to my server's zone file. My site is hosted by Pair Networks.

Help! I'm so confused!

[jdMorgan]

tlhmh1,

The short version of what I said is, "Don't worry about it".

Use the search engines to find links to your alternate domains, and try to get the site owners to link to your primary domain instead. Keep the redirect in place that redirects from .net to .com, and according to my experience with my site, you will be just fine.

Jim