Forum Moderators: mack
My question is: Does hosting the second site as an alias create any problems for me in the long run? Once I move it to its own hosting account, will this affect things like ranking?
First of all, you should realize that with both sites serving the same content, only one should appear in the search engines. That being said, here are some things to consider:
1) Does each site have its own individual backlinks?
2) Is the second site a type-in domain, or a common misspelling of the main site?
If 1 is the case, I would create an .htaccess file to permanently redirect the second domain to the primary one. I would also suggest contacting the sites with links to the second domain, and get them to change the links to the first domain.
If 2 is the case, I would suggest also creating the 301 redirect to the main domain. Don't just leave them pointing to the same place (both returning status code 200), since you are potentially asking for a duplicate content penalty should the search engines spider both domains.
If neither 1 or 2 is the case, I would consider either leaving the second domain dormant (not pointing to anything at all), or possibly creating a 404 error should someone try to access the domain. (You can also do this with .htaccess, and even create a custom 404 page directing them to the main domain).
Some would suggest putting a 1 page website up with the second domain, and creating a link to it so it gets spidered by Google, even though there won't be a lot of content. This is insurance against the sandbox (aging delay) for showing up in the search results seen in Google.
That way, when your resources grow, you'll have a 'fresh' domain to work from.
If you need help with .htaccess or figuring out what 301 redirects are, spend some time in the Apache Forum [webmasterworld.com].
If they both have different content then there will be little problem, but be careful if the sites interlink in any way.
