2nd Domain redirecting to main site

what are the solutions

[sadierae]

I have a client that I've started SEO for. I just recently found out they they also have another domain that redirects to the site that I'm optimizing.

Can this hurt my process? What should I do to work around the problem? I'm not sure they're going to be up for adding different content to the other url. What should I do?

[tigger]

if it's got a mirror site then yes, if your not going to be working with it then set up URL Forwarding

[sadierae]

How do you set up a url forwarding?

[tigger]

You need to contact whoever the domain was purchased through and tell them to forward the domain to www.whatever and they may ask for the IP address of the site

[Marcia]

Won't it create a problem with both domain names showing up with the same content?

I just went through this with one site, finding out there's a second domain name the site owner wanted promoted that was pointing to the same index page. Google's got them both, showing the same PR and links, but now the second is hosted separately with a different index page, and unique content coming up for interior pages.

It turns out another site that's coming up, not indexed anyplace yet, also has two additional domain names pointing to it - another surprise.

I haven't really found a definitive answer for this issue, it's still very confusing. If duplicate content is a problem, so only one site can be promoted - especially with Google, eventually keeping the one with the higher PR and dropping the others, what's the point of having additional domains?

[tigger]

-what's the point of having additional domains?

1 - miss spellings
2 - com & co.uk
3 - keyword used domian & company domain redirect to marketing domain

I'm sure there's more but I'm burried in log's right now :)

[sadierae]

Yes Marcia I agree its very confusing! I also now have a prospect who has about 15 other domains that redirect to his main homepage.

I also thought that having domains that are .org, .net or misspelled and redirect to the main homepage would still be considered spam. Now to throw in a kicker this prospect has a dynamic site. The home page is not but the rest of the site is. Would the best bet be to semi-unique create content for the other 14 domains and have links to the internal pages of the main site?

[tigger]

using URL forwarding for .net .org .com .whatever would not be classed as spam