Question for the Internet Pro's

limeydal · 20 April 2006, 23:23

looking at getting a .com domain name registered for my photo work.
Not sure how it works though

If I have existing web space with my present ISP. can the new .com name be configered to that URL ?
Didnt know if you had to go with the same web hosting service who set up your .com name.

Basically when people enter the new .com name ,I want it to direct to my already established web site.

Hope I explained that right

cheers Dal

tcwozere · 20 April 2006, 23:34

yeah, it can be done.. You just need to upload the following as the index.html on your new site..

<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://whatever_your_established_webspace_is.com">
</head>

The timer is the 0..

limeydal · 21 April 2006, 00:38

Tony,
thanks (I think

Maybe the .com seller will give that service also
cheers dal

Andy Moore · 21 April 2006, 09:22

I buy my domain names through www.easily.co.uk. It is easy to set up web-forwarding, which is what you require, with Easily.

--Andy

MarkWildey · 21 April 2006, 09:25

Dal

Have you thought about www.pbase.com

I know its not what you asked but it works very well.

Regards

Mark

roycruse · 21 April 2006, 09:58

The best method of doing a redirect is to use php (if your web host supports it)

php will send only the http header and will redirect the client without having to load a page like the example above.

This is also the most search engine friendly way to do it and will prevent incurring any google penalties for duplicate content.

simply create a file called "index.php" and place it in the root of your new domain.

the content of the file should be this :-

PHP Code:



<? 
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("location: http://www.rib.net");
?>

Or this :-

PHP Code:



<? 
header("HTTP/1.1 307 Temporary Redirect");
header("location: http://www.rib.net");
?>

Obviously change the location to your web page.

Use the first example for a permanent re-direct - this will have the effect of telling search engines that the page has moved permanently and that they should stop attempting to index this address. The second example will tell the search engine that the page is temporarily located at the alternate address and that they should periodically check back here to see if it has changed. This is useful if you plan to host an alternative site at any time in the future.

If your hosting package does not support php - you cannot use this method.

I would suggest http://www.supanames.com as the best place to get hosting from - they operate a pretty much self service type arrangement that really keeps costs down and means you can make any changes or upgrades that you need yourself from an online control panel.

Richard B · 21 April 2006, 12:25

You shouldn't have to do a redirect - this is inconvenient as you have two sites to maintain.

Your .com registrar should have an FAQ on how to use their own redirect, and your ISP should have an FAQ on the absolute path to your web space. use the second bit of info with the method in the first, and they do all the work for you. That's the magic of DNS!

roycruse · 21 April 2006, 14:39

Do NOT forward 2 domain names to the same website with DNS !!!

Having two separate addresses pointing at the same website - will cause you to be penalised heavily by google (or even deleted from the index completely) for duplicate content.

Re-directing with http headers is the correct way to preserve your position in the search engines.

It also gives you the flexibility to put a different site on the new domain if at a later date your needs change.

Its not really having two sites to maintain - its one site and a single file on the other that you never need to touch.

Alex Brown · 21 April 2006, 15:11

Hello Dal,

Since you're already with cox.net, it may be worth asking them what they charge to register and host a domain for you - if they can do that without too much expense, it'd then be worth asking them if they can set up your domain to point directly at your pages on their servers. This way you get away without any redirect or any other webpage forwarding system.

-Alex

dctucker · 21 April 2006, 15:22

I suspect the previous responses MAY be making things more complicated than necessary. It sounds like you don't have a site to use a redirect on. Go to www.godaddy.com (or another registrar) and buy your domain name. You then need to point that domain name to your ISP's servers, on the admin page of the registrar (GoDaddy). Your ISP will be able to help you with this, it's typically something like NS1.ISP.COM and NS2.ISP.COM or the like. Then your ISP has to do some setup to point the domain to your site.

It may not work this way if you're using a "residential" ISP like Comcast or Verizon, with their included free web hosting space. In that case, it's probably worthwhile thinking about transferring your site to a different host. They're a dime a dozen, typically <$5-$6 USD/month for what I might expect your needs to be if you prepay for 1 year. You'll also get 20+ email addresses at yourdomain.com. I just checked GoDaddy's hosting Here. , $3.59/month on a 12 month pre-pay for a small site without tons of traffic, 500 email addresses and domain name for $1.99. The alternative is to have a registrar set up a pointer for you to redirect your domain to the free web host address. Register.com provides this service for $49/year. It's cheaper to copy the files over and host the site properly...

dctucker · 21 April 2006, 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex Brown

Hello Dal,

Since you're already with cox.net, it may be worth asking them what they charge to register and host a domain for you - if they can do that without too much expense, it'd then be worth asking them if they can set up your domain to point directly at your pages on their servers. This way you get away without any redirect or any other webpage forwarding system.

-Alex

Here's their answer to that http://support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp...ntredirect.asp

Check out the Web Forwarding link on the registrar they recommend. That'll work for you.

roycruse · 21 April 2006, 16:23

dctucker - if you follow your suggestions and point a second domain name at an existing web hosting package you WILL be penalised by googles duplicate content filter and possibly even deleted from their index all together.

Do a google search on "google duplicate content filter" if you don't believe me.

Pointing multiple domain names at the same website can prevent a page from being indexed by google for months - even years !!!

I'm not going to bother to say it again - choose to ignore my warning at your own risk...

Richard B · 21 April 2006, 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by roycruse

I'm not going to bother to say it again - choose to ignore my warning at your own risk...

Roy, whilst I don't want to contradict you, this isn't what happens. (Of course, this is all dependant on whether Google ranking is a requirement for the site or not!)

I can't comment on Google ranking as it's not my area of expertise, but certainly deletion from the index does not happen, and I can show this with a number of sites which have multiple domain names.

roycruse · 21 April 2006, 17:44

If you have 2 identical pages, both indexed and listed in google from different domain names - then you are simply lucky that the duplicate content has not yet been spotted.

Either that or google have dramatically changed the way they do things and none of the SEO world know about it yet. (unlikely)

Many many sites have lost their listings in google and cannot get them back due to a mirror of the site being set up - it is a common problem.

P.S. - contradict away - I have no problem with people opposing my posts - I love debate - its how we learn

Richard B · 21 April 2006, 18:16

From what I've seen, only one URL appears in searches, I suspect that for one reason or another the .com is indexed and not the .org and other TLDs which may point to the same page(s).

roycruse · 21 April 2006, 18:26

The others have been delisted.

Not a problem you might say - until its your main site that gets delisted and a mirror site that takes precedence. You have no control over which site google will remove from its listings and which it will leave.

If you ever change the content on one of the pages so they are no longer duplicates it will be extremely hard to ever get google to re-index the duplicate domains that have been blocked by the duplicate content filter.

I have read reports of people still struggling after over a year to get the blocked domain to be re-indexed by google.

Richard B · 21 April 2006, 18:49

Ah... there's no mirror site involved... just several TLDs pointing to one site.

donutsina911 · 21 April 2006, 18:52

Roy's correct, although as RB says, if a google ranking isnt important then it doesnt matter at all. Most other engines arent quite as officious, although without google you'd be limiting yourself to circa 25% of web searches....

roycruse · 21 April 2006, 19:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard B

Ah... there's no mirror site involved... just several TLDs pointing to one site.

There is no mirror site - but to google - you are presenting a single site under multiple addresses - it will se it as duplicate content.

The easiest way round this is to have some dynamic content near the top of every page.

It can be as simple as a random quote or piece of news - as long as it changes everytime the page is loaded not only will google not see it as duplicate pages - but also will think your page updates regularly and re-index it more often.

Richard B · 21 April 2006, 19:36

Cheers - good tip on the content