Duplicate Content and Dive Centers - Part 2

Many Domain Names - One Site

Many dive centers and other small businesses will often purchase different domain names that are either related to their dive shop or are a common misspelling etc etc. So what should you really be doing with these domains to not have duplicate content across many domain names and confuse your divers?

I realize that his is a bit geeky and slightly complicated so here's an example that will hopefully make this clearer.

For this site I own three different domains.

engageyoudivers.com
scubawebsitedesign.com
engagemydivers.com

If someone types in any of these three I want them all to bring my visitor to engageyourdivers.com. 

This is what many dive centers want to accomplish.  But if you do it incorrectly, you may be hurting yourself in the search engines and confusing your divers.

Example 1 - Done Incorrectly.

If you look in your web hosting control panel, there will probably be an option to "park" your domain onto your main site.  Seems simple right?  Just do that and it's finished.  Wrong.

Why? - If I were to do what with scubawebsitedesign.com, then is someone typed that into the address bar the engageyourdivers website would show up, BUT the address bar would read http://www.scubawebsitedesign.com, which is not what I want.  This makes a duplicate content site and also dilutes my pagerank.  It would also confuse people as to what the name of the site actually was.

Example 1 - Done Correctly.

Set up a new web hosting account, different from the one your current site is on. This account can be blank - no need for a website or content in it. It doesn't matter if it's on the same server (or even IP address). But it does have to be a separate account.

Note: Most hosting accounts let you have multiple or unlimited domains so you can just set this up in your account like you would if you were going to have a totally separate site. This won't cost you any more money.

1. Create a .htaccess file for your new account. (This file only needs one line in it)
2. Put this in there:  Redirect 301 / http://www.engageyourdivers.com/ (Substitute your domain name)
3. That's it.
4. Test it by typing http://www.scubawebsitedesign.com

Adding additional Domains:

Now that this is set up, any and all "additional domains" are easy. 

All you need to do is park them onto the account that you just created in your web host manager.  So engagemydivers.com should be parked on (Point To) scubawebsitedesign.com

Here's a diagram of what this looks like:

Quick Note:  I used scubawebsitedesign to execute the redirect specifically for SEO purposes as that's a search term I want to be found for.  It won't give you a big boost in rankings but every little bit helps..

Still Confused?  Send me a message or leave a comment.

Part three of this series will look at dive course and dive gear descriptions and how you can minimize the effects of duplicate content.