PDA

View Full Version : Duplicate Sites



subverted
19 Jun 2008, 11:49 AM
Simple question I think I know the answer already but just double checking: I did a site for someone on Godaddy hosting. The client switched domain names from a .com to a .net. Afterwards she called Godaddy, and they said they'd fix it so when you went to the .com it would go automatically to .net. What they actually was made it so whatever I upload to the .com ftp address goes directly to the .net as well, and I can't login to .net directly through ftp. Now there are duplicate sites. I told her that she should only publicise one of the sites or search engines might penalize her for having duplicates. I myself will only register the .net site into search engines.

edit: I put this in the wrong forum section. How do I delete this or move it? [moved for you by mod]

alvo
19 Jun 2008, 02:34 PM
You don't need to maintain two separate, identical sites, just the one you want to be the "real" site. Then log into the GoDaddy account for that domain and set the .com domain to forward to the .net domain (use unmasked forwarding). Now if someone types in .com they'll go to .net automatically and the URL in the address bar will be the .net one. This won't affect search engine rankings at all since there are no .com pages to index.