Multiple Domain name

Question

I have a customer that been on the web for some time. They have bought a domain name that describe it product, and a second one more up to date. Now that company has evolved to something more general and has bought a 3rd domain - something like:

1. vegetables.com (2005)
2. ecolo-vegetables.com (2006)
3. good-health-eating.com (2009)

Here are my questions:

1. What is the bet way to get all those domains under the new name?
2. The new name is unknown to search engine and other linker, I don't want to lose the ranking, so what is the best way to keep that ranking?
3. Can I point URLs to the "best" ranked domain?
4. What append to the backlinker? they link to wich domain ?
5. The new domain has a "-" in the name... wich is really good to SEO but a little unnatural to type, should I get the no dash version too?

n.b. It make sens to redirect all the domain under the same, but will you choose the oldest (with modrewrite) or the newest but with no life under it's belt (so it dont exist anywhere in search engine)

another p.s. Some will tell me to redirect with .htaccess, but should i change the dns to point to the last .com. wich solution is better

Answer 1

I'll give this a go.

1. You could possibly have redirects or just allow the DNS of the domain to point to the new (desired) website.

2. It's not hard to understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization) nowadays - ensuring you have the correct meta tags and other SE info will give you a big helping hand. There isn't any way of transferring SE ranks.

3. That's possible. You could have ABCDEF.COM at number 3 on google, but then set ABCDEF.COM to redirect to GHIJKL.COM.

4. If you set up redirects, and the new site has the same content as the old one, there is the possiblity of setting up your DNS and your redirect to redirect to the new version of the previous page on the new website. ( I don't think I worded that very well, hope you catch my drift )

5. Out of pure experience I'd say yes, get both. That way you can market to your customer audience as ABCDEF.com, but show to SEs as AB-CD-EF.COM.

Answer 2

Are all three sites "Different" or do they point to the same website/content?

1. Use 301 Redirects to redirect your old domain names to the new domain names. If all domains are pointing to the same website, make sure you also use the Canonical Tag on all your pages.
2. If you 301 Redirect from the old domain names / urls, your rankings will be transfered to your new domain/pages. (the only exception to this may be any extra points you get from embedded keywords in your old domain names).
3. You should point old urls to your "new" urls/domain. Rankings and link juice should/will be transfered to the new urls/domain.
4. Ideally all your backlinks should update their links to the new domain, but it doesn't really matter. If the old domains are 301 redirecting to the new domain anyway, point to the old domain is just like pointing to the new domain.
5. Definitely get the no-dash version of the domain as well and just have it 301 redirect to the actual domain you want to target.

Answer 3

Here is the best answer i got from this link

302 and 301 Redirects

When a request for a page or URL is made by a browser, agent or spider, the web server where the page is hosted checks a file called '.htaccess'. This file contains instructions on how to handle specific requests and also plays a key role in security. The '.htaccess' file can be modified so that it instructs browsers, agents or spiders that the page has either temporarily moved (302 redirect) or permanently moved (301 redirect). It is usually possible to implement this redirect without messing with the '.htaccess' file directly, using your web host's control panel instead.

From a search engine perspective, 301 redirects are the only acceptable way to redirect URLs. In the case of moved pages, search engines will index only the new URL, but will transfer link popularity from the old URL to the new one so that search engine rankings are not affected. The same behavior occurs when additional domains are set to point to the main domain through a 301 redirect.

And the last word : from this link that just confirm what i know know !

First off, ensure you're using "301 redirects" rather than "302 redirects" or the link juice (PageRank) won't transfer to the destination URL. You can verify that 301s (not 302s) are in place by using a "server header checker" like this one. Only a 301 tells engines the previous URL has moved permanently and thus forwards the page's link equity to the new location.