Its more work than it’s worth… plus you’ll kill your SEO ranking by duplicating content. It’s better to forward the domains… ie, .net is forwarded to .com. Is there a reason you’d like the .net to remain?
Thread Starter
Tokant
(@tokant)
Thanks for the answer. I wasn’t fully aware of the SEO issue. Thanks for clearing that up.
There’s printed material (posters, postcards, etc.) showing the .net address, so that’s why i’d like to avoid using a webforward.
Ah… the printed materials piece shouldn’t be that big a deal. If someone types in .net and is forwarded to .com, they most likely wouldn’t even notice. The average web user isn’t that observant.
What you are essentially looking to do is mirror the domains. Some web hosting companies, such as Dreamhost, offer this as a service, so check with your hosting company. However, to avoid SEO problems you’d have to add a lot of code to your site such as rel="canonical" tags to tell search engines what’s real and what’s a “copy”. As I mentioned, more work than it’s worth.
Companies often change domain names and what not if the company name itself has to change… We’ve done it a number of times for different clients. Using 301 redirects to point a user to the new domain name is really the best option… and most of those companies have tons of printed material with their old domain name on it!
Best of luck!
Thread Starter
Tokant
(@tokant)
A webforward was my first suggestion too and what i am still trying to convince my client to do. With your information to back it up, i have a stronger case 🙂
Have a nice weekend and thanks for taking time to respond!
