Do I really need a 301 redirect?

[tekkie]

I have what is probably a very simple problem, I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around it because it's so simple.

I have a website which talks about 2 items. I've just bought another domain that refers to one of the items and want it to point to the part of my website that refers to that item. Since I don't have a second website - just want to point the new domain to an existing domain, do I even need a redirect? I've pointed a domain name to an existing web site before (not a 301 redirect) but not to an internal page of an existing web site.

Example: www.dogcatsite.com is the existing site. Part of it is devoted to dogs, i.e. www.dogcatsite.com/dogs and part of it is devoted to cats, i.e. www.dogcatsite.com/cats . I just bought the domain name www.dogheaven.com. When someone types in www.dogheaven.com, I want them to go to www.dogcatsite.com/dogs .

What's the best way to do this without getting dinged for duplicate content in the search engines?

Thanks.
Tekkie

[dklynn]

tekkie,

First, you need to point your new domain to your old website.

Then PARK or ADDON your second domain

If PARKED, it will be parked on the DocumentRoot so you'll need to Redirect and have it point to the dog directory of the main domain (PARK will automatically use your main's DocumentRoot) and use mod_rewrite to look at the {HTTP_HOST} variable (for the second domain) and then redirect the {REQUEST_URI} to the old domain and dog directory.

If ADDON, it will be a subdomain of the main domain which can be pointed at the dog directory as its DocumentRoot. Just do that and the problem is solved for you.

Regards,

DK