Best way to redirect TLDs to .com

Hosting
1

Hi,

I’ve been building my site for a few months on a .com domain name and, now that I’m about ready to start promoting the site I have also bought the local TLD version of the domain name (.es) and have redirected it to the original .com url using what the domain registrar (1and1) calls a http redirect. This means that if anyone types in the “mydomainname.es” then they get to the “mydomainname.com” site and “mydomainname.com” domain shows up (ie its not masked).

Is there anything else I need to do ?

I’m thinking of possible problems with google for duplicate content.

Or what happens if someone links to the “mydomainname.es url” - do the links help with pagerank of the .com site?

Thanks

2

Search engines do not like sites with duplicate content. It would hurt you more than it would help you. The best type of redirect IMO is using your .htaccess file to do a 301 redirect. This tells search engines that this is a permanent redirection it would preserve your search engine ranking. Here is a page with very good information about how to accomplish what you want:

A 301 Redirect Guide for the Clueless!

3

Thanks for replying and for the link.

Can I just check that I’ve understood this correctly.

Does that mean that I have to leave the redirect as described in the post above and in addition add the 301 to the .htaccess ad shown in the link ?

Once this is done, then if someone links to the .es URL then google would recognise it as a link to the .com site - right ?

Another thing,

I have also noticed that if I try and use a “mydomainname.es/subdirectory/doc.html”
type URL it currently redirects to the “mydomainname.com” homepage

Will this also be fixed by the 301 redirect or is there something else I need to do

Thanks for helping out

4

All you need is the 301 redirect in your .htaccess file on the .es site and nothing else and it should also take care of the problem you are currently having as a request to mydomainname.es/subdirectory/doc.html should go to mydomainname.com/subdirectory/doc.html yes.

5

Thanks again,

Unfortunately this confuses me:

There is no .es site

Maybe I have explained myself badly. The .es domain name is just a new domain name that I want to point at the existing .com site (whilst maintaining the .com domain name )

6

The .es domain name does have to be hosted in order for you to place the .htaccess file on it.

7

You could put the DNS info of your existing server for the .es domain. Then, add the domain as an add-on domain, then add the .htaccess file (or use the control panel do set up the redirect).

8

Thanks both of you for replying.

So, whichever way I do it I need to set up a domain (or add-on domain) for the new .es domainname for this to work ??

9

For what Force Flow was saying depends on your web host. If your web host allows you to host multiple domains (most do allow a certain number of domains to be hosted at no extra cost) all you would need to do is update the dns for your .es domain to point to your existing host and then actually add the domain onto your account and put the .htaccess file in the approprate web directory. And yes this does have to be done first. You cannot just register the domain and that’s it. You have to actually have that domain hosted somewhere.

10

Thanks for having the patience to help me get my head round this !

I originaly had the impression that I just needed to redirect the new domain name from the registrar towards the existing .com site. Then I started to read about the duplicate content issues and got a bit confused.

All’s clear now tho. I’ve got a spare add on domain allowed on my hosting company so I’ll set that up with a .htaccess as you described.

Thank you

11

I believe you always can create a ticket to your support team and ask them to help you with redirect. That kind of redirect could be installed on the side of the server and I believe that will not be a problem for your company at all.

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