Domain Name Forwarding and Search Engines

Domain Name Forwarding and Search Engines

You own a single site, but a number of domains - maybe you wanted to make sure that even if your customers misspelled your domain name they'd get to your site, or perhaps you'd like to have a specific domain name direct to a page deep within your site - whatever the case, there are some important considerations surrounding multiple domain names routing to a single site and search engine submission.

Search engines like Google and Yahoo won't always wait around for you to submit a site - Googlebot and Yahoo Slurp (which you may recognize from your server logs if your site has been up for a few weeks) are constantly running across new domain names to index. It's a good thing - unless your domain names are being forwarded incorrectly.What constitutes an incorrect forward?Many major domain name registrars offer a "Domain Name Forwarding" feature which, while it may be the easiest way to forward your domain, can cause some real problems when search engine spiders like Googlebot or Yahoo Slurp visit your site.Here's what happens:

The search engine spider pulls your domain name (usually from http://www.whois.sc/)

The spider visits your website, using the domain name forwarded through your domain registrar

Your domain registrar is using a Temporary Redirect (most likely because it's assumed that you'll point the domain name to a new hosting account sooner or later), frames, or other incorrect forwarding method

The spider indexes your site

But what went wrong? Your domain name registrar did its job, and sent the spider to your actual site when it visited the domain name you registered. The spider did its job and read the content of the page or pages it found, and then incorporated them into the search engine index. Everything is copacetic, right?When the search engine spider read the page, it associated it with your alternate domain name, the one that was supposed to be forwarding to your primary domain name. This means that the search engine has effectively tracked down what it will quickly identify as duplicate content - and, after years of dealing with sites trying to sell Viagra on the sly by duplicating their content across hundreds of pages, today's search engines will respond to duplicate content with a drop in your ranking.Given enough time, you may find your site has been banned from the search engine index.What's the solution?Your domain names need to be routed from the domain name registrar to a hosting account - from the hosting account (and this varies - consult your technical support provider for the account) you'll need to set a Permanent Redirect to your main site.A Permanent Redirect is logged as a code '301' (thence, it is often referred to as a '301 Permanent Redirect') - if you have multiple domain names which you wish to direct to a single site, it may be especially useful for you to consider a website hosting account which offers multiple add-on domains and subdomains to accommodate all the domain names you'll need to forward.

6 Strategies Overcome Link & linkdomain search After Yahoo & Bing Merger

6 Strategies Overcome Link & linkdomain search After Yahoo & Bing Merger

It is official! Microsoft and Yahoo! have joined ranks in an attempt to grab some of Google's users and stop this search engine giant's web domination.

Through the merger, Yahoo! users will now obtain their search results through Bing.While the amalgamation simplifies advertising platforms for marketers, and strengthens the fight against Google's authority, many webmasters walk away frustrated. Due to the 10-year contract, Yahoo! made some important changes and eliminated some of their advanced link data, which was, up until now, available through Yahoo! Search.At this time, Yahoo!'s Site Explorer service is still up and running, but marketers and webmasters will no longer receive results when initiating an advanced query on searches, using Yahoo!'s link: and linkdomain feature. Operators will have to find other solutions, such as tools those provided by SEOmoz. Other strategies to replace Yahoo!'s link: and linkdomain search commands include:

1. Switch To Linkscape Advanced Intelligence ReportsIncorporating Linkscape software for advanced reports, and applying filters right inside the interface can bring you much the same results as those obtained through Yahoo! link searches. Linkscape is a next-generation analysis tool offering a tremendous amount of links, enhanced metrics, anchor text detail, and much more.

2. Incorporate Open Site Explorer CSV ExportsNo registration is required when you want to use Open Site Explorer. You can use this tool to analyze backlinks, and search engine metrics based on inbound links, domain authority, and the quality of the domains linking to your site. You will see lots of links, but only in the views exported directly from the Application Program Interface. To deep filter, you will need the CSV export software, plus a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel. Simply export your results to your spreadsheet and filter your links, or any other modifier you are considering.

3. Link Search Through Yahoo! Site Explorer CSV ExportsYahoo! 's Site Explorer can enable link searching, just like Open Site Explorer CSV. Unfortunately, it has a 1,000 link limit, which is about 1/3 the size of Linkscape, and 1/10 of Open Site Explorer's perimeter. Since the Yahoo!- Bing merger, Yahoo's query services have been greatly reduced. Presently, the only remaining option SEOs have is to request links for numerous pages on a single domain. That can still help them obtain a good insight of sites with external links equal, or greater than 1,000.

4. Free Majestic SEO ReportsMajestic-SEO, a UK-based search engine, provides competitive link intelligence services and tools for backlink research to SEO specialists around the world. Because of their unique set of crawlers, Majestic-12 (MJ-12) will add new links and pages to an active, ongoing index. There are millions of websites on the Internet, and new ones are constantly being discovered. Many SEO specialists prefer Majestic, as they are dealing with a much larger dataset, and they can use similar filtering abilities as those offered through Linkscape.

5. Take Advantage Of SEOmoz Free APIIf you have some programming experience, you should take advantage of the free application programming interface (API) for link data offered by SEOmoz. This application can tell you the top 1,000 links associated with a page or domain sorted by Page Authority, the top 3 linking domains arranged by Domain Authority, the total number of links, and much more. This API is used, for example, to power Open Site Explorer, the Linkscape tool, and integrations with Brightedge, Conductor, Flippa, Hubspot, etc.

6. Until Further Notice - Yahoo! Search Is Still Up In Some RegionsYahoo! Search has been replaced by Bing in the USA and Canada, but is still up and running in some countries around the globe. For instance, Yahoo! Italy and Yahoo! India commands are still active, but will, most likely, also disappear as soon as Bing will be rolling out in those regions. The Bing take-over will probably be completed in 1 to 2 years.Of course, there are other options. Additional solutions include: Google's and Bing's Webmaster tools, Exalead, Blekko, and Alexa. Pioneers will be working fiercely to create even more advanced applications, changing the link research landscape