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Hi Umar,

Thanks for your answer! I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here.

Let me explain: my company is in town X. I want it to be found by people in town X.

My potential client also lives in town X. But Google says he lives in town Y. Because his IP address tells that to them.

It seems that I'm lower in the search results than I would have been if the client was located in X, as he should. Or am I wrong here?

Cheers,
Hans

Hi,

If I understand correctly, Google provides search results based on the location of the user. That's fine, because most of my clients are local.

But if I look at my own search results, Google thinks I'm in a totally different town. Most likely based on my IP address.

Of course I can solve that for myself, but the same goes for my potential clients.

Is there a way to deal with this, from an seo perspective? For instance find out where most of the the IP providers are located and target that location?

Hi Brian,

This seems to be the same problem I am facing with one of my clients. Maybe the answer to my question helps a little: http://moz.com/community/q/cname-vs-301-redirect

Your situation most likely will lead to duplicate content too. A 301-redirect seems to be the best solution here. Hopefully your hoster is willing to cooperate (and if not, maybe you should look for another one).

Hans

Hi Robert,

Thanks so much for your response! You really have been of great help. I'll try to arrange things the way you proposed.

Great to see people are willing to help each other here

Cheers,
Hans

Hi Robert,

Thanks again for answerring and also for your understanding. I really appreciate that!

I'm new here in Moz, but what I like is the general intention to do things 'as they should be done'. That's exactly what I like to do myself (being a single entrepeneur and webdesigner trying to become better in seo btw).

But I also have to be realistic. If I let the hoster remove all the 'domain pointers' (or how should I call them?) and that would lead to their main site dropping in Google, that would not make them happy.

I'll try to be more concrete then. There is a main site, www.hetzuiden.nl. Doing pretty well in Google for some terms, but they want to do better.

If you look in OSE, you see domains like www.hetzuiden.eu, www.hetzuiden.be and www.vochtweringsbedrijf.nl as linking domains. Low DA, but still. If you visit these sites, you are in fact looking at the main site. Only the domain name stays visible in the browser.

If you visit www.vochtweringsbedrijf.nl in OSE you see backlinks too. Arranged by the SEO guy before me.

All together not impressive, but it could make a difference I guess. Especially because the duplicates are containing the same keywords. or am I thinking wrong here?

I hope the above explanation makes it easier to send me in the right direction

One concrete question: You made it clear that CNAME is not the way to go. Is the 'A record solution' also a no go?

Thanks a lot,

Hans

Could anyone advice me, reading the above, what the right direction is?

1. Keeping the situation as it is. Duplicate content is not preferred, but it's not a crime either. And I'm not unintentionally harming my client by making the wrong choice now.

2. Continue with finding a solution for the situation. Whether that's via CNAME, A record or something else?

Thanks,
Hans

Hi Highland,

Thanks for the explanation. I must admit these expressions are new to me (CNAME and A record). But I'll try to understand.

A few questions:

1. If I read your explanation, isn't the CNAME in fact my actual situation? otherdomain.nl showing the maindomain.nl website but with otherdomain.nl visible in the browser?

2. If I ask the hoster to go for the A record solution, do I have the same result as with a 301 redirect in a .htaccess file?

3. If so (see 2) does this A record solution also transfer the link value of the other domains to the main domain (just like with a 301-redirect in .htaccess)?

Many thanks,
Hans

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your extensive answer!

Physically, there is only 1 website, www.maindomain.nl. Meaning that if I put the word 'moz' on the homepage, all 20 other domains immediately show 'moz' too.

So the other 20 domains are nothing but domain names. Showing the main site but under 20 different domain names.

The only reason the 20 domain names exist, is to avoid competitors to registrate them. And alos the believe (misunderstanding) that this would help them to be found in Google much better (with a lot of sites).

The SEO guy before me arranged some backlinks to some of the 20 domains. So they have some link value. And as they all have a link to the mainsite (due to the logo pointing to www.maindomain.nl) they could all be supporting the maindomain too a little?.

Hosting is virtual hosting. Only for the mainsite. If I was given acccess to the 20 others, I would put a .htaccess with a 301 redirect there. But that's not an option.

So part of the 20 domains have some link value, others haven't.

I hope this helps a little answerring the question :).

Many thanks,
Hans

Hi all,

Recently I created a website for a new client and my next job is trying to get them higher in Google.

I added them in OSE and noticed some strange backlinks. To my surprise the client has about 20 domain names. All automatically poiting to (showing) the same new mainsite now.

www.maindomain.nl

www.maindomain.be
www.maindomain.eu
www.maindomain.com
www.otherdomain.nl
www.otherdomain.com
...

Some of these domains have backlinks too (but not so much).

I suggested to 301 redirect them all to the main site. Just to avoid duplicate content.

But now the webhoster comes into play: "It's a problem, client has only 1 hosting account, blablabla...".

They told me they could CNAME the 20 domains to the main domain. Or A-record them to an IP address. This is too technical stuff for me.

So my concrete questions are:

1. Is it smart to do anything at all or am I just harming my client? The main site is ranking pretty well now. And some backlinks are from their copy sites (probably because everywhere the logo links to the full mainsite url).

2. Does the CNAME or A-record solution has the same effect as a 301 redirect, from SEO perspective?

Many thanks,
Hans

Hi,

If I understand correctly, Google provides search results based on the location of the user. That's fine, because most of my clients are local.

But if I look at my own search results, Google thinks I'm in a totally different town. Most likely based on my IP address.

Of course I can solve that for myself, but the same goes for my potential clients.

Is there a way to deal with this, from an seo perspective? For instance find out where most of the the IP providers are located and target that location?