I recently registered a domain name and also registered the .com / .co.uk / .net etc etc so no one else can.

 

My plan was to pick one of them to put my main site on and have redirects running from the other pages in case a stoopid client puts .com instead of .co.uk and I lose work.

 

I have since learned that Google doesn't like redirects. Is this true? If so why?

Search engines (not just Google!) see redirects and often assume the "page" has moved, and tries to reindex accordingly.

 

There are two types of server side redirects normally in use...

 

301 permanent - tells the SE that page has permanently moved to a new location and will reindex it

301 temporary - tells the SE that page has temporarily moved to a new location but will not reindex it

 

For your situation with multiple domains you're using the .co.uk as your main site address so I would suggest simply "forwarding" the .com and .net to the .co.uk. So when someone types in .com they actually land on the .co.uk.

Ah right, thanks

 

So how do I go about forwarding my other domains to my .co.uk?

You could always use them as 'add on' domains, so instead of redirecting, they're just used exactly the same as the original domain. Ask your host / domain registrar about that.

Yes you can use "add on domain" as Rachael suggests, or if you haven't got this facility just set up "forwarding" for these domains in your domain account.

Yes you can use "add on domain" as Rachael suggests, or if you haven't got this facility just set up "forwarding" for these domains in your domain account.

 

Just be careful with this as Google (et all) can see the .co.uk, .com or .net as duplicate content or they will dilute your SE rank if they all mirror each other.

Should be fine if it's redirected with correct HTTP header right?

Search engines (not just Google!) see redirects and often assume the "page" has moved, and tries to reindex accordingly.

 

There are two types of server side redirects normally in use...

 

301 permanent - tells the SE that page has permanently moved to a new location and will reindex it

301 temporary - tells the SE that page has temporarily moved to a new location but will not reindex it

 

For your situation with multiple domains you're using the .co.uk as your main site address so I would suggest simply "forwarding" the .com and .net to the .co.uk. So when someone types in .com they actually land on the .co.uk.

 

This is correct, however a temporary redirect is a 302 not a 301

 

I would strongly oppose the use of addons for the sake of displaying a single site across multiple domains as this can, will, and does get classed as duplicate content.

The best thing to do is to set to additional domains to forward to your primary domain at the domain registrar level.

Use 301 permanent if this is going to be permanently redirected. It's the safest best when it comes to SE's

If you want those two other domains to point permanently to the other domain of your choosing, follow what he said ^ But should you have other plans with the other two domains (maybe building a different site in the future), employ a temporary 301 redirect

As I said 2 posts ago, there is no such thing as a temporary 301.

 

Its either a 302 temporary redirect or a 301 permanent redirect