[thelist] Multiple Domain Names

[Liam Delahunty]

on 21/01/2004 17:14 Hershel Robinson wrote:
> I have a site where the domain name could easily be spelled several ways.
> The name is a transliteration of a word in another language. If the main
> name is let's say turkey.org then we also own turkey.com turkie.org turkie.com

> What is the best way to handle directing users who may type in one of these
> 'subordinate' names in their browser?
> 
> Redirect their browser to the main address? Show them the site without
> changing the address? 

Personally I'd change it, if they bookmark it, it'll save the correct 
address. Also if they do notice the mistake in the URL, then they may 
think 'golly, that's all wrong'...

There's a copy of an example httpd.conf below on how I do it. Obviously 
beware of wrapping.

<VirtualHost 217.158.69.4>
ServerName www.fairwayfunds.com
...
ServerAlias fairwayfunds.com www.fairwayfunds.com name2.com 
www.name2.com name3.com www.name3.com
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}                !^217.158.69.4(:80)?$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}                !^www.fairwayfunds.com(:80)?$
RewriteRule ^/(.*)                      http://www.fairwayfunds.com/$1 [L,R]
RewriteOptions inherit
...
</VirtualHost>


> I understand that Google does not like sites with more
> than one name pointing to them. I may be wrong here, however. 

Well, I think the thing is that no one will link to turkie.com etc, so 
unless you tell google about it, they won't know... (which is why I hid 
the names above)

 > The other issue of course is that the site has a nice graphic on each 
 > page that says Turkey.org.

Perhaps put a text link somewhere too?

-- 
Kind regards, Liam Delahunty, Mega Products Ltd
12 Bury Place, London WC1A 2JL Fax: +44(0)871 224 7891
http://www.megaproducts.co.uk/ Internet Design & Development