This is probably a dumb question

[Chalkie]

OK, where do i start?

Lets say we have abc.co.uk abc.org abc.info abc.us .co.uk etc etc

Whats the best way to utilise them?

1.

Create just 1 site and:

redirect all direct from source or

redirect all by .htaccess or

redirect using another method or

leave the unused domains unused completely

2.

create a different site for each domain or

create the same site on each domain

3.

This is the stupid mess chalkie might have got into:

Lets say you have all the domains as mentioned but not the .com and you had hyperthetically built 2 different websites a .org and a .co.uk with all of the others pointing to the .co.uk You have a decent PR starting point on both and links in for both.

What would you think is the best way forward?

continue as is or what?

Sometimes i get myself that confuddled that i cannot work out what to do! Infact sometimes i get myself that confuddled that i have to ask if i am me or not! That might be an age thing though!

Anyway, come on guys lets have your thoughts on this, obviously some of the options are downright stupid ones but its meant to start a little dialogue and smoke screen the questions to hide the obvious dumkhoff that i am sometimes!

[Holland87]

Chalikie, I was told straight from Garythescubaguy that there are no dumb questions. This was after I pm'd him with what I thougt was a dumb question. He said that most of us will benefit from most questions that are posted. Thank you for posting. I may even learn something from your questions!

[Chalkie]

Hopefully a lot of us will learn from a lot of the questions here in the near and distant future.

We can all learn something new everyday they say.

[universal4]

You know, I was gonna post an answer....but I would rather talk to Chalkie than you.....

Rick
Universal4

[Chalkie]

You know, I was gonna post an answer....but I would rather talk to Chalkie than you.....

Rick
Universal4

Ah, so i am lying to myself and i am not Chalkie?

Who am i then?

[casinojack]

Well, depends.

For seo, then you would have 4 sites with exact same content? Not good. Id make each site unique. Maybe same template but different message ?

[Chalkie]

No, i am deffo Chalkie! I just asked the wife and she confirmed it!

[universal4]

Well, I think your wife might be telling a fib, but just in case she is right here goes.

There are obviously a number of opinions...but I think some of it has to do with how strong the brand will be.

As an example, utilizing the brand Coke.
Coke.com is for consumers and coke.net is for partners. Coke.co.uk redirects back to the .com, but I wonder if the .co.uk does the same in England or they may use that for branding and search engine placement in the UK.

In that example, the branding is basically the same product, and each one compliments the other....

Now Microsoft, the .com, .net and .org all redirect to the .com The .co.uk does not redirect, and the splash pages and urls are slightly different, but I do believe it is one massive website utilizing a clustered sql backend...

Again, the same brand, each one complimenting the other in slightly different ways.....

Now Disney, the .com and .org redirect to their main site which is disney.go.com (they started this when they bought go.com years ago and ended up keeping it)

In this example, the .co.uk site does an ip check and gives me the option of going to the UK site or one more tailored for me in the US. the disney.fr also does the same thing only the choice is the us site or the .fr one.

Now I am sure that gary and a few others can expound more on some of this....but before you go too far building a bunch of different sites with different extensions, you may want to think a bit on how the branding may change or be manipulated some by your choices....

Side Note: Yes I purposely picked a few of the biggies to discuss because I knew they handled the different extensions in some creative ways.....LOL

Rick
Universal4

[universal4]

Would someone on a uk IP go to disney.co.uk and tell us whether they are offered a choice on websites, or do they jusy see the UK Site?

Also, someone on a .fr ip if they could verifiy the same thing from disney.fr?


I am interested in the answer to that one now....

Rick
Universal4

[Chalkie]

disney.co.uk does have its own site although most of the content seems to be from the .com

There is an option to go to the international site by way of a link at the foot of the page but it is not obvious and not it seems aiming to offer you an initial choice.

To register on the site it does, however, take you to the international.com site.

Thanks for your answers btw

[CasinoSpammer]

Well, it depends on what you are trying to archieve.

I think this post is worth reading for. However it is not impossible to rank on google.co.uk with com domain, so consider carefully what to do.

While you haven't decided what to do, redirect all the other domains with 301 to .com domain.

[masontech]

I have had similar issues that I have fixed with creating 301s. You have to be careful as most ISP Control Panel's want you to "Park Domains".

I have been informed that parking domains is bad as the content is not 301d but it looks to Google as if all the domains have duplicate content.

Still, it always depends on what you are trying to achieve..