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This post comes on the heels of a previous post “Keyword Matching Domain Names”  We learned in that article that having your domain name match your targeted keyword or phrase is a quick an easy way to give the SEO power for that keyword a nice boost. For example, a key-phrase a customer of mine had been using was ranking on Google’s page 6. I obtained a second domain name that contained the exact key-phrase (except I had to use dashes: see article) and that step alone moved it’s ranking to page 3. A nice boost for very little effort. This second domain name was forwarded to the main domain.

How to forward a domain name

When forwarding domain names, there are 2 basic types of re-directs that you will see. One is a permanent, or 301 re-direct and the other is a temporary or 302 re-direct. You want to make sure that you always use a 301 re-direct. By using a 301 re-direct you will ensure that the two domains do not look like duplicate content in Google’s eyes, which in effect will split the page rank for each of the domains into some lesser value. In the case where you are forwarding the domain of a existing site to a new domain, you need to use the 301 re-direct to ensure that the link popularity of the old site gets passed along to the new site.

With Open Arms Hosting this is very easy to do in the domain control panel. If you do not handle this part yourself, make sure you pass along this information to your Sys Admin. Many times it is much easier to provide a 302 re-direct, which will have negative effects on your SEO mojo.