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SEO with masked subdomain

by ahillyer
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi all,

I'm new here and have heard so much about this great forum yet never got around to getting involved. Well, here I am! Anyhow, I have a question and figured why not take it for a test drive, right?

So, with that said, here is my question:

If I mask a subdomain to a ning network, will the crawlers treat the content, keywords, etc. of that subdomain (even though it is a masked redirect - really a 301) as a part of my main domain or will they recognize that it is on another site? In other words, does that masking actually mask it for the crawlers or just for site visitors?

Thanks!

Aaron Hillyer, CITRMS
#301 redirect #masked #ning #seo #subdomain
  • Profile picture of the author Steve Diamond
    Hi, Aaron. Welcome to the forum!

    I believe that the spiders take a 301 at face value. They'll attribute the content to the destination. That's only my opinion, though, and in matters related to SEO there are usually as many opinions as there are people. Plus, not every spider may behave the same.

    And by the way, it would be better to post this kind of question in the appropriate sub-forum, Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum - WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the mods have moved this thread by the time I get to submitting my reply.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetMarketingIQ
    Interesting question actually. I mask domains through GoDaddy and send them off to affiliate sites. I do this not for SEO but because it's an easy way for me to redirect traffic from other sites.

    When I investigated this issue I found that Google and Bing both completely ignore my site and return no results. Yahoo however indexes the URL with all the information from the Affiliate Site.

    The domain I'm masking and just tested is about 10 years old and has incoming links from other sites.

    The reality is that Google appears to be smart enough to not reward your domain, same with Bing. Yahoo? Other sites contribute so little traffic from their search that it doesn't matter.

    So if I was worried about Search Traffic SEO from a redirect to Ning I wouldn't count on getting any real link love from Google or Bing and I'd focus on traffic from other sources.

    I'm not sure but does Ning let you purchase a domain then forward it for you? In that case perhaps you could benefit from SEO?
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