Aliases vs Redirects

[skrl]

I have 3 domain names. I needed domains #1 & #2 to redirect to domain #3. I configured my Free DNS of my registrar's, and created two A records for each to point to the same IP as the host for the domain #3. Then in cPanel, I created two redirections; one for domain #1 to redirect to #3, and another for domain #2 to redirect to #3. After a short while I noticed a heavy load on my server. I contacted my hosting provider, and they advised me that I should, instead, create two aliases, which I did. Now I can see that whenever I type in domain #1 or domain #2 I am being redirected to what looks and feels like domain #3, but the URL reads domain #1 or domain #2 accordingly. I am worried i might be penalized by Google for duplicate content if I continue like this. Plus on the two aliased domains I do not have any https connections which raises browser warnings when accessing them (e.g. via Google links), and instead of domain #3/whatever-subdirectory-path I am seeing domain#1/whatever-subdirectory-path or domain#2/whatever-subdirectory-path.

I need to ask, what is the best way to do what I need, and should I have stuck with the setup I had initially applied?

 

[cPRex]

Hey there! I also would have advised the alias method, as that just tells Apache to point to the same content as the other domain.

I am not an SEO expert of any type, but the only "duplicate" content would be the home page - after you click a link it would change to the domain of the site and not the alias. According to this post, the alias is not interpreted as duplicate content:

Does having multiple Domain aliases hurt SEO rank ?

yes we have the same content, basicly its the same root folder on server

moz.com

You may want to reach out to a company that specializes in SEO, or see if others users here see this thread and have experience with that, but I personally haven't run across this issue as aliases are very common.

 

[skrl]

Actually there has been one case where domain1/shop was present in the URL bar, only with the contents of the domain3/shop in the viewport. Once anything was clicked on that page, the domain1 would be replaced by domain3, and you would not be able to tell the difference, or that indeed domain1/shop was first loaded.

After reading the link you shared, plus some more on the topic, I think I will proceed with the current setup indeed, and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cPRex]

You're welcome!