Avec Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 Our site has a couple different redirects from different domains we own. The redirects are based on common searches. Eg, if our site is called "all-kinds-of-jackets" and one of the urls that redirects is "denim-jackets.com" Up until recently, denim-jackets just redirected, and there were no files at all associated. However, due to recent google changes, we now have actual domains and files for these. In our case, the main store is in the root, with "denim-jackets" a sub directory with name records pointing denim-jackets.com to it. What I would like to do is add a second index.php that replicates the one in the root store, - and if possible default to the "denim-jackets" product page, then when anything is selected on that page, you are just taken to the store in the root. Is there an easy way to do this? I tried to move index.php and includes/configure.php to now avail. by the way, all-kinds-of-jackets and denim-jackets are made up for this example Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPhil Posted June 22, 2018 Share Posted June 22, 2018 Let me see if I've got this straight. You have a main site "all-kinds-of-jackets.com" with a store. Then you have an "add-on domain" (different hosts may call these different things) "denim-jackets.com" which is a discrete, independent website, although it is implemented on your host as a subdirectory under public_html/. Right so far? Then you redirect from denim-jackets to all-kinds-of-jackets (301 redirect or 200 rewrite?) so the visitor is in the main store. Was the redirect via .htaccess (will differ by whether you see the domain name or it was already translated to main domain/subdirectory), or an index.html with a redirect meta? A visitor to denim-jackets.com should instantly find themselves in all-kinds-of-jackets.com. OK, what has changed? What is Google doing differently? You still want to pop over to the main store? Is denim-jackets now a fully separate account, rather than an add-on? That would probably have to be a 301 redirect (if you weren't using it before), but otherwise there should be no changes. If you have a single 301 redirect to move over to the main store, Google shouldn't be complaining about that, but if you have several layers of rewrites/redirects it could penalize you. I don't know if they count an index.html with a redirect meta tag as a single redirect. Just be careful that you're not causing multiple redirects (round trips between the server and browser or search engine), such as using one to tack on "www." and another to change http: to https: and still another to go to a new domain. Google will really ding you on that. Also remember that for an add-on domain, the main domain's .htaccess should be visited every time, before the add-on's .htaccess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avec Posted June 25, 2018 Author Share Posted June 25, 2018 Thank you for the reply The original redirect was a masked redirect from Go-Daddy. "Denim Jackets" was only a URL with no site at all. The reason for the change is that google is now requiring a site to crawl in order to appear on search results. Without this, even if someone typed in "denim jackets", the site would not appear in the results. Ideally, we don't create a static page that simply says "click here for "denim jackets", but it is either the main page, or a category page of the main site. Now that I think about it, and ht-redirect might work. I don't know off-hand how google handles that, but that might be something to check Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPhil Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 I suppose it's possible that Google is now ignoring domains that simply redirect to another (via DNS or .htaccess). I don't keep up on that stuff, but it sounds plausible. That would mean that domain names are no longer of interest for keywords and ranking. The trouble is, if you have indexable site content on "denim jackets", it won't be seen anyway if the site is doing a redirect to the main site. Anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_mcs Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 Avec You can't have a site that redirects to another site list in the search engine pages, unless you somehow trick them. Google hasn't changed their policy on this. It has always been this way. The correct way to handle one domain pointing to a second one is to issue a 301 for the first one. Maybe you weren't doing that and google finally realized it. If you want to have both domains listed, they have to be separate sites. Support Links: For Hire: Contact me for anything you need help with for your shop: upgrading, hosting, repairs, code written, etc. Get the latest versions of my addons Recommended SEO Addons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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