Domain alias versus redirect?

[Deviation]

I'm new at the SEO stuff so bear with me.:D

I did some searching and it seems as though domain aliases are a bad thing. Is this the case?

For example:
I have www.example.com as the main site. But they also bought www.examples.com. If I setup and alias for www.examples.com to go to www.example.com's content, would I get penalized?

If so, I'm assuming I should use a 301 redirect?

What I was attempting to accomplish was include keywords in the domain name to help get more traffic to the site. Does that even make sense? Like I said, I'm new to this. I have been reading through the articles on here and searching a good bit.

Thanks.:cool:

[beu]

So you want to do something like http://www.iphone.com is doing? If so yes, use a 301.

[Deviation]

So you want to do something like http://www.iphone.com is doing? If so yes, use a 301.
Yes.

And after some more reading, I did change over to the 301. I didn't want to take a chance and get penalized for duplicate content.

The additional domains do not get indexed when they are a 301 correct? Does it provide any additional benefit by using additional domain names to redirect into your site?

Thanks.

[michelled]

My understanding is you will experience a benefit only if you have inbound links coming to the site you redirected. These will be transferred over to your main site now.

Also, when you get rid of your alias sites through redirects, you now have control over which url gets indexed. With alias sites, google will only index one and it won't necessarily be the one you want. I expereinced this last month before I set up my redirects.

[Deviation]

My understanding is you will experience a benefit only if you have inbound links coming to the site you redirected. These will be transferred over to your main site now.

Also, when you get rid of your alias sites through redirects, you now have control over which url gets indexed. With alias sites, google will only index one and it won't necessarily be the one you want. I expereinced this last month before I set up my redirects.

Good to know.

Should I just do a basic 301 redirect with:
Redirect 301 http://www.examples.com http://www.example.com

I assume that I shouldn't worry about attempting it with mod_rewrite correct?

[michelled]

that should be fine as long as it's server side in your .htaccess file. stick around to see what others say though, i don't claim to be an expert