Loading up on domain names is often the first step taken to improve SEO. Who wouldn't want a bunch of keyword rich domain names to point to their site? Unfortunately, this tactic doesn't usually yield good results, and can actually be dangerous is handled incorrectly. Read on to learn the right way to forward your domains so that you don't hurt your rankings.

Domain names are very cheap, and so it often seems like a good idea to load up on keyword-rich domains so that you will receive the benefit of these prominent keywords and rank well. What is the proper way to set this up?

Unfortunately, this strategy will not really work. Domain forwarding will not produce any extra link juice or authority, and so will not result in increased rankings. The primary reason to get multiple domains and forward them would be for those who directly type the domain name into the address bar. This is especially useful in the following cases:

1. You have a really good domain name that is powerful enough that individuals might type the name into the address bar naturally (this is rare because most of these types of domain names, i.e. "cars.com" are already taken or would require thousands of dollars to buy).
2. There are common misspellings of your domain or business name that you want to cover.
3. You want to redirect those who type in different domain extensions (i.e. .com to .org). This is especially useful if you have a domain name that doesn't use the .com -> it would be beneficial to get the .com and redirect.

If you purchase multiple domain names with the same registrar, they will likely offer a service called "domain forwarding" or "domain masking." These can be tempting to use but they are almost never the proper solution. I would strongly recommend that rather than use domain masking you set up a 301 redirect to the end domain name. You do this by adding some code to a .htaccess file in the root directory of the domain. McAnerin International has a great tutorial on the way to set up your 301 redirects.

The Problem with Domain Masking

If you use domain masking, the problem is that Google and other search engines will have a hard time determining which website is the true one - in fact it will appear to the engines that you have two, separate websites. These websites are going to have the exact same content and so you will almost certainly be affected by a duplicate content problem. Also, check out this great resource explaining the SEO problems with domain masking.

With link building you never want to divide your efforts. I would recommend that you direct ALL links to the final domain that you want visitors to end up on. Otherwise, you are splitting your link authority on different "websites" and both versions of the website will suffer.