a second/separate domain for same blog

  • Unknown's avatar
    stevewagner0311 · Member ·

    I am not certain what to do, and do not want to mess up my existing page. My blog was originally stevewagner0311.wordpress.com that now has the primary domain as mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com.

    I have another domain (steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com) that I want to also use–and use the same page as a template. Can I just add a second domain to the same blog page, or do I need to create a separate blog? I see that you can copy a page, and that’s great, but how do I add the second domain to the copy without affecting the first page?

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremeylduvall · Member ·

    Hi there,

    If I understand correctly, you would like both domains mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com and steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com to reflect the same content. Is that correct?

    If so, you’ll just need to map the second domain to your blog following the instructions here:

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-existing-domain/

    Then, you’ll be able to choose a primary domain on your account here:

    https://stevewagner0311.wordpress.com/wp-admin/paid-upgrades.php?page=domains

    All other domains will redirect to the primary domain, meaning that both steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com and stevewagner0311.wordpress.com would redirect to mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com if it was set as the primary domain. Does that make sense?

  • Unknown's avatar
    stevewagner0311 · Member ·

    OK, makes sense. So if it merely redirects, why not just do a URL forward from the name server pages? Right now I have my second domain parked on namecheap.com and forwarded the URL to my primary domain. Isn’t that basically the same thing without the $13 annual fee for doing it through WordPress?

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremeylduvall · Member ·

    Hi!

    That will work as well. It looks like your domain is currently working correctly at the moment and directing from steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com to mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com. I believe the main downside is you will not have URL specific redirects meaning if someone enters a post URL like:

    http://steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/this-post

    They will just be redirected to mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com, not mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/this-post. Does that make sense?

  • Unknown's avatar
    stevewagner0311 · Member ·

    You kind of lost me on that one J.

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremeylduvall · Member ·

    Hi!

    I’m sorry! Let me explain a bit further. There are really two major benefits:

    1. First, a permanent redirect like you mention isn’t as SEO-friendly as mapping the second domain to your blog. In theory, steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com won’t rank quite as high with just the redirect.
    2. When you create a blog post on your site, you’ll have a URL like this:

      http://mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/your-post-title

      With a domain mapping, that post extension (the entire bit after “.com/”) is “applied” to both domains so to speak. So, all of the following URLs will find the correct post:

      http://mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/your-post-title
http://steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/your-post-title
http://stevewagner0311.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/your-post-title

      So, if someone happens to enter your other domain, they will always find the right post.

      If you just use the redirect, any URL of steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com will just redirect to mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com. So, in the above scenario, if a reader entered the following:

      http://steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/your-post-title

      They would be taken to

      http://mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com

      Not the actual post, which would be

      http://mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com/2014/07/12/your-post-title

    Does that help to clarify?

  • Unknown's avatar
    stevewagner0311 · Member ·

    OK, got it. So, in your opinion, is it really worth it to have two separate pages/domains rather than redirected urls? In terms of SEO, does the bottom line come down to content–or does the domain/url have any real impact on being recognized by search engines?

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremeylduvall · Member ·

    In my opinion, it’s more beneficial to map the domain. It really will help steve-wagner-personal-trainer.com appear higher in search engines if you map it versus just redirecting it to mbs-fitness-personal-trainer.com. While SEO certainly isn’t everything (great content is arguably more important), I think it will pay off down the road.

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