How to redirect multiple new domains back to their primary domain without negatively affecting SEO/Rankings or anything else?

Question

I've searched Google high and low. There are many answers to this question. I even asked another question similar to this one however it lacked specificity. Something this question will not lack.

I bought a new domain a month ago. The domain name was too long to make a brand name from plus the social media accounts were already taken for it. After deciding on a brand name I then bought the brand name as a .com, .org, .net and a 4th domain that was a good expired domain with great backlinks. I have redirected all 4 to my main site. My problem is I don't know apache code, Google has to many answers, how do I know If I redirected them properly? Properly as far as Google and my SEO are concerned I already know that they redirect to my website. That part works.

WHAT I WANT: I want to redirect all 4 domains to my main site, not have those 4 domains be indexed in Google (I don't have to worry about directives for indexing, crawling, which version I want; www or non-www, etc,.), not have duplicate content issues, want to have each one a 301 redirect, and I want the link juice for the 4th domain. A proper 301 will make sure I get the link juice.

• This is an image that shows the HTTP Headers for each of the redirected domains I've tested each they show the same.

Obviously redirecting the .com, .org and .net to my main site will neither help nor harm my SEO efforts. The 4th domain (containing great backlinks) will help my SEO efforts if I have the redirect set up right.

Did I setup my domains to redirect to my main domain properly? Did I leave something out, forget something important? Lots of variables.

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THE EXAMPLE - PROBLEM

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Main Site: http://www.mymainwebsitename.com

These 4 domains below are the sites that are being redirected to my main site.

• http://www.example1.com
• http://www.example2.org
• http://www.example3.net
• http://www.example4.com

I have redirected each of these 4 sites to my main site using an .htaccess file for each domain. Each are the same. Here are the directives.

# Rewrite Engine On
RewriteEngine on

# Redirect this entire domain, example1.com, to the domain example2.com
RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com

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THE CONCLUSION

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The major question here is this: This 301 redirect that I performed for each site. Is it correct as far as Google and SEO in concerned. like I said they work as far as redirecting to my site goes. I just can't know, without your help and guidance, if I did it right or left something out. This is the only redirect I have added to these 4 domains. So I still need to add more?

• I have not added the www or non www version directive. Being that I have redirected the domains I didn't think I needed to do this. Do I need to do this? Do I need to still treat this domain as if it is a website?
• Will this domain be indexed in the search engines or will me redirecting it keep it out of the search engines? I do not want duplicate content.
• The domains will have nothing on them so if i redirect and they are also in the search engine this could be bad but If I redirect them they shouldn't show up in the search results right?
• Do I need to ALSO use a robots.txt file that disallows the site from being indexed or will the redirect do that on its own?

Thanks for reading! It took me a long time to write this so please even if you down vote it to all hell at least give me some answers. I beg it of you. I have done all that I can to make sure this question was asked in a way that it applies to everyone, is very specific, and follows the rules. I have been battling with this for a while. Again, thanks in advance and I look forward to your replies.

Answer 1

RedirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com

A potential problem with this is that you are redirecting everything to your homepage. Redirecting everything to the homepage is likely to be seen as a soft-404 anyway in the eyes of Google. So, no benefit.

That includes all the "backlinks" on that 4th domain as well. But unless you have related content for all those old backlinks that you specifically redirect to then you are unlikely to benefit.

Obviously redirecting the .com, .org and .net to my main site will neither help nor harm my SEO efforts.

Yes, SEO doesn't really come into it.

The 4th domain (containing great backlinks) will help my SEO efforts if I have the redirect set up right.

Not really, they'd have to be some pretty amazing backlinks. As mentioned above, unless you have the content that the backlink is expecting then any benefit is going to fall pretty flat. A redirect tells the search engines (and users) that the content has moved. If you point the redirect at something unrelated then Google is going to wise-up.

I have redirected each of these 4 sites to my main site using an .htaccess file for each domain.

If you are not intending to put any content on these domains then you could just point them all to the one account (DNS and VirtualHost config) and then have a single redirect in a single .htaccess file (or preferably server config). In fact, your canonical www / non-www redirect could do it already.

I have not added the www or non www version directive. Being that I have redirected the domains I didn't think I needed to do this. Do I need to do this?

Your redirect redirects everything, no matter how the user has accessed the other domain. So if example1.com and www.example1.com are accessible then they will both be redirected to your canonical domain. Which is what you want.

Will this domain be indexed in the search engines or will me redirecting it keep it out of the search engines? I do not want duplicate content.

They should not appear in normal search results. It's not "duplicate content".

Do I need to ALSO use a robots.txt file that disallows the site from being indexed or will the redirect do that on its own?

No. If you block with robots.txt then the search engines won't see the redirects (if they would ever find them). Note that robots.txt prevents crawling, it doesn't necessarily prevent indexing if the URL is being linked to.