Which way to forward alternate domains?

Question

I have a few alternate domains that I want to point to my main domain:

Main: awesomewebsite.com

Alternates: awesomewebsite.net, awesomewebsite.co, awesomewebsite.me

Which is the best way to forward any hits on the alternates to the main?

I can set up Web Forwarding with my registrar (iwantmyname.com) with Zerply but I find their interface very confusing. However this does mean I only have the main domain on my hosting account (MediaTemple).

Or I can set DNS of all domains to MediaTemple and then set the forwarding there with .htaccess.

Is either of these a particularly good/bad idea?

Answer 1

Generally you should do HTTP-level redirects from the alternate host names to the canonical name of your choosing. This makes the entry in the browser location bar switch to the correct name and will act as a cue to search engines to phase out the alternates.

The response code should be 301 "Permanent" in this case.

Don't forget this is done on a host name basis, not a domain, so you'll probably have to catch "www.(alternate)" and other variants that might exist for whatever reason.