Having a single website behind 2 domains

Question

I have a website www.mywebsite.com. Recently I created a brand for my business, lets say it's called MyNewBrand.

I'm thinking of acquiring domain name www.mynewbrand.com and create a 301 redirect to www.mywebsite.com. From other posts I understand this should not affect search engine ranking at all (I'm aiming only for Google search engine).

However, if I do it:

• Will mynewbrand.com appear in search results if my users search for the brand name? Which of my domains will Google pick?
• If people create external links (blog posts, etc) to mynewbrand.com, will Google consider them as links to mywebsite.com?
• Should I 301 redirect only to the root? Example: I'm thinking how should I approach the situation where one of my users remembers page1.html and accesses: www.mynewbrand.com/page1.html. Should I redirect to www.mywebsite.com or to www.mywebsite.com/page1.html?

What are the best approaches/practices to do this?

Answer 1

Closetnoc pretty much sums this up in comments... no benefit.

To answer your specific questions:

I understand this should not affect search engine ranking at all

Correct. However, if mynewbrand.com was already an established domain/website that was already attracting significant traffic then you could benefit (if the subject matter of the original domain was similar). But for new domains with no history then no benefit.

Will mynewbrand.com appear in search results if my users search for the brand name?

No.

Which of my domains will google pick?

The target of the redirect. ie. www.mywebsite.com

If people create external links (blog posts, etc) to mynewbrand.com, will google consider them as links to mywebsite.com?

Yes - sort of. Google reportedly does not pass 100% PR through redirects, so it's not quite as good as a direct link to mywebsite.com.

But... how would people find mynewbrand.com to begin with in order to link to it? You are redirecting users to www.mywebsite.com.

Should I 301 redirect only to the root?

No. It's never a good idea to bulk redirect to the root. For search engines and users. Google is likely to see it as a soft-404 and ignore it. Whilst it just confuses users - who are then more likely to "bounce". (But again, how would mynewbrand.com be found anyway?)

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The only benefit I can think of is in marketing material. Publish the shorter mynewbrand.com which redirects to the real/longer URL on your website.