New Addon Domain Showing Up Wrong

[highbids]

I just added a addon domain in Cpanel at hostgator & the
domain is also showing up at the end of my primary domain
like this

http://widgets.com/ (Primary)

http://widgets.com/newaddondomain (Addon sub folder)

This should create a duplicate content penalty with
Google and get me sanded boxed.

It shows up as a folder because google finds the folder
under your primary domain.

The only way to stop that site to show up as a folder would be put a robots.txt file in there but then that would not help because it will keep
the addon domain from being stored in google also.

How do I get the domain not show up under the primary as a sub folder.

[g1smd]

I assume the add-on domain has its own domain name too?


Set up a .htaccess file inside the folder.

That will redirect all calls for files in that folder (when they are being referenced as a folder off the main domain) and redirect them to the correct domain name, preserving the requested filepath and filename.

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]*/)*index\.(html?|php|aspx?|jspx?|cfm).*\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/]*/)*)index\.(html?|php|aspx?|jspx?|cfm)$ http://www.addondomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?maindomain\.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.addondomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^addondomain\.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.addondomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]


It also set up canonicalisation for several other combinations that could cause Duplicate Content.

[highbids]

Hi g1smd,

This is a response I got from another post, he says to install
a x3 theme.


It's normal for addon domains to be accessible that way. newaddondomain.widgets.com would also work. But if there's no link to the content in that manner on the net, the search engine won't know about it.

With cpanel 11 (ask for the x3 theme to be applied to your account) you can put the addon domain outside the public_html folder. The subdomain-type access remains though.

You can use 301 permanent redirects to have the addondomain accessible in a single manner. You should be able to find tutorials on that using Google.

[g1smd]

You don't need to use Google to find tutorials about redirects.


I already wrote out the code you will need, based on the way you described the setup.


Never, ever, rely on search engines "not finding the alternative URLs".

Always set up the redirect such that if they ever find it, they will be redirected to the correct address. To not add the redirect is a ticking timebomb.

[g1smd]

You might also need to add something like this...

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?subdomain\.maindomain\.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.addondomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

...based on your comment that the add-on also appears as another sub-domain on your main domain.

[highbids]

I think I found out why it was showing up like it was.

When I did a Google search it was like this.

widget (it did show up as a sub folder)

http://widget.com (it did not appear)

I have another screen name using the domain name
that's why I was doing the search.

Do I still have to still worry about Google & dupe content.

[g1smd]

Yes you do need to worry about it.

You'll need the code that I supplied above, modifying it for your real domain names, to fix it.


I wouldn't have spent all that time typing out the code if it wasn't important.

[highbids]

I'll use it thanks for the help.

[g1smd]

By the way, it scares the heck out of me that I can now write that stuff "straight out of my head"; whereas 4 or 5 years ago it was just a collection of unintelligible gibberish.

[Blue]

By the way, it scares the heck out of me that I can now write that stuff "straight out of my head"; whereas 4 or 5 years ago it was just a collection of unintelligible gibberish. Not enough pub time?

:)

[Hsekhar]

I just added a addon domain in Cpanel at hostgator & the
domain is also showing up at the end of my primary domain
like this

http://widgets.com/ (Primary)

http://widgets.com/newaddondomain (Addon sub folder)

This should create a duplicate content penalty with
Google and get me sanded boxed.

It shows up as a folder because google finds the folder
under your primary domain.

The only way to stop that site to show up as a folder would be put a robots.txt file in there but then that would not help because it will keep
the addon domain from being stored in google also.

How do I get the domain not show up under the primary as a sub folder.
I am not sure about it but I think it doesn't hurt your ranking in any way. It doesn't count as duplicate content.

[g1smd]

Of course it is Duplicate Content: having two different URLs for the same content is always Duplicate Content.