The Business of Software

I am buying several domain names related to my product this week, i have a question. How should i handle the redirection, i heard redirecting from a URL is bad, and Google doesn't like it. My site is http://www.a-pdf.com/, i sell 4 different pdf tools.

For example i have a PDFMerger, if i purchase the domain freepdfsoftware.com, should i:

1. redirect it to the main page (http://www.a-pdf.com/).

2. Copy my entire site to the new site.

3. Make a copy of my main page and have all the links go to http://www.a-pdf.com/

Thanks!!

First off, do not copy content. You could be marked as having duplicate content and those pages penalized, or not indexed at all. Always create new content.

The ideal is to create separate sites for each  product with unique content and track as individual sites. But what I would do is do a 301 permanent redirect which is safe in Google's eyes, and a legit way of managing multiple domains. I would also, if you can, put each of those domains on a unique IP or nameserver. Having lots of domains all under the same IP and redirecting isnt probably the best plan. I got around this by adding an SSL cert to my main site, which on shared hosting gives you a unique IP. That helps.

One thing you definately dont want to do is add "aliases" or multiple domains to your web site/server which are mapped to the same site, as that will flag the duplicate content issue. The 301 is ok, and preferred for that again because you are telling Google where to go to find the current content for that URI on the Web. If you just remember to thinbk like a search engine, you'll realize all they want you to do is have unique, rich content which allot of other relevant sites are linking to. Do that, and you will be fine.

Thats my 2 cents....there are allot of SEO experts on here who will probably add more info for you. Im still learning so I will be listening as well. :o)