Goddady's Domain Masking and 301's

[superZj]

I have a client who's 7 domains and single website (instantpages) exists within the clutches of GoDaddy.

They own 6 kewyord rich domain names that 301 redirect with masking to the main branded domain.

In effect, what this provides is the ability to add a title tag and meta description for a keyword rich domain name that displays content through an iframe.

So really it's not duplicate content but this practice sets off my spidey sense that this is not a best practice regarding SEO.

I want to suggest for the client to drop the idea of masking and do a straight 301 redirect to main branded domain. I'm sure that is fine but these domains are Not similar variations but actually vary widely: massage-city.com, city-massage.com, city-acupuncture.com, acupuncture-city.com, city-chiropractic.com, chiropractic-city.com etc ---- Doesn't Google frown on redirecting 6 domains to a single domain if they vary widely?

Words of wisdom appreciated.

[LesleyPaone]

In my opinion and dealings they have. One thing I have noticed they do not frown so hard upon is redirecting the same word, different extension to the same site. Like site.com, site.co.uk, site.com.au Google is on to the tricks that your client is using, if the domains are not getting many direct accesses, then the 301 redirect will end up dying after a couple of weeks or a couple of months and be useless.

Its a spammy and costly suggestion, but I know how clients that are set in their ways are. I would recommend to them to maybe set up variations of the same site at the different addresses. Different images, different content, different everything. Maybe have the same logo, but have the contact forms feeding into the same email address.

I think more than likely you have been put into a tough situation by a not so good seo company that the client had before.