We have a site that is 6 years old and has always done quite well ranking-wise for my keywords. When originally started years ago the owner also bought up some other domain names (4) to which he set up pointers having them all look at the main site.

What I've noticed in my research recently is that some of the pages with the pointer domain in the URL are ranking quite well, but the exact same page using the actual company domain (the domain associated with that server) won't show up at all. This is become problematic because often the pointer domain name makes no sense to the subject of the page its looking at. And I would obviously prefer that only our "core" company domain show up in the searches.

I've read that search engines are not too happy with "duplicate content" on different URLs. Is that what's happening here? Does Google know what is a pointer and what isn't? And once Google finds a specific page (like a page with the pointer domain), does it then ignore any other identical pages found on that server? which is why then these same pages with our correct company domain aren't showing up.

Thanks for any insight.

Hello,
I think this is exactly what many people thought that it was a bug of goolge's search engine. I have websites which had been stolen of traffic by others who used 302 redirect (a very dishonest means). Very simple, any website can use redirect to fool google about its content. I guess, there is no way Goolge could distinguish which is a duplicate content site, at least for the time being.
leunga

I've read that search engines are not too happy with "duplicate content" on different URLs. Is that what's happening here? Does Google know what is a pointer and what isn't?

If its just a pointer that means redirect then it will not be considered as duplicate content.

If its a link that original page can be found at xyz location its a doorway page and you should avoid it.

what I would suggest for you setup a 301 permanent redirect for the other domains and that will help you transfer all the PR and other SERP's to your original domain. YOu can find some good hint on 301 redirect at http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articl...1-redirect.htm

Thanks
Shabbir Bhimani

I think google should ban this type of duplicated sites.