URL Masking

Sirrel Squirrel · 18 Jun 2011 at 19:12

I've just finished my wife's website for her wedding planning business. I'm currently hosting the site on my domain at http://mia-media.co.uk/pinkbutterfly

I've got the urls http://pinkbutterflyweddings.co.uk and http://pbweddings.co.uk forwarding directly to http://mia-media.co.uk/pinkbutterfly

My hosting provider, Register1 can wrap a frame around the pages so the address bar will always say http://pinkbutterflyweddings.co.uk.

Now am I better off having standard forwarding or use the URL masking, I imagine the forwarding would be better for my search results?

3dcandy · 19 Jun 2011 at 11:01

difficult call...most people however seem to favour forwarding via the .htaccess file or similiar. just a thought, why have you not implemented a CAPTCHA or similiar? Have you looked at reducing spam comments at all?

3dcandy · 19 Jun 2011 at 11:02

a quick article here worth reading...seems that Google don't like url masking much...

http://www.chefpatrick.com/why-forward-and-mask-a-domain-name/

Sirrel Squirrel · 19 Jun 2011 at 15:30

Thanks, I'll stick with forwarding then I guess.

I haven't set up Captcha yet, if I get an influx of spam I'll do it. Are there any good alternatives to reCaptcha, I always struggle with it and get annoyed when I find it on other sites.

3dcandy · 19 Jun 2011 at 15:33

there are a few captcha plugins for wordpress..you will ALWAYS get wordpress comment spam, make sure you use akismet for starters. I personally use contact form 7 with it's simple captcha plugin

Sirrel Squirrel · 19 Jun 2011 at 15:53

That's what I have at the moment as it goes, just need to download really simple captcha. Thanks

3dcandy · 19 Jun 2011 at 16:12

yeah, it's not fantastic really, but it does the job. uses very little resources etc. too compared to some other captcha's.

Sherbs · 19 Jun 2011 at 18:10

Do it at nameserver level and addon domain?

soullessfire · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:18

Worth remembering that URL masking will always show only one URL, which is pretty rubbish for a shop. Your customers won't be able to cut and paste the URL if they want to send a link to an item to friends and family, and as suggested above, search engines won't index your site correctly.

Hxc · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:19

Surely the logical thing to do is to set it up like a proper addon domain?

Sherbs · 20 Jun 2011 at 09:16

Hxc said:
Surely the logical thing to do is to set it up like a proper addon domain?

+2

Sirrel Squirrel · 20 Jun 2011 at 14:28

I don't think Register1 support addon domains, they told me to use the masking or forwarding method when I asked about it.

I'll be buying seperate hosting for pinkbutterfly once my wife has contracts in place with her suppliers.

3dcandy · 20 Jun 2011 at 17:13

www.tsohost.co.uk