Pointing Domains and Search Engine Penalties

"If you have more than one domain name pointed to the same site, does this mean that search engines don't like you? That would seem like another case of search engines favoring big companies that can afford to have different websites for each domain name they own. Or do I misunderstand?" -- Brigitte Botnick, Fauna Art Studios

I posed Brigitte's question to Mike Grehan, author of the highly-respected Search Engine Marketing: The essential best practice guide. I am reprinting his full answer on my website (www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/se_pointed_domains.htm). Here's my short summary of his answer...

Search engines understand that several domain names may parked pointing to the same website for various legitimate reasons -- to protect trademarks and brand names, waiting for a future website, etc. This is not a problem. However, if you submit to the search engines each of the domains pointing to the same website trying to trick them into boosting your ranking then they will penalize you. This is a different issue than creating duplicate content on a number of servers, which I discussed in the July 2, 2003 issue (http://www.doctorebiz.com/v8/030702.htm).