Google webmaster setup with forwarded domain?

[PrestaBizz]

My shop is on www.mysite.dk and I also have the .com domain which is forwarded to the .dk site. My site is in two languages (da and en) and my customers are mainly in EU, however I can accept/handle orders from all over the world.

 

I have registered the .dk domain on google webmaster tools and gwt chose Denmark as geograpfic area ( by default). I have submitted the sitemap on gwt.

 

The questions are:

1) Should I also registre the .com domain on gwt?

2) Should I submit the sitemap on gwt under the .com domain as well?

3) What will be the most optimal country/geographical setup on gwt for the two domains?

 

Looking very much forward hearing from you!

[El Patron]

if you have the .com forwarded (301 redirect) to the .dk then you should do nothing.

 

You should consider a multishop environment where you can have multiple url's for one shop.

[PrestaBizz]

Thanks a lot for the reply.

 

I think it is a 301 redirect as the .com is a permanent redirect via the cPanel.

 

Question: What is the advantage of turning the shop into a multishop environment compared to the setup I currently have? I mean, I can handle the differences in tax-rules, shipping and language with the setup I have. Have I missed something?

[El Patron]

many think that 1.5 for example is about having a single back office for different shops. But what if we share products across shops? if you use .com's .co's (gTLD's) then we can/will be penalized for duplicate content. That is the dirty little secret that the unaware will fall into.

 

here is more information:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182192

 

note on above...don't confuse language with multi-regional...most do and stop reading

 

if you use ccTLD (.de/.fr/) for example...then we can point the url's to the same content without being penalized for duplicate content.

 

having ccTLD for specific country increases seo for that country.

 

IMHO one should have a ccTLD for all countries that they allow registrations (shipping to)...for virtual product sellers...it's the cats meow...

 

note: search engines also rank on age of a url..so it might take some time for your url's to bubble up...

[PrestaBizz]

Ok thanks - I will look into it!