Cloaking a Redirect

That is something you can setup with your domain registrar, like GoDaddy.com. It's pretty simple, you just fill in the field and it's done.

Not really. Think if phishers could do that, no one couldn't see the difference between their fake url and the real one!

Not really? I can guarantee that GoDaddy does it. Look it up, because I've used it before. It's as simple as hiding a webpage within an entire iFrame.

Granted, you have to own both domains (or at least the one through GoDaddy... you can reference any site), but it works.

"Don't knock it till you try it."

Yeah an iFrame will do it, but it's not really "cloaking" (in my book). It's more like a work around .

Yeah, well it's as close as you can get to it. So, for all intents and purposes, it is "cloaking".

Thanks for the help guys.

My domain registrar offers frame based domain forwarding with url cloaking (including full path and subdomain options plus some meta data even). Unfortunately, my host does not offer the same service on his nameserver so it seems I would have to repatriate the name server back from the host to the registrar - with attendant complications for all the other domains I have at the host (some at different registrars, of course!).

Also, as I understand it, the search engine indexing bots are too dumb to make it through the "frame" so you stay indexed only under the old "unfriendly" long physical address. This is unsatisfactory - as I seek to build a brand with off-page SEO under the "new" url.

My host suggested I coould do some .htaccess mod_rewrite coding to achieve the desired cloaking at the host. Hopefully this would permit the search engine bots to index the entire site under its new "friendly" url, including subdirectories and page names. If this could be achieved reliably it seems a good solution. But just how big is that "if"?

I'm nervous of the stability of .htaccess manipulations because they don't alway migrate reliably between hosts. So I am considering instead the more drastic alternative of physically migrating the site to a top level directory under its new url (with simple 301 redirects from the old "physical" address). That would get me indexed nicely under the "new" domain without losing traffic addressed to the "old". Downside is the possibility of migration hiccups plus the inconvenience and cost of an additional hosting account.

This experience will teach me not to implement new sites as subdomains (except for silos). In future, I start with a new domain name and develop from there.

Any further advice or comment on the matter?

Thanks again,
Steve

No, not really. A modern search engine indexes the domain, and contents within. It would *probably* index at least the front page of the iFramed site.

As a simple option, you could always host the new domain (whatever.com) on the server, create an internal iFrame, and frame whatever you're talking about.