I use zoneedit.com and similar domain forwarding services. The "cloaked" option appears to uses frames to hold the "real" address.

I am guessing that even when uncloaked (meta refresh), but especially when cloaked, domain forwarding will be a problem for search engine placement.

Any opinions on whether that is a valid concern? I know at one point search engines would not follow refreshes nor look inside frames, and I am sure that has improved--but only to a point. Or maybe they have come farther than I know, and refreshes and reframes are no longer problematic for search sites.

Thanks!

I have a non-frames site using zoneedit non-cloaked redirection. It got listed perfectly fine with Google.

So, I think other search engines should also be able to accomplish this, and also with framed pages using cloaked redirection (which is again, framing).

But Google should be a lotta benefit to your page - it's the most used one - excluding Yahoo, which again uses Google's lists in addition to the human compiled directory.

Wing.

I have read information from several sources that the meta refresh tags are a bad thing as far as the search engines go. Here is one reference:
http://spider-food.net/spam-b.html

And here's something about frames:
http://spider-food.net/frames.html

If you read the instructions for each search engine, you'll find that some do indeed mention redirection will cause sites not to be listed.

This might help prioritizing for S.E. placement.
http://websnapshot.mycomputer.com/searchengines.html

Thanks Duster and IH,
Now I know. And thanks for correcting my fallacy of reason. Now I've got something to do to improve my sites position in search listings.

Wing.

As I feared. Now the obvious question: is there any OTHER way to domain forwarding, that works at the IP address level and is transparent to the browser? I would think this could be done--cloaked or not.

My Web host can park domains and point them all to one place--I'm assuming that would work. It's not cheap to do that, of course--$25 per domain per year--but may still be worth it. Any other options?

I used to use mydomain.com's cloaked web forwarding, and it use to index the pages description as "Your browser does not support frames, click here to get redirected" lol..

Ever since I obtained a dedicated IP address and began using the IP forwarding, I have not had this problem :)

My zoneedit.com domains have a description reading "[domain name] is coming soon" (!)

My redirection.net domain has nothing.

Oh well, you get what you pay for! Still useful for some purposes. When I'm rich I'll move some of those to more expensive options.

You say "IP forwarding" is what I should really be looking for? As opposed to "domain forwarding?" (I want to know the terms for what to look for and what to avoid.)