Your Blog, Multiple URLs

Having multiple blogs in a custom domain is a simple matter, with a custom domain array. Sometimes, you may want to publish just one blog, but use multiple domain URLs for that blog. There are several ways to do this, producing varying results with some subtle differences.

Recently, I changed the domain URL for my church blog "Martinez United Methodist Church", from martinezumc.org, to martinez-umc.org. I started out with a stub at the new location, and slowly added content. The new URL was fully operational last week, and over the weekend I finished the job.

The blog now has 4 URLs

• The primary URL is martinez-umc.org.
• There are 3 secondary URLs
  1. The original BlogSpot URL martinezumc.blogspot.com.
  2. The original domain martinezumc.org.
  3. The current BlogSpot URL martinez-umc.blogspot.com.

Each of the secondary URLs redirects, using a "301 Moved Permanently", to another URL.

1. The original BlogSpot URL "martinezumc.blogspot.com" redirects to the original domain "martinezumc.org", using a standard BlogSpot custom domain redirect.
2. The original domain "martinezumc.org" redirects to the primary URL "martinez-umc.org".
3. The current BlogSpot URL "martinez-umc.blogspot.com" redirects to the primary URL "martinez-umc.org", using a standard BlogSpot custom domain redirect.

The effect of a "301 Moved Permanently" is to simultaneously

1. Take traffic to a secondary URL such as "martinezumc.org", and redirect the traffic to the primary URL "martinez-umc.org".
2. Instruct the search engines to replace the secondary URL, such as "martinezumc.org" with the primary URL "martinez-umc.org", in their database.
3. Display the primary URL "martinez-umc.org", as the destination in the browser.

My task for the weekend was to make the original domain "martinezumc.org" redirect to the primary URL "martinez-umc.org". This involved a 2 step process.

1. Define the DNS addresses for the original domain "martinezumc.org", pointing to the GoDaddy Forwarding server.
2. Define the target of the redirect, "martinez-umc.org", on the GoDaddy Forwarding server.

The first step involved DNS address definitions, pointing to the GoDaddy Forwarding Server.

martinezumc.org. 3589 IN A 64.202.189.170
www.martinezumc.org. 3600 IN CNAME martinezumc.org.

pwfwd-v01.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (64.202.189.170)
64.202.160.0 - 64.202.191.255
GoDaddy.com, Inc.

The second step involved Advanced DNS Settings in the GoDaddy DNS Manager wizard for "martinezumc.org", where I selected "301 Moved Permanently", and entered "www.martinez-umc.org". The GoDaddy script would not accept the primary domain, "martinez-umc.org", as the target, so I was forced to use the "www" alias "www.martinez-umc.org", as the target.

Having setup the redirect, let's examine it in an HTTP trace excerpt.

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: martinezumc.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 64.202.189.170
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Content-Length:·0(CR)(LF)
Location:·/?b1b7cb08(CR)(LF)

Sending request:

GET /?b1b7cb08 HTTP/1.1
Host: martinezumc.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 64.202.189.170
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Content-Length:·0(CR)(LF)
Location:·/(CR)(LF)

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: martinezumc.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 64.202.189.170
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·301·Moved·Permanently(CR)(LF)
Connection:·close(CR)(LF)
Date:·Tue,·24·Feb·2009·07:17:54·GMT(CR)(LF)
Server:·Microsoft-IIS/6.0(CR)(LF)
X-Powered-By:·ASP.NET(CR)(LF)
X-AspNet-Version:·2.0.50727(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://www.martinez-umc.org(CR)(LF)

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.martinez-umc.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 209.85.171.121
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·302·Moved·Temporarily(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://martinez-umc.org/(CR)(LF)

Sending request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: martinez-umc.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009011913 Firefox/3.0.6
Connection: close

• Finding host IP address...
• Host IP address = 216.239.32.21
• Finding TCP protocol...
• Binding to local socket...
• Connecting to host...
• Sending request...
• Waiting for response...
Receiving Header:
HTTP/1.1·200·OK(CR)(LF)

<link·rel="alternate"·type="application/rss+xml"·title="Martinez·United·Methodist·Church·-·RSS"·href="http://martinez-umc.org/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss"·/>(LF)
<link·rel="service.post"·type="application/atom+xml"·title="Martinez·United·Methodist·Church·-·Atom"·href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3417375949242075395/posts/default"·/>(LF)

>> Top