Site hosting and SEO question

Can anyone help me with this:

I have a domain name registered with 1and1 which is forwarded (frame redirected) to my site hosted with .mac (MobileMe). The redirect is masked so the visitor only ever sees the original URL.

Is this somehow detrimental to SEO or search results from Google?
Is it better to have the site hosted where the domain is registered?

I use Google Analytics and can see visitors data on a daily basis. Just wondering what the most effective set-up would be.
 
Yes, redirects are bad news for seo. Domain masking can be interpreted as duplicate content by the search bots which could lead to the wrong site being indexed or even penalties.
 
if this gets moved to web section jaz may see it, he's (one of) our resident (bing) seo expert so should give you a more definitive answer as I don't completely agree with wac's answer...

Iirc certain redirects won't hurt seo (301 etc) and as far as I know as long as the domain name dns server is pointing to the server that the files are on it shouldn't make any difference if the files are with the same company as the domain name or not.
 
Hi Lee,

Google has your domain/site indexed as: web.me.com/leepaulvickers

So, any off-site SEO work you carry out, ie. link building, will be wasted to a certain extent if you ever wanted the site hosted on your own domain. I think you would be better off buying some hosting (approx £30/yr) and having the site hosted with the domain as you can then work on your SEO safe in the knowledge your site is getting the benefits of that and that you could 301 redirect that if ever needed in the future.

& just to put in my opinion on the redirect issue, a 301 is telling the SE's it's a permanent move so you will get the majority of the link equity passed onto the new domain. Framed web forwarding is generally bad (having said that Google has your URL indexed correctly) so I'd try to avoid that altogether.

So, yes frame redirect is bad.
& yes definitely better to invest in your own hosting for your own domain name.

HTH.
Greg
 
Great, thanks for replies it's extremely helpful.

As you can tell I'm not that knowledgable about this kind of stuff, that's why I stick to print! But, my suspicions were correct and being a bit of a pedant thought it was cleaner to have my site hosted by 1and1.

The reason I'm still using the MobileMe hosting is because it's a hangover from my freelance days and a place I could deposit work if ever I needed to send a link to someone. However, as you say Greg, now I'll be working on SEO proactively and want to maximise the benefits.
 
It's a good plan Lee, and sounds like you're picking up the knowledge :)
Remember just because you have your domain registered with 1and1, doesn't mean you need your hosting with them too, sometimes easier, but not always best, for instance I register my UK domains with 123-Reg, but have contacts who had a nightmare hosting with them, so choose to have my sites hosted with Openmind (who I seem to be constantly recommending).
 
I don't, but would say it's quite tricky to compare them in a table format like that, as so many offer 'unlimited# bandwidth etc, and over-sell their resources. Sending you a PM with an idea :)
 
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