Does 301 redirect affect SEO?

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Mohammad Athar Staff asked 2 years ago
Many years ago when a guy built my original website he had me buy the domain name with the .com for the primary and then .net and .biz. He then set up domain forwarding for the .net and the .biz to resolve to the .com using a 301 redirect through the domain registrar. He said that was better for SEO because then if a customer typed in mydomin.com, mydomain.net, or mydomain.biz they would all resolve to one domain the mydomain.com. In reading, I see articles that appear to indicate that this could actually be hurting my primary domains, is old school, and should not be done now.   Can anyone advise? clearly, if this is an outdated technique and hurts my ranking I will eliminate the two domains pointing to my primary domain. The .net and .biz have never had any content as they are just 301 redirects to my primary domain.
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Poonam Sharma answered 2 years ago
It doesn't help SEO, but I don't see anything wrong with it. For my brands, I usually buy the other versions and point them to my domain. But not for SEO. I buy those domains because I don't want someone squatting on them or leaching off my brand. I forward them to the main site simply because it makes sense, for users and because that's where the main brand lives. Personally, I don't think there's anything to worry about here.
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Fajal Shah answered 2 years ago
This would not hurt your domain unless the previous domains are black listed or have other infractions against them, and then are forwarded. From an SEO perspective it neither helps nor hurts. From a business and branding perspective, your guy understood the assignment
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Rahul answered 2 years ago
It neither hurts or helps your SEO. Google won't, in most cases ever have indexed a website on the alternative TLDs, so it simply won't know about them. You can check the link profiles. If they have no back links then they pass no value.
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Sunita answered 2 years ago
This could neither help nor hurt your site from an SEO standpoint. It's about users' experience. But mostly to prevent cyber squatting. Nobody is ever going to type the .net or .org version of your domain into the address bar.
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Raj Malik answered 2 years ago
He is wrong. Its to prevent cyber squatting and protect your domain’s brand and reputation. Say your website becomes famous a copycat can buy the dot net version and pose as your site.