302 redirect - SE penalty?

I've been a developer for years but am just learning the ropes as
webmaster, so please bear with me if I'm asking a naïve question.

I built a website appealing to bicyclists, which I'll call
www.CycleXXX.com. Realizing that this site would also appeal to
runners, I bought the domain www.RunXXX.com, and had my domain
registrar redirect it to my original www.CycleXXX.com site. The
CycleXXX website realizes when a visitor has been redirected from the
RunXXX URL, and serves slightly different content, with some wording
changes to make it look like a running site rather than a cycling
site. So cyclists go to CycleXXX.com and get cycling content, while
runners go to RunXXX.com and get redirected to CycleXXX.com, where
they are served running-based content because I know they arrived via
redirection. Everybody's happy, so far.

But the question/problem is this: my domain registrar is using a 302
redirect to forward from RunXXX.com to CycleXXX.com. I have come
across some articles and newsgroup postings stating that google and
other SE's will penalize sites that use 302 redirects (as opposed to
301, which does not incur penalty).

Do I understand this correctly: is my CycleXXX.com site going to get
whacked with a penalty because it is the recipient of a 302 redirect
from the RunXXX.com URL?

The domain registrar tells me that they will only use 302 redirects
for domain forwarding; they will not do a 301. So if this arrangement
really will hurt my site, what's the best solution? Do I need to get
the RunXXX.com site hosted, and set it up permanently with a 301
redirect to the other site? If so, can anyone please tell me
precisely what code should go into RunXXX.com/default.htm to properly
perform the 301 redirect?

Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise.

On 17 Sep 2004 15:28:55 -0700, scott (AT) csgsolutions (DOT) com (Ray.Net) wrote:

I've been a developer for years but am just learning the ropes as
webmaster, so please bear with me if I'm asking a naïve question.

I built a website appealing to bicyclists, which I'll call
www.CycleXXX.com. Realizing that this site would also appeal to
runners, I bought the domain www.RunXXX.com, and had my domain
registrar redirect it to my original www.CycleXXX.com site. The
CycleXXX website realizes when a visitor has been redirected from the
RunXXX URL, and serves slightly different content, with some wording
changes to make it look like a running site rather than a cycling
site. So cyclists go to CycleXXX.com and get cycling content, while
runners go to RunXXX.com and get redirected to CycleXXX.com, where
they are served running-based content because I know they arrived via
redirection. Everybody's happy, so far.

But the question/problem is this: my domain registrar is using a 302
redirect to forward from RunXXX.com to CycleXXX.com. I have come
across some articles and newsgroup postings stating that google and
other SE's will penalize sites that use 302 redirects (as opposed to
301, which does not incur penalty).

Do I understand this correctly: is my CycleXXX.com site going to get
whacked with a penalty because it is the recipient of a 302 redirect
from the RunXXX.com URL?

The domain registrar tells me that they will only use 302 redirects
for domain forwarding; they will not do a 301. So if this arrangement
really will hurt my site, what's the best solution? Do I need to get
the RunXXX.com site hosted, and set it up permanently with a 301
redirect to the other site? If so, can anyone please tell me
precisely what code should go into RunXXX.com/default.htm to properly
perform the 301 redirect?

Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise.

I'd suggest three sites. One for the bikes, one for the runners, and
one for the shared content.

BB

In article <10a1d257.0409171428.6c7c41 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>, "Ray.Net"
<scott (AT) csgsolutions (DOT) com> writes

Do I understand this correctly: is my CycleXXX.com site going to get
whacked with a penalty because it is the recipient of a 302 redirect
from the RunXXX.com URL?

No, because, in general, site owners cannot control what URLs redirect
to pages on their sites.
--
Philip Baker