Problems with web forwarding...i think!

[oatcake_eater]

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of setting up my first ecommerce site and I'm a little stuck. I think it's a simple thing but Ican't find anything about it on the net (which usually means you don't know what you're looking for, so wouldn't know it even if you found it!)

Anyway, I thought of a name and promptly registered the domain with 123-reg just incase anyone jumped in before me! I'm using Prostores as my shop and I'm getting it all sorted quite well. The problem is, I forward my domain name to my very unuserfriendly store name, using "Framed forwarding." Because of this the name in the addressbar always stays the same, no matter where I am on the site it's always the domain name with no /collars /beds on the end.

I'm now worried that i won't be able to list all my pages with search engines because of it. what I really want is my domain name to stay the same but to have all the /collars, /beds etc working as the customer moves around the site. Hope that makes sence! can anyone help?:*D:

[Terminator1138]

I think you are talking about frames. Frames are not widely used anymore and they tend to be less cared about when the end user looks at your site.

Search engines have a harder time also. If you have a domain name it should never change no matter what folder you have unless you are pointing to another site outside of your domain.

You want to have those files and folders at the end so the user knows what is what and where. If you always have just domain name listed you will eventually lose the user when they dive deeper into a site.

So I'm not sure if that is what we are talking about when you search. Do you have a link?

[oatcake_eater]

Yes, thats exactly it 123-reg is using framed forwarding to my prostores store front. the link is www.prettypawsaccessories.co.uk but what you are actually seeing is a page at http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/prettypawsaccessories/StoreFront

The store is closed at the moment but as I say when it's open and I click around it the address bar never changes, I think you're confiming my problem in your reply, search engines are going to have problems with it.

I noticed in my prostore i can transfer a domain name to them? Would this solve the problem, guess I would no longer have to redirect from 123-reg? I'm not sure of cost though.


Cheers for your help Terminator1138, hope it makes sence now!

[Terminator1138]

Okay I get what you are saying now, you have your domain with another site and you are pulling another site into the frame. In the long run I'm not sure how the end user might react to the frames. I would transfer the domain for them to use instead of the redirect since you just have the store and no there parts of the site. The cost should not be that great.

I know search engines would not give you a proper index since the site is on another url. I hope this answers your question. For the most part frames are used less and less due to issues with search indexing and end user experience. If you have any other questions let us know.