What is Domain Masking?

Hi guys,

How do I set up domain masking? where is this done?

Domain masking is a technique by which you hide a domain name. Let's say you have a long URL like this: some-domain/l-o-n-g--url/ and you want it to appear under another domain in a shortened manner like this: another-domain/short-url/
then you use this technique. Usually the second domain pulls a page in a frame from the originating domain so that the browser address bar doesn't display the real address.

I am curious about this masking subject - how do the SE's look upon doing this ?

Beth

No favorably - it's been a black hat tactic for a long time. It can be used properly, like when you are rewriting URLs as Prowler mentioned, but it's sketchy at best, as too many spammers have pounded this idea into the ground.

There is a 'good' side to this technique too. You have a complex web application which is running in a main server and you want to invoke this in many other sites (all owned by you), then it is one of the easiest ways to accomplish.

As my colleague SportsGuy pointed out, many people have abused this method. Bottomline is Search engines have a dim view of this domain masking.

very few methods haven't been abused lol