Aliasing Domains with Proper SEO (domains and Search Engines)

Aliasing a domain to a primary domain is a great way to simplify domain hosting as only one main site has to be updated.  However, when aliasing a domain you need to consider SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because if a search engine sees the same content on two different domains, they can downrank it .  As such, it is best to use a rewrite such as the following in the .htaccess file. 

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.)?domain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
  1. Edit the above so that domain, com, and domain.com are the correct values. 
  2. Open the .htaccess file in the domain's directory via the file manager or on your computer
  3. Place the above in the .htaccess file, above any other rewrites that you may have
  4. Save the file to the server
  5. Test for any errors and using the alias domains to verify it is redirecting
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