Is it good or bad to have other URL's pointing to your website?

[Luddite]

I was told recently that search engines don't like urls that point to another website. Is this true?
At present I have a url (nickflint.com - pure vanity!), should anyone try to go to it they are referred to my shop website - theperfectpad.co.uk.

I was thinking of buying another, more product specific URL and pointing it to my site - but now i'm not sure.

Any thoughts most welcome.

Nick

[jont]

Search engines like inbound links from other sites to yours but prefer them to be totally different sites with different or similar content.

If you are going to add more domains out there you are best creating stand alone sites and link in to your main e-commerce site at the salient points - don't just do a copy or add a re-direct

[Luddite]

Thanks Jont - at the moment i've got about 4 or 5 other URL's that redirect to theperfectpad.co.uk - I'll cancel the redirects, maybe this is a stupid question but why are redirects bad?

Nick

[jont]

Some engines can tag this as an attempt to spam them with your main site and mark you down accordingly

[Luddite]

I stopped my other domains referring to theperfectpad.co.uk on Wednesday, and now my google rating has gone down from 3 to 2 - Coincidence? What do you think.

Nick

[DaveT]

Google has a had a reshuffle today, I doubt it has anything to do with those links.

My sites and competitions seem to have gone down slightly, they'll be back soon.

[jont]

Mine have stayed still but a clients has moved up - she will be happy and it hasn't cost her a penny either