f13.net

If a domain name that is something like http://blahblah.com/home.asp
does the home.asp negatively affect my seo?

From what I can see is that is does not but have had some people say that it will hurt.
The domain name is set up either using dns or pointing directly to an IP.
The people that tell me that the domain name should not have the /home.asp at the end. With some templated sites this is not an options to remove.

Or would a better option be to set up domain forwarding with a 301 permanent and masking?

It shouldn't. Not to any noticable degree at least.

Also, you're asking about forwarding questions?

Don't get wrapped up in a pyramid scheme. The only reason anyone ever asks about forwarding is if there's money at stake. And with the internet, if there's money at stake combined with forwarding, it's a pyramid scheme.

Masking is just a vain attempt to make it look like your own website and not a pyramid scheme.

If you're dead set on it. Permanent.

Tell me you didn't call GoDaddy or Network Solutions.

If it was, I can probably guess the pyramid scheme. :oh_i_see:

The "home.asp" part doesn't matter in it of itself but it is important to make sure the URL to your "home" page is consistent:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/

Thanks!
The reason I asked was that my company provides custs with templated sites (this is not our primary business)
We have had a few people tell us that having a /home.aps is hurting their seo. I generally advised that it does not and then show them examples of others of our sites that are getting great ranking.
I just wanted to confirm what i was pretty sure i knew  :why_so_serious:

As for the forwarding. My understanding is that if you set up multiple domains using the same dns it will hurt your ranking. Essentially Google will see it as 2 separate sites with the same content.
The way to avoid this is to set up one domain using dns and set the rest to forward to that domain using a 301 permanent.
 

i can see where widgetname.asp might help your SEO. I wouldn't think if your page is masked or not or the name of your default document would make a single bit of difference to a crawler though.