ciml - 10:05 am on Feb 7, 2002 (gmt 0)

Chris, I also don't think I have any secrets that I haven't mentioned here, but am concerned about spam penalties because it PR0 would have serious affects for my customers. I tend to make related sites (the owners don't seem to mind me working for their direct competitors) and what I do (linking to relevant content) could look very similar to those multi-domain spam campaigns Google seeks to hunt down and destroy. So far I've had no sites PR0-penalised (just a few pages on one), but if I did I have then I might have half the sites I manage wiped-out in one go.

The 'theme pyramids' approach just describes a sensible architecture for a large collection of Web content, I don't see Brett's article as implying the creation of 'empty' pages to fit the pyramid; rather that the pyramid is an effective way to structure your pages to help a search engine understand the relationship. At present, I don't believe that Google does understand it well, but I expect that either it or the next generation engines will.

Giacomo, because of my geographical location I have been asked to put up six different Web sites for six different hotels in "mycountry" over the past four years. Each project is stand-alone and 'bespoke'. The owners tend to like to own their domains, and I certainly advise them to. Is it wrong to use a separate domain for each?

Another local "Web designer" (I hate that term) has tended to use his own domain for similar projects (stand-alone sites for individual establishments), presumably because he doesn't run his own servers and hosting was quite expensive when he started.

He can get two listings on Google for "hotel in myarea", I can get twelve (just counting those six sites). It's much easier for me to get directory listings than him. Is he deserving of two listings and am I deserving of 12 just because of our URL choices? He links back to his tourism 'portal page', I link back to my regional 'portal page'. Is he right to link and am I wrong just because of our URL choices? These choices were made in 1997 (mine) and 1996 (his), so Google spamming wasn't on our minds.

Also, take national directories of hotels. Some use a directory (as in 'folder') for each entry, some use a domain for each entry. These also were going before Google started so the way that Google deals with duplication and spam can unintentionally hurt them, too. Understanding these factors is an important aspect of Internet marketing in 2002.

Calum