Same site, different domains

is this good practice?

[Jimmy Turnip]

I have exactly the same site running on two different domains. For example a page on one site like www.bluewidgets.com/news/article.html is exactly the same as www.redwidgets.com/news/article.html on another. One of the domains has a higher PR than the other and is ranking well, but I want to use the domain with the lower PR as the main one because it is better.

Shall I leave the domain set-up as it is, or would it be better to have a 301 redirect to the domain that I want to use? I'm just not sure what is best for my search engine rankings. Is my current set-up bad practice? Any advice is appreciated.

[maximillianos]

I'd be careful. You could get hit with a penalty from the search engines. If you read Yahoo's take on what they consider bad technique, you will find one of the items is having multiple domains pointing to the same content. I had my site banned from Yahoo for doing this (or at least I think it was the reason)

You may take a hit in the short run, but consolidating is definitely the way to go. I think a 301 re-direct would be fine.

Good luck!

[Jimmy Turnip]

Thanks maximillianos. Do you know where I can find that document on Yahoo! so I can have a read? I had a hunt around, but can't find it.

[maximillianos]

Here ya go:

[help.yahoo.com...]

[Jimmy Turnip]

thanks

[maximillianos]

You are welcome... good luck!