Launching second domain for same site

Penalty or not?

[Gundamknight]

We're thinking of launching a separately branded site on one of our other domains.

Our goal is to increase orders through separate branding - it's going to take a long time for this new site to climb in SERPs anyways, so we're not looking for a freshness effect.

Is this "sneaky"? Would google penalize both sites for something like this?

We've labelled clearly that this new site is an affiliate of our primary domain. We're not hiding WhoIs information, contact information, phone numbers, or anything else. Basically, we're launching a very similar site, and similar if not exact content, under a different domain.

We're doing this under orders, but if this is going to get us killed, we can hopefully pursuade or boss to cancel his idea.

Thanks in advance,

-- G

[Marcia]

So essentially they're the same site, with identical content and another domain name. What's different, just the graphics and appearance?

[jbgilbert]

If they new site is too similar, it does run the risk of being banned. This is especially true if some event triggers a manual audit by a SE employee. Some of the auditors know their stuff and some don't -- it's the ones that are not very experienced that worry me the most.

I have personally seen this happen to a person I like a lot -- me....

There was no intent on my part to fool the SEs, but the ban happened and months worth of attempted communication with the SE to get things worked out failed miserably.

[dirty_marra]

GundamKnight,

We did precisely what you are proposing to do about 12 months ago.

Things were cool until update Austin when the big G only started to recognise our first domain and sent the other domain to the bottom of the serps for competitive keywords.

Our current thinking is to focus on our first domain and make sure that our seconday domain has got totally unique content.

The good news is that by doing this updates are easier and you don't have to worry about duplicate content....although I'm sure there are downsides too.

Marra

PS - I don't claim to be an expert at this (far from it based on our SERPS!) just a manager of a company that has found himself having to know far too much about a search engine.
I never used to be a nerd....honest! Now i spend all day on webmasterworld and the sad thing is that I enjoy it!.....bugger!

[webnewton]

Take a note of following points:

1) Excellent idea to have another brand online. Ofcouse it'll take some time to come up on serps. But dont' put your original site in danger. This could happen if both the sites have duplicate content/functionality or/and are optimized for the simmilar keywords.

2)Keep the site different. Also now when you've the liberty of another site why don't you optimize it for different set of keywords related to your industry.

Problem might come with simmilar sites optimized for simmilar set of keywords. Just take care here.

[whiterabbit]

Hi Gundamknight

this thread may help you in seeking an answer:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Tony