Running Two Web Sites?

Planning a new site. We already have a site thats sells.

[Block19Row13]

Hi All,

The company i work for wishes to build a stand alone web site for one of our product ranges.

Scenario:
Our widget site that sells over 1600 different types of widget now has a substantially large blue widget section.

we are looking into creating a specific blue widget shop.

Im worried that google may think we are trying to cram the SERP's pages with our sites becuase the blue widgets will be on both sites and therefore could potentially get positions 1 & 2.

Ive heard rumours that google will find similarities on your site such as zip (postal) codes etc to match up sites under the same company.

Any adivce?

[treeline]

Don't just copy the site design, product descriptions, database, and filenames to a new server. Write a new site pretty much from scratch and it should be fine.

Look at all the affiliate crap out there that is OK with Google. Some similarity doesn't seem to disturb Google. But if they think its just the same info re-presented, they may ignore it.

[webnewton]

No need to panic but if you want to employ some precautionary measure they could be:
1)Make sure the I.P address for the two site are different.
2) Dont link the two site.
3)Make sure there isnt' any duplicate content.
and thats it..

[itisgene]

I think one way link from the main site to new site is RECOMMENDED. Without the link, how would your customers know if there is new web site for the bule widget? When do you think search engines will pick up the site?

Don't over crosslink each other. In fact just one way link will be much safer. Anyway they are affiliated site, right?

As long as the design is quite different and has different aspects of contents(i.e. No same template), you should be fine.

[Vespasian]

I was thinking of something similar. Does the design of a second site have to be different? Wouldn't a similar design and completely different content be completely safe, also?

[itisgene]

If you use a template, 50-90% of the code will be same depending on the code it uses. If you are selling same blue widget, how much difference do you think you can make for the same product?

It is safer to change 50-90% design than 10-50% content. I don't think you are going to just copy and paste the content anyway. right..?

[webnewton]

think one way link from the main site to new site is RECOMMENDED

Accepted ITISGENE!

[topr8]

with only two sites it is fine to run them from the same ip and to link them.

[Block19Row13]

thanks for all your comments.

we are usi ng site buidling software, but i have control over the template files so i can edit them to make sure they are not the same as the other site.

although i must say, its going to be quite tough coming up with new product specifications.

[treeline]

Your product specifications, i.e. weight, length, etc, can be the same, but organize them differently. Put them in a different order, or use cm instead of centimeters. Different people presenting the same info naturally do it a little differently. Ask your sister or a friend what they think the best layout would be, and you'll have a new way to present it.