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The websites will NOT be linked to each other.
Each website will be marketed to a different area of the country, and the domain name will show this.
However, would it be possible for someone to screw me by creating a page that linked to all my sites? Or, is there any possible way I could get screwed by doing this? A lot of time is going into this project so I need help in being sure I won't get banned from Google by having almost identical sites.
God Bless all you google guru junkies
if you own the servers/domains and the content, i think you can do whatever you want with it. there is no-one limiting you on your own property.
maybe your visitors are a little confused because they don't know which domain to use or take the other one falsely, because they look that equal they can't differ.
[edited by: hakre at 6:47 am (utc) on Mar. 4, 2003]
when you say 96% similar are you talking about the page template or the content?
If you are talking about content you run the chance of a problem.
Refer to this thread : http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/9837.htm [webmasterworld.com]
*note - in the above instance there was crosslinking.
[edited by: Big_Balou at 6:49 am (utc) on Mar. 4, 2003]
I just thought about adding that note.
Looks like you type faster than I do. :)
The template is 99%-100% identical, involving SQL, ASP, HTML, etc... The advanced programming involved and my limited budget will force me to keep a similar template for each site.
The content may vary a little, but for the most part the content will be very similar on some sites, and very different on others.
Example:
Site (1) is about apples, oranges, bananas, pears.
Site (2) is about apples.
Site (3) is about apples, oranges.
Site (4) is about apples, oranges, bananas, pears.
But again, none of the site will link to each other.
Its always good to look at it from the searcher's position. Would they want to pick up 10 sites, all from the same owner for their keyword search? OK so if they put in the location then would get the domain or yours that is most relevant, but there is still the problem for Google on how to make sure all domains dont come up for terms that are present in every site.
An alternative is to use subdomains or folders and have your index page offer options to go to the folder/subdomain for each country? Then again i would have to ask why it is necessary to have so much duplicate content? If your message is the same for each country, why do you need separate domains or folders for each. Why not have one optimised page for each country, very unique to each other, giving any different message you really need to say about the different country?
If there is no real difference, it sounds to me just like an attempt to get high on several different location keywrods for the same content. I know some are doing this successfully in the travel and real estate areas for a while, but i dont think it will continue for long.. even as short a time as the next update where GoogleGuy has promised some new spam filters!
In our own area, Ive seen over the past couple of years many competing owners having domains wiped out from the index for even less than what you are proposing..
i.e.
www.whistling-in-china
(all content very similar to others but with china substituted for other country names and a small unique para on china which is repeated on every page in that domain only)
www.whistling-in-mongolia
www.whistling-in-upper-monglia
www.whistling-in-burma
etc etc etc.
You cant find any of those domains any more.
Just wondering what your motivation is for this stratgey.
As well I'm not sure how you think you are going to limit the promotion of this geographically!
Here's a bit of real world scenario for ya:
I just took on a client who had put this stratgey in place over a year ago with over 100 domains formatted like http;//www.widgetsboston.com, http;//www.widgetsnewyork.com etc (X 100)
Thought they could target geographically...wrong!
The content was 96% the same and although the crosslinks were somewhat helpful in driving up PR the integrity of the system is shot.
Let me tell you that it is a nightmare situation in so far as management and we are in the process of removing them and using these "city" domains for the purpose of generating unique content hubs.
So my two cents worth says do the right thing and use these sites to create unique content... if you want to sleep at night.
Rule number one in all site development "Do not confuse the client"...and the search engines will repect you in the morning!
Hope this helps!
--Paul
My opinion is if you crosslink at all it will be very short-lived with google
Even without ANY crosslinking, I think you're heading down a bad path unless you can "create truly different content for each site", when you say 96-99%, it means to me a different url scattered across the page a few times
Chiyo's comment about thinking like a searcher is on the money, but also think like google and lastly think like a "robot".
Why would I as a searcher want to see 10 sites that have the same content ... Why would I as Google want to display 10 sites that have the same content?
The short answer's are they wouldn't ...
If it were me in your shoes I would go back to the drawing board and try to come up with a different plan. Truly different content would be preferred but at a minimum I would say different content in a robot's eyes.
Also I would go in with the full expectation that it is risky and very likely not going to last long.
I know not what you want to hear, sorry about that,
Lets pretend my site is for cars for sale by owner
i might have my domains as:
Texas-used-cars.com
California-used-cars.com
USA-used-cars.com
Now, if someone wanted to post their car for sale in Texas, I would want their car posted on the Texas website, and also the USA website, but not the CA website.
I'm really frustrated that Google might have a problem with this concept...because this basically means I can't niche market my sites while having a global site to house all the info.
This concept of niche marketing just plain and simple doesn't work well at the domain level (my humble experience)...now at the page level its a totally different situation!
I'd rethink your domain stragetgy and integrate this into a more detailed site structure. Create killer pages around the pertinent city/state keywords and go from there!
I think Pallison is right.
You can acheive all you want with one site, than many domains, and wont run as many risks.
Remember, Google evaluates by Page not Site. If someone was typing in used cars Texas, your used cars Texas page will come up, OR your main domain with links to it! It sometimes seems that Google evaluates by site as the index page often has the highest page rank because that is what others link to the most. But on the whole its page indexing, not site indexing.
The problem with having diff domains is you run the risk of having several of them appear on the one SERP, and you cant cross link between them as safely as you can pages on one site. You also will have to wait longer for ANY of your sites to get reasonable Page Rank, as external links to your properties will be diluted through all domains rather than going to one domain/page.
So you can still niche just as effectively.
So agree with Pallison. Ditch the domain strategy and go for a page/section stratey!
I only have two things to say:
1. Reread Pallison's post. Several times. there's something to be said for being one company instead of fifty.
2. Nobody knows what goes on inside Google's algorithms. People can guess, infer and surmise all day long, but nobody knows. And that's especially true with spam filters that rely on a kind of general pattern recognition. Therefore there is no point asking for a definitive answer.
My GUESS is that you will not be penalized or dropped for mirroring, but that you will have low PR because it will be difficult to attract enough inbound links to make up for the multiplicity of pages.
Just wondering what your motivation is for this stratgey..
I too have to wonder what the purpose is.
I have yet to see any kind of similar strategy be successful. For one thing, you end up splitting your traffic and lowering your popularity and PR - meaning less overall traffic combined.
And before you go to far with this you should take a look at how people search for things, not how you think they SHOULD search. I think you will be surprised.
I'm actually a step ahead of you.
The reason I want to create multiple sites, (ex. one for texas, one for CA, and one for USA is because Overture is telling me large numbers are looking for these specific "used cars" in these specific area's each month.
My motivation for creating multiple sites is due to the Overture tracking, and also the these sites will be extrememly unique, and my customers will be forced to link to the site...thus the PR strategy won't be difficult.
SO, without worrying about the PR, or about dividing up my traffic among two sites, the quesiton still remains....
Will Google have a problem with sites that have similar templates, some similar content, and No cross-linking?
Eventually, yes, because even if they don't cross-link to each other, Google will eventually discover the content similarities via links from other sources.
I strongly agree with what Pallison said.
If you had one site with a file structure something like sitename.com/texas/, sitename.com/virginia/, etc. and got people to link to the appropriate state pages, rather than separate sites, you could do effective regional marketing both online and off, and also get PR and branding benefits that would flow throughout the site.
Consider this: Useful content which was presented on one page and linked to from lots of state pages could do well in the search engines on its own and draw significant traffic to the site. An example might be an article about things to look for when shopping for your product. On the other hand, if you took the same content and duplicated it ( or nearly so) on multiple sites, not only would it be unlikely to accomplish much, it could present a real risk.
this has been exlored a little on a couple of different threads ... seems the answer is 1 of 3
only if you have a higher pagerank
only if you page is "older" looking at cache etc
no, they can report it to a different part of google(can't remember the name) as stealing copyrighted content ...
Unless your attempt-at-sabotage domain had higher PR than the competitor's original, his pages would rank better than your duplicates, and if anything got penalized it would/should be your copy. If you had the capability of giving such a domain a PR that outranked his, well, um, let's just say that there's serious efficiency questions about using your PR that way!
In the long run, it is both more effective and more ethical to invest in POSITIVE efforts to promote yourself than in NEGATIVE efforts to undermine your competion. (That's in general: self-defense if they're doing something scummy is a specialized discussion.)
"Don't be evil" -- not only is "play nice" nicer, it's ultimately more efficient!
If any of the above is a 'yes' then they can be easily grouped and identified as part of a set. Cross-linking isn't the only concern.
