SEO for company provided replicating website

[klyons]

Hi, I have a quick question. I have a biz selling nutritional supplements. As a distributor for the company, we can ONLY use the company provided replicating websites for promoting and selling products. I have no ability to create my own website and link back to this company provided website. They are very strict about this (FDA). I've tried and they asked me to shut them down :( Anyway, here's my question. Since I have NO ability to access the replicating website HTML code to do any SEO, what options do I have to get better search engine rankings? The company that I buy my URL's from has stealth forwarding that allows me to input the Title, keywords and meta description. Would this be an acceptable alternative? Are there any other options I have? Tks for the help. Ken

[pleeker]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

You may as well do what they allow you to do, but my best guess is that the duplicate content issue (all these sites having the same on-page content) will prevent you from ever enjoying any real success in the organic (free) SERPs. Think of it this way: with all these sites so similar, why should yours be ranked any higher than another? Inbound links may be about all you have to go on to try to separate your site from the rest. Can you get a dramatically higher amount of inbound links than the next guy? Only you know that.

Sounds to me like you're an ideal candidate for PPC programs like AdWords or Overture. Good luck.

[Rocknroll]

I agree with pleeker here. No access to the HTML code leaves you or any SEO consultant very less options i am afraid. Links is the way to go!

[klyons]

Thanks for the replies. Will definitely work on the links.

Last question, do you think I would just be spinning my wheels if I do use the stealth forwarding for my URL and fill in the Title, keywords and meta description, then run it thru a submission tool?

[pleeker]

do you think I would just be spinning my wheels if I do use the stealth forwarding for my URL and fill in the Title, keywords and meta description, then run it thru a submission tool?

If you have a way to do Title, keywords, and description correctly, then of course you should do it. But, due to the fact that your site is otherwise exactly like so many others, you may be spinning your wheels by submitting it anywhere. Human-edited directories don't care for duplicate sites, and submitting to crawler-based SEs is of minimal value these days -- better to get inbound links to help the crawlers find you.