Multiple sites on same topic bad SEO?

[john5000]

I read a random comment on a messageboard that suggested SEs might penalize you if you have multiple sites on the same topic.

Is there any truth in this?

I'm planning on starting two sites on the same topic but with vastly different angles. They will probably target the same keywords and the SE's might not know the sites have completely diffferent purposes.

[jbinbpt]

Two different domains? They will compete and you will compete against yourself. How are the SE's going to know they both are yours and why would they care?

[john5000]

Yes, different domains.

>>How are the SE's going to know they both are yours?<<

Good question.

I've read SEs favor domains that are registered for five years instead of 1 year. I suppose they could gather whois info and find that I own both sites.

[jbinbpt]

The only effect would be to dilute the traffic. If it is a concern, then make the registration info private when you register the domain.

[john5000]

>>The only effect would be to dilute the traffic<<

yeah, that was my guess. thanks for your input jb.

[caveman]

Hmmm, lemme see. Would I rather have 3 sites in the top 10, or 1 site in the top ten. Hmmm. ;-)

[jimbeetle]

same topic but with vastly different angles

If you can repackage a topic to reach a different audience who's to say you shouldn't? Sound like a pretty good strategy if correctly done.

[mosio]

Do search engines really compare the whois database for two domains withe similar content? Is it necessary to have a private registration?

My guess was search engines would match IP addresses, isn't that right?

I have several domain with different IP adresses, however all of them share a database, so I only have to make the changes once... would I be penalized by search engines?

[jimbeetle]

Google became a registrar specifically to have easy access to the data. A couple of its algo patents make reference to domain age, how long it's registered for and a couple of other items.

What else they look at is anybody's guess, but it's assumed (kind of, maybe) that they do look at ownership data.

[john5000]

i just found another forum discussion on this topic and it was as open-ended as this one.

it seems reasonable that google wouldnt want anyone to have a monopoly on the top search results (imagine having 5 of the top 10 results). so i might consider doing the private reg.

[laertes]

Would I rather have 3 sites in the top 10, or 1 site in the top ten.

I'd rather have 1 site with 3 pages in the top ten.

[caveman]

I'd rather have 1 site with 3 pages in the top ten.

Well aside from the fact that that isn't possible in the standard SERP's except at some SE's that are temporarily broken and/or are displaying subdomains, what happens if that 1 site gets blown up?

Risk is greatly reduced by having 1 page rank from each of three sites, versus only pages from one site ranking. Plus, if you can get indented listings, with 3 sites in the top 10, you could conceivably have 6 listings of the 10 on page one. Not that I'm advocating such a thing. ;-)