Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I apologize if this is not the correct forum to post this question, this is my first post.
I would like to know if I can be penalized by Google Search in the following scenario:
www.example.com/cat1 -> www.cat1.tld
www.example.com/cat2/subcat1 -> www.subcat1.tld
www.example.com/cat3 -> www.cat3.tld
As you can see, some product categories in my site I would like it to be accessed through additional domains, being able to receive more relevance in Google's Search, because of the presence of the search term in the domain's url.
However, I'm not sure how I can be penalized for the duplicated pages it will result in.
In my understand, I should disallow search index for the page if it is being accessed through my main domain, and allowing indexing in that page only when access comes by the extra domain.
Also I can be wrong about the relevance factor. Perhaps the search term being present in the domain name is not more relevant than having the search term present in the url, no matter if it is at the host or uri.
I appreciate any help!
Regards,
- Michaelsen
[edited by: tedster at 9:13 pm (utc) on June 29, 2009]
[edit reason] switch to example.com - it can never be owned [/edit]
It's never a good idea to have two web addresses resolve to the same content. It almost never results in a true penalty, but it slices up all the ranking factors into separate piles for each url -- and that can keep you from ranking as well as you might.
So you need to make a business decision - separate keyword domains or one domain.
Upside --> Keyword domains do get a boost (however this effect shifts around - sometimes more and sometimes less.)
Downside --> If you go with separate domains, they will be separated from any sitewide factors that help to core domain rank.
If you use the keyword domains as merely 301 redirects, then it's not a good idea to market them directly (that's more of a spammer footprint), and only to promote the core domain. Whichever way you go, you should make sure all your linking points only to your chosen canonical address [webmasterworld.com].
There's a lot of reading about this kind of duplicate address challenge in the Hot Topics area [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page.
Your insight is very clear, and actually I was missing the main points which are "separate piles" and "core domain rank" in my understanding.
Please allow me to go a little further related to this topic yet.
As a business decision I go for "separate keyword domains", and focus in making what is strong even stronger. Since I don't have a relevance balance for my urls, I believe the harm can be minimum.
In this case I believe I have to turn www.example.com/cat1 + www.example.com/cat2/subcat1 + www.example.com/cat3 unacessible. Is this correct?
I appreciate the Google Hot Topics - FAQs, good stuff, definitely is saving me 20+ questions in this forum.
Regards,
- Michaelsen
In this case I believe I have to turn www.example.com/cat1 + www.example.com/cat2/subcat1 + www.example.com/cat3 unacessible. Is this correct?
Not flat out inaccessible - just have those urls 301 redirect to the related keyword domain and you're good to go.
What you don't want is to have other websites linking to a mix of those urls AND having each one accumulate its own segment of the total possible PageRank. The 301 sends most all of the backlink influnce right through to the final target url.
If you decide to go the other way, then just reverse the directions for the 301.
Please keep up the good work!
Regards,
- Michaelsen
