Multiple Domain Names with the Same Content

[peterinwa]

I created three dot com websites with identical content:

1. JoesWidgetManufacturing (old company name)
2. FantasticWidgets (new company name)
3. WidgetManufacturingCitynameStateAbbr (domain containing likely search string)

2 is the new website with the new company name. 3 was created because I thought the website would do better in search results if the domain name contained the likely search string.

Rather than delete 1, I left it because there are links to it. But I put the new, identical content on all three websites.

1 had been coming up on page one of search results. But after making the above changes, it fell way down in the list and 3 came to page one. So my idea of having the search string in the domain name seemed to be working. So 3 was on page one of results, and 1 and 2 were way down the list.

This is the way it still is in Yahoo search. But in Google, it switched after a number of weeks and now 2 is on page one of results, and 1 and 3 are way down the list.

Question one: Why did the switch take place and 2 is now on page one? (This is ideal, and I don't have any reason to even keep the other two domains except that 3 is on page one in Yahoo.)

Question two: Why aren't all three appearing on page one of search results? They have all been there at one time or another. Do you think search engines take note of identical page content?

Thanks!

Peter

[tedster]

You're actually fortunate that more than on shows up on any query. Google usually filters out identical copies and only shows what it considers to be the strongest.

Sometimes more than one copy does rank, and I have never pinned down why that happens. The general idea is that the Google user wants each option in the results to show them something different, not the same-old same-old.

[peterinwa]

That was my guess for question two.

As far as question one goes, it would seem that Google rewarded the search string appearing in the domain until it figured out that I had more than one identical site.

I'll certainly get ride of 1, but for now I'll leave 2 and 3 since one does better in Google and one does better in Yahoo.

I guess the best answer as to what Google is doing is just to try it and see what works!

Thanks, Peter

[aristotle]

If number 1 is older and has more backlinks, it should still rank higher in searches for the old name. Or am I misunderstanding what you did?

[peterinwa]

1 is much older but had a negligible number of links to it.

[peterinwa]

Oh, sorry. And it would come up first if you searched for it by name. But a typical search would be for widgets in the city and state.