Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I've developed maybe 30 pages or so on light blue widgets and I'm wondering (from the AdSense angle) whether it would be better to add them to my existing blue widget site, or to start a new site on light blue widgets and grow both sites.
The advantage of adding to my present site is that I already have traffic and it's likely the light blue widgets would get decent Google ranking (maybe on the top two or three pages). The disadvantage is that they would be diluted by existing content, i.e. visitors to the site might not see them.
On a new site they would be highly visible to all visitors, but I wouldn't get so many visitors and it could be a while before traffic builds (if it ever does)!
The ideal solution if course would be to add the content to my existing site AND put the same content on a new site and see which generates most Adsense income, but I'm pretty sure that's going to upset Google if and when they find out, both in terms of page ranking and seach engine placement, not to mention Adsense (I'm not sure if they have a resriction on using the same content on multiple sites).
Anyone else been through the same process? What did you decide?
AND
They havent been hit YET by smart pricing, I expect it soon though, they are all on the same subject different content and all have a higher eCPM than the main site which is currently in smart pricing duristriction
If you take a look at how many "article" sites there are out there, it seems clear (at least to me) that google doesn't care if x number of adsense-carrying sites are all carrying the same identical content. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I think the issue would only relate to "dupe content" in terms of search.
You know, if you have some concerns, simply "rewrite" some of this content. It'll take longer, but it should throw the potential duplication issues out the door.
With my first (high SERP ranking) site new pages are instant cash. My second site has struggled with the sandbox and over all doesn't do nearly the traffic as my first site. It's hard to justify coming up with new content just to put it on a site that isn't visited all that much.
What I really love about adding new content to my first site is the nearly instant precence in the SERPs. For some topics my site wouldn't even be mentioned in the SERPs (because it had no content on that topic). Then I add new content and boom, instant contender. It feels like "move on down a notch boys (in the SERPs), I'm claiming this turf".
If it doesn't, then pull all the new pages off the new site and transfer all the content to my main site and see how it does there.
However the danger is that Google might penalize my main site for duplicate content if it doesn't first check to see that the content has gone from the second site. I wonder how seriously and how often they check for duplicate content. As commented above, AdSense itself probably doesn't care. The only downside being the effects of any smart pricing on the main site if the new pages don't generate many clickthroughs resulting in purchases.
"Do not create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content."
So it is true that Adsense prohibits using the same pages on more than one site
Expanding the existing site will also be good for the original site. G likes sites with lots of pages that have lots of unique content, (meaning not template product pages with perhaps 5% difference per page). Although it's said that Google sees pages, not websites, it's not really true. Load more high-content pages into the existing site, with internal linking that steers PR where you want it, and it will in total do better than two sites. In my humble opinion, etc.
"Do not create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content."
That's nothing more than funny. So anyone else can dublicate my content but I can't huh. That's ridiculous. Noone can say what I can or can't do with my own content.
As for the main question, I'd say do both of them while giving the priority to the already performing site.
I've added a second domain on my site's topic, but there is no duplication of pages. The info on two pages of site #1 is quite technical, and probably has rather more info than many are looking for. So what I've done is to re-write the pages at a different intellectual level to appeal to an audience who is looking for the answers, but less interested in the reasoning.
I've linked the two sites. On site #1, there is a link to an "easier to read version", and on site #2 there are links to "more information".
At the moment I don't have adsense on site #2, but associating both sites has deffinitely been an advantage for both. So if you add a second domain, think about varying the information to appeal to a different set of visitors, and mutually linking. That way you avoid duplicating content, you'll get more traffic to the second site quicker and hopefully it will benefit your adsense earnings.
I would be very careful to use channels on all banners you already have, as some feel that smartpricing affects your account - not just each site/banner. if that's the case, then poor performance on the new site might affect earnings on your other well performing site.
Always dump under performing banners!
That's nothing more than funny. So anyone else can dublicate my content but I can't huh. That's ridiculous. Noone can say what I can or can't do with my own content.
Not quite sure what you're trying to say here. Nobody else can duplicate your content legally (anything original that you write is copyrighted for a start).
AdSense certainly can tell you what you can and can't do on any page which runs AdSense. If you doubt that, please don't be one of those who post "AdSense just cancelled my account...All I did was...." followed by a list of AdSense terms of use violations. We hear too many of those already.
Sure, if you want to you can have 50 identical pages on your site, or 50 sites with identical pages, but AdSense will boot you out and Google will bury you on page 9756 of their search results, if they bother listing you at all.
please don't be one of those who post "AdSense just cancelled my account...All I did was...."
That will never happen. I've enough experience to say what works and what doesn't. Most of the things you read in ToS are written for G's own protection and for those who doesn't care about ethics generally. I didn't mean it's logical to make 50 copies of the same thing but it should be fair to use my own content more than once anywhere I want and I'd welcome any liability it requires. Google isn't God as you think and will not be my only way to follow. -period.
I think what he may have been referring to is the fact that you'll sometimes see duplicate pages appearing on different sites but ranking one after another in the serps.
In the long run, a new site is the better option, especially if you have a great URL. To kick start it, link it (sitewide) to your main site (using a variety of anchor text) until you start seeing natural linking happening, then s l o w l y remove the links from your main site.
If you run the same content on both sites, your main site will always beat your new site in Google. Always.
While my new site was in the sandbox, Yahoo and MSN made me happy.
Google isn't God as you think and will not be my only way to follow
Bend the rules too much and you won't be following that way at all. It's up to you. More than one site has taken the attitide that "Google won't care", the found out that they were quite mistaken.
I'm not Google paranoid, but I do know how to keep my affiliates and advertisers happy. I just follow the rules. It's not hard.
BTW Google isn't God. It's Satan.
if your server is down , you lose all your revenue if you have a single site. If you have multiple websites, you lose only part of your Adsense earnings
A good point - as long as you use seperate hosting companies for the two sites. Actually, unless you're hell bent on not spending more than $1.99/month for server space, server downtime shouldn't really be a signifcant factor. Good hosting companies don't go down unless the whole network crashes. You might get an outage of a few minutes, but my only experience of servers going off line for extended periods was in the days when I was dumb enough to go with the cheapest companies I could find.
