Question about rankings for add-on domains in Google.

[wildguy]

I'm putting a bunch of domains on one hosting account as "add-on" domains. These "add-on" domains will be sites that can stand on their own (i.e. they are not redirects, PR hoards, link farms, etc.) and will not be interlinked.

I've never worked with "add-on" domains before this.

Does Google have any problems (spidering, indexing, ranking, applying penalties, etc.) with "add-on" domain sites?

I've been researching it all morning and have found only "I believe that...", "I think that..." "I'm pretty sure that..." type answers.

Does anyone know for certain based upon their own or others' experience?

I appreciate any help!

[adfree]

Define "add-on" domains as this is a term not used in any clear context that I understand.

[wildguy]

Adfree,

The way I understand add-on domains is as follows...

If I have the following domains...

domain1.com
domain2.com
domain3.com
domain4.com

... rather than paying/managing one hosting account for each domain, I could have a single hosting account for domain1.com and then simply create "add-on" domains (via domain1.com's CPanel) on the same hosting account for domain2.com, domain3.com and domain4.com. These last 3 domains would point to a sub-folder (or sub-domain) of domain1.com

For example, domain2.com would point to domain1.com/domain2/ etc. I would FTP my domain2.com files to domain1.com/domain2/ but users could access those files in their browsers by typing domain2.com/filename.html

[Vertical Marketeer]

if I were you i would use [domain2.domain1.com...] as opposed to your "directory structure" style.

Phil-

[gtmash]

I would also like to know how Google treats these add-on domains. I've only been able to get the index page spidered of each "add-on" site.

[Chad]

CPanel add-on domains are just a simple way of managing multiple domains within a single hosting account. Each is a "real" domain and Google seems to treat them as such.

Each add-on domain is also accessible as a sub-domain of your main site. Don't ever ever link to your add-on domains' content using the sub-domain address or you will surely face a big duplicate-content problem.

[harbs]

Does Google have any problems (spidering, indexing, ranking, applying penalties, etc.) with "add-on" domain sites?

I have 3 domains in 1 hosting acct, 2 of which are "add-on" domains to the first.

So far, Googlebot has no problems spidering, indexing or ranking. Took my domains about 4 months to be indexed so its probably just a matter of time that Googlebot gets to your sites.

[adfree]

If I understand it correctly it is just the way your host offers controls and yes, they seem to work like real domains. I would not worry about them.

Try to analyze the log files and draw conclusions from the spiders jumping between them if you cross-link. This might help you a bit too.

[piskie]

With Cpanel multi domain hosting, the IP is the same for all domains. However each domain is unique and functions independantly as in:
www.dom1.com
www.dom2.com
etc.

I have been using several Cpanel reseller packages for some time and ALL my (many) sites are fully indexed and perform well in ALL the SERPs that I check.

There may be some minor S/Es that I haven't checked that take exception to this arrangement but I am not aware.