Cobrand is higher than the main site in Google

What can be done to change this?

[chris_f]

Hi All,

A client of mine runs a site which has what he calls cobrands. Basically, his content appears on other sites, however, it is banded in their image. It works by using a subdirectory which is ccaptured by url rewritting to show the content in their image.

If his site is www.domain.com then a clients cobrand will be www.domain.com/CobrandName. The clients site then links to this. They get a share on any revenue they generate.

He has recently upgraded from ASP to ASP.net and URL rewritting now means the site is crawled easier and in full. This has left him with a problem. When someone types in the keywords into Google www.domain.com/ASpecificCobrand appears instead of www.domain.com. Therefore, their commission has leaped and the profit of the company has dropped by a large amount. The pages design and content are IDENTICAL.

Can anyone think of why this is and how it can be changed. I was thinking of emailling Google, however, I'll pass out if I hold my breath that long ;).

Chris

I don't

[Dpeper]

I'm not sure just taking a guess but doesnt google give weight for keywords in the url.

Under this assumption I would say that a cobranded domain "www.domains.com/keys" would come up higher for the search "keys" vs. the main site. I doubt google would do any thing in this situation for you.

-Donny

[chris_f]

Dpeper,

I thought of that, however, there are no keywords in the url. I just can't understand it or come up with a way of changing it.

Chris

[chris_f]

Just giving the thread a boost incase someone has the answer.

[ciml]

Chris, check the cache for both URLs at the time of the update (before the Fresh results creep in). Alternatively, search for www.domain.com and see if the link goes to www.domain.com/cobrand

If that is the case, then Google found the duplicate content and merged the two listings. The one with the best links usually stays.

[chris_f]

Just got it fixed. A friend had a telephone number for a tech guy at Google. He answered straight away and was able to help while I was on the phone.

Chris

[jomaxx]

Amazing.

Your client should never use identical content for this type of promotion, though. This is why.

[Dpeper]

Can we get that number posted ;)

[chris_f]

Jomaxx,
>> Your client should never use identical content for this type of promotion, though. This is why.

Actually the cobrands work brilliantly. The content is generated from the same database and however is taliored to the cobrand. For instance, they might only show restaurants in the US instead of all businesses world wide. Also, they add their own content on top of the database generated stuff and of course the design is always different.

The pages where only identical because the cobrand was still being developed. Google was too quick and found the site before it was finished :).

Dpeper,
Can we get that number posted

My secrets are my secrets ;). No the number is ... opps the number keys on my keyboard suddenly won't work ;).

Chris