Multiple Sites/Duplicate Product Pages

[Jonesy]

I'm about to start designing a second site selling a sub-set/variation of products from The Ring Box (http://www.theringbox.co.uk) (let's call that one Site A). I extract all my product details. including the images, directly from an SQL server database.

Obviously this means that my next site (lets call it Site B) will have a lot of the same product descriptions... how will this affect Site A's rankings? I know that Google will most likely exclude product pages from Site B, but will it affect Site A much?

I'm not worried about "penalties" of any kind as I don't think it will be a big issue (Duplicate content penalty myth (http://searchengineland.com/070315-100022.php)).

I'm not setting out to game the system, this is strictly "white hat". I'm merely looking to create a site with a completely different look and feel that sells a subset of Site A's products. FYI, the domain I'll be using is sterlingsilverrings.co.uk if that helps clarify what I mean.

Has anyone got experience of running multiple sites selling the same/similar products and if so what did you notice in relation to SERPS results if anything?

Ooh, forgot to mention, we've put some of our products on eBay and are looking at Amazon Central and comparison sites too, will this cause problems (same duplicate issues)?!

[jofstar]

I know a couple of retailers that have used this strategy successfully with SEO ranking by focussing each site on a specific product range.

As a for instance lets say you're a pet food retailer. You might have discount cat food and discount dog food stores.

As SEO works on the basis of looking for sites that exactly match a customers needs having a site which is specific to a product line rather than selling many different products works well.

Of course you might want to manage your stock through one interface etc. This bceomes a little more difficult as there are not many resources that allow you to host two stores with one combines stock and payments engine. But if you are happy today to administer both sites this strategy can work really well in improving sales.

[Kwackers]

not sure how related the products are but ever thought about an entry page like this www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk

[An Oasis]

You just need to look at reseller sites. All offering the same product, specs, prices... ...the sites with the most weight AFA the SE's are concerned... wins.

[IridiumCorp]

not sure how related the products are but ever thought about an entry page like this www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk (http://www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk)

Quite like this method. Shows very clearly you have two separate product lines. Saves me the time of sifting through stuff I dont want to. Its not flash so loads quickly.

Very nice!!!

[jamie1183]

I dont think it will be a problem if you add some different wording etc to the page, just try to make as many changes as possible, also in your meta etc.

I think they only have an issue with the exact same site loaded to two domain hosting accounts.

[lesliedocherty]

Hi,

I do the same thing with www.fatbuddhastore.com (http://www.fatbuddhastore.com), i have www.minisneakers.co.uk (http://www.minisneakers.co.uk), www.fullylaced.co.uk (http://www.fullylaced.co.uk) amongst others running from fat buddha.

Meeting up with my web guy on wed, just to finalise it all.

[Jonesy]

not sure how related the products are but ever thought about an entry page like this www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk (http://www.ultimatepursuits.co.uk)


That's a good idea but it won't work for me as there's a fair amount of overlap. Basically Site A sells silver rings, ring boxes, glass rings and mens rings. The new site (B) will be purely silver rings. The overlap will be with product names and descriptions coming from the same DB. I will try to tailor the META tags, but changing the names and descriptions at runtime would be a nightmare!

[OhSoCherished]

Hi There,
We do the same thing. Some of our products are exact so are titles and descriptions. We haven't seen any problems (as yet)!!!

[RayB]

So, a few have said no problems with this approach, others have pointed out what to avoid.

Not one person has come forward and said "I did that and here is the benefit".......

[Jonesy]

Ah, well. I guess I'll have to report back in a few months!

As a side note we're currently negotiating with Amazon Central - this is a little known route to get your products listed in the main Amazon database (not zShops). It's all a bit cloak and dagger - we haven't been approved yet. If we do get in that's another lot of duplicate product descriptions.

I've just found out how much commission they take and it shocked me quite frankly -anyone got any experience with Amazon Central?

[Blush]

I shall be interested in how you get on.I am adding a dancewear section to my site at the moment as I am takingover a loval dancewear shop.However I have bought the domain for the actual shop also and was wondering what to do with it! I thought I would be penalised if I added all the dancewear to this site too but maybe not after all.My second site would only have the dancewear whereas my main site would have everything.
Just a little somethign else to keep me busy:p