Duplicate Content & SEO

[VeryMark]

I have read that Google penalises you if it finds duplicate content.

I have also read something by an SEO company suggesting that you can have different domain names pointing at the same files and maximise trafffic that way - For example bloggswidgets.com, londonwidgets.com and cheapestwidgets.com.

The latter is what I would like to do essentially as I have obtained the .com and .co.uk domains for a name which is very descriptive of part of what we do and would thus like to point those domains to the relevant pages in our normal company site - well, I might build a specific homepage and then use the relevant pages from our normal site as the backend.

What should I do?

 

[mattsaw]

I have read that Google penalises you if it finds duplicate content.

People refer to a duplicate content penalty, which isn't really the correct terminolgy as there is no penalty in 99.9% of cases, just a filter.

*Generally* search engines only want to include the most authoratitive version of an article in their index. Duplicates tend to be either very difficult to get indexed or indexed and then dropped to supplemental indexes.

I love this guide here - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-illustrated-guide-to-duplicate-content-in-the-search-engines

I have also read something by an SEO company suggesting that you can have different domain names pointing at the same files and maximise trafffic that way - For example bloggswidgets.com, londonwidgets.com and cheapestwidgets.com.

Any "SEO" that recommended that strategy should by shot, and then run over by a bus.

What should I do?

301 redirect the other versions of your domain(s) in to the relevant pages on your main site.

 

[VeryMark]

Thank you, Matt, that is very helpful - and the link to the guide you posted gives me everything I ever wanted but didn't know to ask lol.

The answer then seems to be (which was my plan B) to write unique content for the other domain and then link it back to our main site.

 

[AaronB]

People refer to a duplicate content penalty, which isn't really the correct terminolgy as there is no penalty in 99.9% of cases, just a filter.

*Generally* search engines only want to include the most authoratitive version of an article in their index. Duplicates tend to be either very difficult to get indexed or indexed and then dropped to supplemental indexes.

I love this guide here - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-illustrated-guide-to-duplicate-content-in-the-search-engines

Any "SEO" that recommended that strategy should by shot, and then run over by a bus.

301 redirect the other versions of your domain(s) in to the relevant pages on your main site.

Matt when they are parked or add on domains in your account does it not automatically redirect them? I had a 1+1 account with a few domains sitting in there and the all went to the same location as the main domain? is this not the same? or do they have to go to different landing pages to be allowed? A lot of people I see do the same as I did back then is this wrong?

Many thanks

Aaron

 

[mattsaw]

Matt when they are parked or add on domains in your account does it not automatically redirect them?

Not usually, most host don't make sure that a redirect is 301's, often they use a 302 or a refresh which doesn't do the same job - so I would recommend checking if you're unsure.

 

[AaronB]

I would point out that google maps Local business listings) are very funny about redirects and they dont like it (the will suspend accounts) If a domain is put in and it redirects to another they are not happy.

Aaron

 

[fisicx]

The answer then seems to be (which was my plan B) to write unique content for the other domain and then link it back to our main site.

I would suggest plan C which is to put the new content on your existing site.

Microsites were all rage a year or two back until the search engines got wise and downgraded them. If you have 6 satellite sites all expounding that virtues of product X and linking to the mothership then it looks as false as rubber nose on a badger. But if you created 6 cracking articles and put them on your primary site you would keep all the kudos and improve the overall value of the site with associated ranking boost and increaded visitor numbers.

 

[Andycal]

Any "SEO" that recommended that strategy should by shot, and then run over by a bus.

Don't forget to reverse, just to make sure.

I would suggest plan C which is to put the new content on your existing site.

And/Or, write other unique content and use it to build links by publishing to PR, Article and other external sites with lots of lovely authority. Tell the world about your stuff, etc.

 

[VeryMark]

If I have another 'content killer' domain name it needs to have its own independent content to be of any use and not merely a 301 redirect to the main site?

 

[VeryMark]

.... and I have verymark.co.uk set up for cloaked forwarding to our main site at verymark.info but I have no idea if it's a permanent 301 or a temporary 302 redirect, as the ISP's control panel is silent on the issue.

How can I tell?

 

[Andycal]

.... and I have verymark.co.uk set up for cloaked forwarding to our main site at verymark.info but I have no idea if it's a permanent 301 or a temporary 302 redirect, as the ISP's control panel is silent on the issue.

How can I tell?

I think this plugin will tell you : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829

Also, (off topic) I notice you're in Ashby de la Zouch. Ultimate used to be there. Ahhh, nostalgia...

 

[VeryMark]

I'm not sure I'm not more confused now lol ......

...... I found a tool to check the headers (couldn't get the Firefox add-on to work) which gave me this:

#1 Server Response: http://www.verymark.co.uk
HTTP Status Code: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:25:27 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS)
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.9
Content-Length: 1011
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Reading futher that seems to be what's called a 200 metarefresh which is even worse?

 

[VeryMark]

Ok, I think I've fixed it, as changing the settings from cloaked forwarding so it doesn't keep verymark.co.uk in the address bar but refreshes to verymark.info now gives me this result instead:

#1 Server Response: http://www.verymark.co.uk
HTTP Status Code: HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:52:07 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS)
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.9
Location: http://www.verymark.info
Content-Length: 0
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Redirect Target: http://www.verymark.info
#2 Server Response: http://www.verymark.info
The operation timed out

..... and looking back, I guess a 200 response (which I googled as being a "meta redirect") was what Matt was talking about as "... most host don't make sure that a redirect is 301's, often they use a .... refresh ..."

 

[Snippa]

So then it's better, really, to have one site and focus on that, rather than several different sites? Assuming, of course, they would all be the same topic and content type.

 

[VeryMark]

Yes, but my understanding is that, if you have a domain name which is highly descriptive of what you do (i.e. generic), a website with such a name is highly attractive to search engines?

That was my reason for starting this thread, i.e. if that is true and we have such a domain name which is descriptive of part of what we do (so we wouldn't want to move our whole site to it anyway), how do we exploit that without being penalised for duplicate content?

 

[Snippa]

Yes, but my understanding is that, if you have a domain name which is highly descriptive of what you do (i.e. generic), a website with such a name is highly attractive to search engines?

That was my reason for starting this thread, i.e. if that is true and we have such a domain name which is descriptive of part of what we do (so we wouldn't want to move our whole site to it anyway), how do we exploit that without being penalised for duplicate content?

Hmmm... just "thinking out loud" here... could you have your sites share info, or is that a no-no as well? I'm thinking... separate but similar home page, same contact page, same company info page, same privacy policy page, but with different articles or information on each? Sounds like a lot of work, but I'm just wondering how the search engines look on something like that?

 

[memejerommel]

I have read that Google penalises you if it finds duplicate content.

I have also read something by an SEO company suggesting that you can have different domain names pointing at the same files and maximise trafffic that way - For example bloggswidgets.com, londonwidgets.com and cheapestwidgets.com.

The latter is what I would like to do essentially as I have obtained the .com and .co.uk domains for a name which is very descriptive of part of what we do and would thus like to point those domains to the relevant pages in our normal company site - well, I might build a specific homepage and then use the relevant pages from our normal site as the backend.

What should I do?

You will just be penalize if you copy content of different author but as long as it is your work you won't be penalize by google and you can only be penalize if the other author have complained you and prove that you just have copied.

 

[fisicx]

Question. Do you already rank well for this keyword? It is part of your site profile?

Just because the keyword is in the domaion name doesn't mean it's going to give you a competive edge. You can easily be out ranked by a more established site which means you need to work twice as hard to beat them. Wheras you could simple incoroprate a couple of new pages into your existing site and get the linking benefits.

 

[VeryMark]

We don't already rank well for this word combination, but it is part of our keyword profile.

My thinking was just that we could build a new niche site around the domain name consisting of this word combination with a few new unique pages, linking it back to our main site, and this would give us some improved traffic results.

 

[fisicx]

The new site could take a long time to build up sufficient status to have any effect on the ranking of your main site. In any case, a few pages on a microsite with obvious links back the main site will sticxk out like a sore thumb and probably be ignored by the search engines.

But built up the content on your main site for these keywords and you don't have to do anything else. Even better, you can put the calls to action on the actual page giving you much better lead generation.

The domain name (even with a keyword in it) isn't a strong ranking signal. A page with a better title could easily outrank you.

 

[AaronB]

I do think a few small sites can work if you offer a service that is more local or regional, say you carried out a carpet cleaning service and focused on a few different areas, 2 smaller localised sites can sometimes work because of the main keywords, yes you could build pages on the one site, but I still feel a keyword in the domain name like "Kent" does seem to work.

Aaron

 

[VeryMark]

Well, this is an update to say that, slightly to my surprise, after several weeks of going nowhere, www.registeruktrademark.co.uk has suddenly jumped on to the first page of Google for the search term "register uk trademark" - but not "register uk trade mark" oddly - when our main website, which has a lot more content, figures nowhere!

So, I would be VERY interested at this point in advice/comments/suggestions!

 

[fisicx]

That's easy to answer. Look at the page titles. Verymark doesn't have the keywords in the title but registeruktrademark does.

 

[Fabiolulu]

If you the duplicated part is less than 20%, Google will not punish.