website on different domains

Hi all,

If I've posted this in the wrong section I appologise in advance.

Just looking for a bit of advice - I know having the same site on different domain names is a big no no - but I have a client who insists on doing this - is there any good way to acheive this without hurting rankings? Any advice would be appreciated.

Not if both of them are indexed. I guess you could just noindex one of the sites, but I really don't see the point of having two. The best option would be to redirect one to the other.

robvr6 said:

Hi all,

If I've posted this in the wrong section I appologise in advance.

Just looking for a bit of advice - I know having the same site on different domain names is a big no no - but I have a client who insists on doing this - is there any good way to acheive this without hurting rankings? Any advice would be appreciated.

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Use different content, or prevent robots from indexing one of the sites.

Having the same design on multiple sites is actually ok. Which the explosion of cms frameworks such as wordpress, it has become the norm for multiple different sites to have the same theme / design.

However, to have the exact same site with keywords, tags, content, images..etc - this looks like duplicate content to Google. Since Google is constantly striving for only unique relevant content to be displayed in search results, at least one or both sites will be penalized.

Just simply explain this to your client. If they continue to insist, then the only thing to do is allow it but then tell them that you can't promise that their search engine rankings won't be affected.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for replying

I know the sensible thing to do would be to use a redirect but the main reason he wants different is to use the area in the domain name so he has multiple areas - Ive been trying to persuade him to use a redirect but he wont budge and as he's paying it's up to him. When you say use different content would this just be a case of changing the area keyword in the existing text for the new area keyword. Also could the site design be the same obviously to keep branding like.

Would spinning software be sufficient to change the text content on the main pages of the site and substitute one area for the other?

robvr6 said:

Thanks for replying

I know the sensible thing to do would be to use a redirect but the main reason he wants different is to use the area in the domain name so he has multiple areas - Ive been trying to persuade him to use a redirect but he wont budge and as he's paying it's up to him. When you say use different content would this just be a case of changing the area keyword in the existing text for the new area keyword. Also could the site design be the same obviously to keep branding like.

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Just create a page targeting the other area. Or I guess you could create a subdomain as well. Spinning the text would be a bad idea. If you have to have two separate sites, you will have to write new content.

themidiman said:

Just create a page targeting the other area. Or I guess you could create a subdomain as well. Spinning the text would be a bad idea. If you have to have two separate sites, you will have to write new content.

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He has already bought the new domain name and hosting but I was a bit reluctant to do anything until I got a bit of advice from experts. Will the same images be ok to use or different or just rename the images so they differ from the other site.

robvr6 said:

Ive been trying to persuade him to use a redirect but he wont budge and as he's paying it's up to him.

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While this is true, explain to him that he's hiring YOU as the expert and that your job is to get him the most value for his dollar / yen / ruble.

I fully understand that the person with the gold makes the rules, but you should make sure that he understands that you're there to help, not just create the crap he thinks he wants.