I have a forum PR4 with 2600 members. It is a car-oriented site that is very niche. I want to broaden my appeal a bit so I've set up a second domain parked on top of the first, and the site loads a different skin/logo depending on the domain you enter with. I cleared this with Jelsoft even, and since the content is identical (same members, forums, posts), I can do this on one license. The issue is google ranking. If I submit the second domain, I'll get a lower PR for both. Is it better to not submit the 2nd domain? Is there a way to minimize the effects so I am not penalized too badly?
There is no 'penalty'. Read this: Duplicate Content and vBulletin Forums --- Especially the first and last posts in that thread. -
I'd be careful with differnet domains though. Notice in the video that Vanessa continuously says "with in a site" meaning within the same domain. Matt Cutts is quoted in that post as say different TOP LEVEL domains are not a concern such as ss.com and ss.net but aa.com with the same content as ss.com would cause penalties.
Yeah, I caught that too, but I guess I come away with the impression that google may choose to index one page or other other, not both, but PR shouldn't be impacted.
That's what I gather as well as long as they are with the same domain or same domain name but different TLD's.