2 websites, same SEO, one number 1 or 2 in Google, 1 no-where to be seen! Why?!

Hi all,

I am no expert at this, hence the post here to all you clever people!

I have 2 websites (that i designed), they are both for my driving school. One is the business I work under and the other is the name that my franchisees work for. Obviously, I would like both sites to do well, (one of my competitors has 3 separate websites on page 1 of google for the same keywords as me: Driving Lessons Bournemouth).

Anyway, http://www.jennifersdriving.co.uk/ does very well, I have optimised it for 'Google Caffeine', made it fast to load, put a 'latest updates' bit on it, and have more backlinks pointing to it than the person always at number 1. (He has loads of yell.com links pointing to his which costs thousands, I paid less (£90) and have 1 backlink from yell.com). Nothing budges him from the top!

Anyway, the other site I have is: http://www.jds-bournemouth.co.uk/
It always does well on Yahoo, but on Google it has never appeared anywhere. (Last look about page 5 and that was a link to a page that isn't even there anymore).

When I made the JDS one, I made the fatal mistake of duplicating some of the content from Jennifer's Driving. Both sites consequently dropped in the listings. As soon as I realised my mistake, I gave JDS unique content. Jennifer's Driving eventually found its way back up the ranks again, but JDS has remained lost forever!

I recently gave it a make-over and I have used the exact same SEO techniques on JDS as I used on Jennifer's Driving - after I uploaded it it shot to number 2 in Google, (I almost fainted), but then dissappeared without a trace again. (I have checked the latest cache Google has done for JDS and they have crawled it since I updated it).

Could it be that JDS has been banned/penalised because I duplicated content? I know it's not good for SEO but I didn't know Google could penalise you for it. If so, can I get Google to re-consider it? (I have re-submitted it already). Or if not, what am I doing wrong?! How can 2 sites be so different with their success when I use the same SEO techniques for them both?

Thanks for any advice from you smart people!

 

I could be wrong, but it appears that the site that is ranking is a bit older. Additionally, it has PR of 1 vs 0 for the other, more inbound links, more internal links, twice as many indexed pages (probably because of the things I just mentioned), has a site map when the other one doesn't...should I keep going?

 

"I didn't know Google could penalise you for it"
Oh yes they will - and hard... Google does not like duplicate content and will virtually ignore the 2nd site. You need to make sure you have original content and wait for them to recrawl your site..

 

Yes, duplicate content is a big no-no for search engines, especially Google. I am not sure I would take is as far as to calling it a penalty, but you do loose some traction if you have shared content. Simply put, if you don't have something new, original, and interesting to offer to the searcher, you will not be granted the privilege of first page exposure.

 

Comment from Matt Cutt on Duplicate Content Refer This. May Clear Doubts

 

also do the sites share the ip address?
With duplicate content it is obvious what you are doing.

Do the two sites link to one another?
That can be a problem for the newer site.

Since "driving" is in the url of the better site, that answer is also obvious.

 

Excuse me U R mistaking ...There is no penalty for the duplicate content, Please suggest only if you have full knowledge on the topic..read this. No duplicate content penalty

 

What is that you referred me two? A couple of random people debating whether or not search engines penalize you for duplicate content? First off, Google is pretty up front about notifying people about practices they don't approve of through the webmaster tools account. Second, just because your rankings dropped because Google noticed you have shared/duplicate content does not mean you got penalized. It is simply a natural process of separating the good quality sites from the sites that sing the same-o-story called organic placements. So check your facts, before you come out making claims like that, telling me I don't have full knowledge of this subject. I took a quick look at the sites that your are promoting here and I have to tell you that I can write a book about things that can be improved there from an SEO stand point. I think we can all agree that PR isn't the ultimate measuring stick of how well you have developed your site, but it is a pretty good indicator. PR1 for a 9 year old site is pretty pathetic for someone claiming to know what they are doing. Give me a break. I think you got a lot to learn about SEO before you can tango with me...

 

First of all I don't need to explain that to you, What I am speaking about Duplicate content Penalty is with proof and proper link, N you are just diverting from what you said earlier so I don't need to explain things to newbie like you.
Best of luck with your future.
Cheers!!

 

I don't claim to know everything about SEO. Everything I talk about here is simply based on my experience of working in the field. There aren't absolute truths out there about a lot of things either. I always keep an open mind and pay attention to what people are saying. And if you have evidence to support a statement, I will gladly accept it as something I did not know. In this case I just don't see how you proved your point with a few blog posts from three random people who are arguing on both sides of the issue.

By the way, I'm not denying the fact that you will loose rankings if you have shared/duplicate content. I just think it is misguided to call it a penalty.

 

And how am I a newbie if I've been registered here for longer than you and have more posts?

 

Dude !! We are claiming the same issue that's what m sayin that there is no Penalty for the duplicate content rather then just having certain fall in SERP ranking's because of the priority or you may say royalty to the content writer and his/her site.