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Would this be considered blackhat?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by ganpat, May 25, 2011.

  1. #1
    I had a client ask me a question that I am not sure how to answer. Hopefully somebody here can advise me. Thanks in advance.

    Situation:

    I launched a new site for a client. Let's say example.com. Now, the client wants to run TV ads to promote the site, but instead of promoting example.com, he wants to use other url's like exampledallas.com and examplekansas.com. He wants me to re-create just the home page for each of these and the rest of the menu items will be hyperlinked to go to example.com. So, if a user clicks on any menu item, they are taken to example.com and get to see the rest of the site there.

    Now, exampledallas.com etc will have the same design and menu structure, but the content will be slightly different. Since we are re-creating the page over and over and can potentially create 50-60 such sites in the next few months, I was concerned that we are doing something blackhat. Am I right?

    One solution that I have recommended is that we put a robot.txt file on each of these, blocking search engine spiders from indexing these sites and I will make each link NOFOLLOW links. That way, we won't get any SEO/backlink benefits.

    Note: The reason for creating these sites is that the main site will have generic content and each of the other sites will have city specific content. He also wants to track how well the TV ads are doing for each independent TV campaign in each city. We recommended a redirect but the client doesn't want to do that.

    My question to you is, will we get into trouble for using this approach? Would a robot.txt file and nofollow links suffice to keep the search engines happy and not penalize us? I would appreciate your insight.

    Thanks again.
     
    ganpat, May 25, 2011 IP
  2. GrowBank

    GrowBank Peon

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    #2
    One solution for this, is to use a subdomain for each local city "hub" page. If I am reading your question, this would be the most "white hat" method and you can receive excellent success in SEO with this template.

    example.com is your main
    kansas.example.com are sub-domains.

    By building 100's of different domains (kansasexample.com and the like) and "inter-linking" all of those properties on one server and IP-address is a bad recipe for Google. They will see this as manipulation and spam, most likely hurting any chances of good ranking and organic traffic. By using sub-domains this would prevent these problems and give you a great platform to build domain and sub-domain SEO backlinks and social media link wheels.
     
    GrowBank, May 25, 2011 IP
    dcristo likes this.
  3. animebuzz.tv

    animebuzz.tv Peon

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    #3
    If it doesn't have the same content i don't think it will be penalized by google. So you are safe even using that approach without robots.txt
     
    animebuzz.tv, May 25, 2011 IP
  4. newlogo

    newlogo Peon

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    #4
    just make sure content or keyword should not be repeat with same phrase and text
     
    newlogo, May 26, 2011 IP
  5. Seriously

    Seriously Member

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    #5
    a lot of spinners say that if your content is any more than 45% SIMILAR you will be considered as duplicate content.

    I also dont think that the user would like the experience of clicking on a menu item and being taken off site. whether google likes it or not, i think this sounds slightly deceptive.

    for a user experience using the subdomain method might be better?
     
    Seriously, May 26, 2011 IP
  6. ganpat

    ganpat Peon

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    #6
    We had explored the sub-domain idea and it is still on the table. However, the domain name is a little hard to remember. Since the domain name is about 4 years old and the old site ranked high for relevant searches, we don't want to get a new one. Thanks for all the advice though. I now have enough information to give my client all the options and then he can pick.
     
    ganpat, May 26, 2011 IP
  7. OpportunityLOL

    OpportunityLOL Peon

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    #7
    I definitely recommend the subdomain idea
     
    OpportunityLOL, May 26, 2011 IP
  8. seo jack

    seo jack Peon

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    #8
    It is not blackhat at all. Just ensure the content and meta information is different.
     
    seo jack, May 26, 2011 IP