i've just created a site for my wifes new business, it uses the main domain name of http://www.inspirationetc.co.uk/ however i also have these domains : http://www.hand-made-stationary.co.uk/ http://www.hand-made-wedding-cards.co.uk/ http://www.handmade-wedding-stationery-uk.co.uk/ http://www.hand-made-stationery.co.uk/ At the moment they all alias to the main domain - but what is the best thing to do with them ? I don't want google to penalise for dupe content or anything... any thoughts are much appreciated.
I suggest you pick one of the domains for your wifes business. If you for some reason would like to keep the other domains and have them pointing to the main domain, make sure it is done with 301 redirects. Domain age is also a point: An old domain is more likely to be trusted by SEs and sandboxing is less likely. Another point: I don't personally like "crafted" domains like "http://www.<keyword1>-<keyword2>-<keyword3>.tld. It looks spammy to me and SEs might even filter the potential gain. Actually, I like the name www.inspirationetc.co.uk
inspirationetc.co.uk is the main domain. Luckily, although the site is new i have had the domain for 2 years so it's already out of the sandbox.
I'd turn all those other sites into informational "satellite" sites, complimenting and linking to the "mother" site. Make them like your own affiliate sites, offering quality information about your product/service and have good keyword linking throughout your satellite sites to your main mother site. This is a excellent tactic and works VERY well if done correctly...which is the way I've just outlined. I wouldn't 301, as that's just a waste of a domain. Wouldn't it be awesome if you controlled all top 10 results in GOOGLE for you main keyword phrase(s)... keep building satellite sites.
voasi - thats a great idea. Just got to invent an extra 300 hours in a day now ! Any examples anyone knows of of this being done ?
I asked an almost identical question on another forum yesterday. I like the idea of satelite sites but.......the area i'm looking to develop is quite a niche market and i'm not sure i'd be able to create 4 sites full of information.
mines pretty niche too (wedding stationery) but i'm thinking that a bit of creative rewriting of essentally the same content might do it - i'd like to see examples of what others have done though...
Mine's letting agent franchises! Just an idea for a wedding stationary one, how about one site showing people the technique and ideas for making their own, you could then say if you can't be bothered with making your own buy from xxxx.co.uk or if you want the materials buy from xxxx.co.uk etc
There are a lot of examples in the SERPS in competitive markets. Trust me, I've worked with some top dogs (as I'm one of them ) in the SEO field and this is what they are doing.
I believe this strategy is sometimes referred to as a "mininet", and I've read a lot about others having great success by using it. Still haven't gotten around to setting one up myself, but perhaps one of these days... Sam
Top SEO dog or not, it is hardly RELEVANT, is it? I would use my time on relevant SEO. It is a good long term investment imo.
Well, the term relevance translates different to different people. To me, relevance in SEO is the overlap between what visitors find relevant and what SEs finds relevant. I would hate using my time optimizing for SEs alone. Next major algo change, and the work I did might be useless, even harmfull.