Here comes the long question.. On one of my projects Ive got 6 different domains for 6 languages.. The thing is, im killin my self with work trying to get as much as possible backlinks for each domain but it looks logic to put al languages to 1 domain so all the backlinks are pointing to same domain but to different subfolders. Now I have like 60k backlinks on 6 domains and im thinking.. if those 60k were pointing to 1 domain, it would do much better impact on serps for all the languages then 10k each domain ( if all the langs were on 1 domain ). the question: How to do best redirect in this case ? I want to install all the languages on same domain but I want to avoid duplicate content and losing all the juice from my other domains... Thnx to all seo magicians ! D
6 domains then its impossible. You should have thought about it when you created your site. I mean you should have added sub domains instead of other 5 domain names.It would have been more profitable too.
I'm not sure. I assume you will be able to collect the trafic for all 6 domain names and will be able to keep doing that if you will not use any redirects. Depends on the content of course. If they are the same I assume that would be useful to set redirect. If they not - no Cheers
I was assuming the same but im targeting relatively high kw's so its Very hard to uotrank the competition... With 1 domain I think Ive got better chances in the future cos all the backlinks will pointing to 1 domain.. Now.. is it better to lose all traffic and backlinks from 5 domains and start languages on subfolders or to keep doing what Ive been doing last 4 months..( collecting links for all domains ).. that is the question
What TLDs are you using for the domains in the other non-English languages? Are you using country-specific TLDs like .co.uk or are they all .com? Are those sites in other non-English languages targetting country-specific Google indexes like Google.co.uk or are they all targetting Google.com? Is the content on each site basically the same only in a different language or is it TRUELY unique content on each site specific to the particular country being targeted by those languages? Moving your site from 6 domains to 1 domain w/ 5 subdirectories (one for each language) is NOT really going to help you rank IMO. Think about it... Say currently, you have 6 sites: http://www.example1.com/ (main English domain) http://www.example2.com/ (another language) http://www.example3.com/ (yet another language) http://www.example4.com/ (yet another language) http://www.example5.com/ (yet another language) http://www.example6.com/ (yet another language) Now, imagine that you have a page on site 5 whose URL is http://www.example5.com/somefolder/somepage.html. What you are talking about doing I believe is something like moving that particular page to something like http://www.example1.com/language5/somefolder/somepage.html. Even if you put a 301 redirect in place at the old domain such that any time someone requests http://www.example5.com/somefolder/somepage.html they are 301 redirected to http://www.example1.com/language5/somefolder/somepage.html... what have you REALLY accomplished. Ok... you got all of your pages under one domain. But how is this going to help you rank better than you do currently? The search engines do not rank sites... they rank individual URLs. By implementing the 301 redirects above (which I HIGHLY recommend you do for EVERY old URL) you have instructed the engines to remove the old URL from their index and replace it with http://www.example1.com/language5/somefolder/somepage.html and to give the new URL credit for all of the old URL's inbound links. Does http://www.example1.com/language5/somefolder/somepage.html have any more inbound links than the old one? No. You've simply moved where it lives. So this is likely NOT going to help your rankings at all. If it does the benefits will likely be miniscule. It might be a bit easier to maintain since now you have only one domain to maintain, but from a ranking perspective it's not likely to help you. If all of your domains are basically a duplicate of each other only in different languages, your other option is to consolidate credit for the inbound links to all 6 versions of each of your pages into one version of each page. In otherwords, pick one version of each page (the English version for instance) and give it credit for all of the inbound links to that same page on the other 5 (non-English) domains. However, even this is likely to give you minimal benefits. This can be done by including <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example1.com/english/somefolder/somepage.html"> in the <head> of each language's version of that page. However, even this will likely have minimal, if any, benefits. I am guessing that the inbound links to the 5 non-English versions of the page use link text in the other 5 languages. So even if you give the English version of the page credit for all inbound links to the other 5 non-English versions of the page, the link text is not going to help that page rank any better. The only thing you would have done is essentially increased the Page Rank (PR... NOT how the page ranks in the SERPs) of the English version of the page. But your rankings in the SERPs should remain about the same as before. So honestly, I don't see any benefit in combining them. In fact, if your 5 non-English domain are actually domains w/ country-specific TLDs (like .co.uk) and are targetting country-specific Google indexes (like Google.co.uk) then they have a BETTER chance of ranking in the country-specific Google indexes if they remain separate sites. It's almost impossible to get the same web site to rank well in multiple Google indexes.
Thank you for your time and detailed answer ! Im using country-specific TLD's on all domains, the content is same but translated for other domains. Internal linking as all seo (off & on site) is done well.. All domains and content are moderate remotely through 1 CMS, 1 admin for all domains.. I am familiar with all you are saying, Im just thinking that G will give more credit to example1.com if there are thousands of backlinks pointing to example1.com/language3.. if you understand me.. Thanx again for your time, I think Ill stick to 6 domains.. ! D