The Problem with Multiple Websites and Duplicate Content

Focus on One Main Url for your Business!

There are many valid reasons for registering multiple domain names for a company, you may want to protect your company name, or there's just some other domains that you would like to have. But when it comes down to marketing your website. Its always best to focus your efforts into one main url.

Invest Your Time & Money Wisely!

If you have multiple websites geared for the same business, this is essentially spreading your time/money and efforts of many sites, when you can be building up one site investing your time and money more wisely. For example, with link building alone, if you have 10 sites that you are marketing with the same products/services, you could have 1000 quality links spread out over 10 sites, or have your one main website with these links. This would help you in the long run with your business keeping the focus to one site. This will help you be able to target the most competitive phrases in your industry that provides the most searches. Also with building up one main site, this helps your main website be that much more stable rather than having an SEO campaign spread out amongst multiple sites.

Playing by the Search Engines Rules

The search engines do not want to see multiple sites with similar or the duplicate content. If you have two websites mirroring each other, this can cause problems and generally the search engines will choose one page over the other as more important, and there's no guarantee that they'll pick the page that you feel is more important. It is quite easy for search engines and directory editors to spot duplicate content/domains. It will only be a matter of time before the sites are discovered, so you would be better focusing all your energy into one domain rather than having it split up amongst several sites.

If you have diverse products and/or services, then you may be able to  effectively and legitimately market two urls. Each site must have unique content. In this case, you would not have the same product and/or service being offered on each site.

One example that would qualify a company in having multiple websites would be a SEO company also specializing in developing software products. This would be ok to have one site for SEO and another for the Software products they have developed.

What to do with the other domain names purchased

If you happened to purchase other domain names, good news you're not out of luck. What you can do is place a 301 redirect on the other urls redirecting them to your main site. The code "301" redirect is interpreted as "moved permanently" by the search engines.

Chances are you have seen at one time or another duplicate sites in the search engines. It is just a matter of time before the search engines take out one or both of the urls is taken out. In the long run, it just adds more work for the company and sets them back further to making their online marketing campaign a success.

So if you have multiple urls registered, avoid using mirrored websites for marketing your website. Instead pick one domain, and use a 301 redirect on the other urls. This ensures that someone typing in one of the urls you registered will still find your site.

Wondering what other SEO Marketers have to say on this subject? An additional resource is provided below.

http://www.searchengineguide.com/whalen/2003/0213_jw1.html

Gerard Manning
Search Marketing Firm :: Manning Search Marketing