Same Content, Multiple Domains
A client has two domains pointed at the same website. My company recently did a couple months of link building on Domain2, which should continue to add backlinks (incoming links from other sites) over the next few months. A little comparison:
Domain1
0 backlinks - Google
11 backlinks - Yahoo (try Yahoo Site Explorer)
27 backlinks - Altavista
Pages indexed in Google: 2
Google page rank: 1
Time online: 8 years, 8 months, 27 days
Domain2
1 backlink - Google
33 backlinks - Yahoo (try Yahoo Site Explorer)
59 backlinks - Altavista
Pages indexed in Google: 2
Google page rank: 1
Time online: 8 years, 8 months, 27 days
The second domain (remember, same site, same content) is stronger in terms of its ability to rank for targeted keyword phrases. But Google doesn't look kindly on duplicate content, and so it appears both domains are being penalized to a large degree. A site that has been around 8 years and has a nice handful of incoming links should be (1) fully indexed and (2) competitive for some key terms if the site has even a modest bit of optimization working (which it does).
So what's the solution? If the client were to "permanently redirect" (aka 301 redirect) Domain1 to Domain2, then all of those incoming links would be combined into one domain, and Google wouldn't see duplicate content, which should lead to a fully indexed site fairly quickly. From there, a greater effort can be made to create new content for the site and to do some search engine optimization.
Also of note is that Google distinguishes between www.domain.com and domain.com. Applying a 301 redirect to one of those (i.e. directing domain.com to www.domain.com) would also help consolidate incoming links and "Google juice."
Domain1
0 backlinks - Google
11 backlinks - Yahoo (try Yahoo Site Explorer)
27 backlinks - Altavista
Pages indexed in Google: 2
Google page rank: 1
Time online: 8 years, 8 months, 27 days
Domain2
1 backlink - Google
33 backlinks - Yahoo (try Yahoo Site Explorer)
59 backlinks - Altavista
Pages indexed in Google: 2
Google page rank: 1
Time online: 8 years, 8 months, 27 days
The second domain (remember, same site, same content) is stronger in terms of its ability to rank for targeted keyword phrases. But Google doesn't look kindly on duplicate content, and so it appears both domains are being penalized to a large degree. A site that has been around 8 years and has a nice handful of incoming links should be (1) fully indexed and (2) competitive for some key terms if the site has even a modest bit of optimization working (which it does).
So what's the solution? If the client were to "permanently redirect" (aka 301 redirect) Domain1 to Domain2, then all of those incoming links would be combined into one domain, and Google wouldn't see duplicate content, which should lead to a fully indexed site fairly quickly. From there, a greater effort can be made to create new content for the site and to do some search engine optimization.
Also of note is that Google distinguishes between www.domain.com and domain.com. Applying a 301 redirect to one of those (i.e. directing domain.com to www.domain.com) would also help consolidate incoming links and "Google juice."
Some more reading on the subject:
Using multiple domains can screw up your search engine rankings
Ethical SEO
Merging Sites (Search Engine Watch Forums)
Duplicate content in the search engines
Leave a comment