Duplicate Content on more than one website 3

[gus121]

Hi I have set up a number of e-commerce websites that use duplicate content as (they are retrieving the content from the same database).
I am really woried that my google ranking has suffered as a result for my original site.
They are all hosted on the same web server but have completly different domain names. The smaller (spawned) sites do have cross-site links which link them back to the larger site (thanks to this forum I think I will be removing). I have setup a cross site search facility also that searches for products accross multiple domains.
Please feel free to look at these three domains:
and suggest what steps I should make next.

http://www.sailgb.com

http://www.sports-watches.net

http://www.outdoorgb.com

thanks

Angus

 

[JoJoH]

Hi Angus!

If you say you want to boost your rankings with Google... Google look at link popularity as an extremely important factor(as you probably know), sailgb.com does have some links pointed to it, but the other 2 sites have close to zero links pointed to it...

Also on your title, why not write a little more and stick your keywords in there?

For sports-watches.net, instead of just Sports-Watches.net, you could have something like "Sport watches saling watches by Casio, Suunto, Seiko and more!" A keyword centric, attractive, informing title is essential both to SEO and your "hum let me search on Google for some sport watches(to buy) store" customer. : )

Also I've noticed is the design of the 3 sites, they look almost identical... I don't think Open Directories would like that as stated in

http://dmoz.org/add.html

quote:
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First 2 points under Step One

Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs.

Do not submit URLs that contain only the same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in the directory. Sites with overlapping and repetitive content are not helpful to users of the directory. Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites.
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Open Directories could help boost your rankings, you might not have "exactly" identical/mirrored sites, but I am afraid OPD will not like sites with similar designs and sell almost the same merchandise... (You might or might not apply to this case)

Hope this helps!



JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com

 

[gus121]

Thanks for your help JoJoH.
I understand that thsese are the guildlines set out by the Open Directory that of course they wish to avoid duplicate content and mirror sites. However I am still a bit sceptical on there ability to pick up on this.

Can the search enginees /open source directory use the IP address of the server to help weed out those sites which contain duplicate content?
How could they pick up on similar design / content surely the vastness of the web make this impossible?
Thanks for all your other advise I shall be taking in hand. very helpfull and to the point.

thanks

Angus

 

[JoJoH]

Hi Angus!

As for IP addresses, some SEO experts says that search engine could check the IP address who submitted the site, and also the IP address who host your site. So they naturally advice you have different host to host your different sites. But still, having the same site design is like playing close to the fire... if your competitor decided to report you to the SE or the OPD... or IF the OPD DOES find out... then well you know what'll happen... I personally think that this is too dangerous.

Hope this helps!

JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com

 

[ChrisHirst]

Hi Angus, to follow on from JoJoH.

The ODP can very easily pick up on duplicates or mirrors, all the sites submitted are checked by an editor, These are real people who visit the submitted sites and use their judgement on if the site gets listed or not and they are all giving free time to this because they are committed to the project ideal of building the BEST directory not the biggest.
Google on the other hand uses complex algorithms (they are working on AI apparently) to analyse content and keywords and weeding out crosslinked mirrors & duplicates by the same owner are no problem, Reverse lookup, whois information, Server information, Sites hosted on the same server\cluster can all be analysed and much more.
In this last dance many of the doorways and link farms have disappeared from the SERPs and I feel sure that many more will be following over the next few months.
Having had a quick look at the site they should be ok from the duplicate point of view even though there is a lot overlap, each site has a lot of unique content and the duplicated items are relevant. just be aware that what starts as useful crosslinking (to visitors) can easily become a matrix of links that WILL red flag the SEs.
Using the same templates on every site could well be a problem for sales. Because every site looks identical the visitors will be wary of what appears to be a way of fooling them. Visitors are more important than SEs for getting a ROI



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

 

[JoJoH]

Agree, Agree, Agree!

JoJoH

http://www.jadeboutique.com

 

[ulteriormotif]

I'll back up what both JoJoH and Chris have said in regard to both Google and ODP.

re ODP in particular - your setup is even more likely to be picked up than with other directories because:

1 The directory is entirely human edited.
2 The editors are volunteers, not wage jockeys. (Can swing both ways, but makes the devoted editors very devoted).
3 Editors volunteer for and are responsible for specific categories, so they tend to be very focused on the sites in their category.
4 In many cases categories are edited by people who have a specific (read: business) interest in their category. They could well be a direct competitor. This doesn't bar them from editing - in fact it can make a very good editor because they have enough detailed knowledge of the area to edit well - but it can mean they will look VERY closely for a reason not to list you.