Multiple websites selling the same product? SEO experts, I need your advise.

[Mattk]

Can you have multiple websites selling the same product if it's your own?

I would like to go after different keywords with different keyword rich domains all with completely different content. But the end result would be to sell the same product. (I own the product)

Would this get me a slap? I have no intention of linking the sites together at all. (not even 1 way links)

The only thing that would make the sites the same would be the IP and the product. I would even use a different theme.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

[Jayson L]

I have my own insurance agency with 2 different sites. They target different keywords and the same product. They have different IP addresses though. I actually rank on page 1 for some keywords with both sites. I don't think it is ever a bad idea to have a little more of the google page 1 real estate!

[Mark Brian]

There is no problem with this. It's actually being done by many (on different servers/IP though).

[scottgallagher]

My friend has a delivery business with 4 brands.
Even bigger, FedEx is another brand, they source their work to many other businesses.
Coke likely makes products under a store brand name. Like who makes the 'Kirkland Costco' Brand? Many other manufactures with their own product on the shelves next to it.

Point is, there are many examples of legitimate suppliers offering the same product with different packaging in the offline world. Done properly, ethically without prejudiced, this is a suitable business model.

Looking at this from a business problem and not SEO, this is something Google has no reason to penalize a site(s), if done properly.

Since Google ranks pages and not sites, it's up to create the proper content for each page you want to rank with the proper keywords mapped to them.

[Mattk]

I'm getting the feeling that done correctly (ethically), the only real hang up would be different hosting for the domains.

I can live with that.

If I'm missing something, please chime in.

[HarryWatson00]

My company is actually looking at doing this right now too. We are a small business that is looking to move from a regional (statewide) url and try to expand the brand nationally.

We have a few different sides to our business, and it's really complicated to appeal to all of them effectively with one sight. We have both normal foot traffic retail customers, then we have businesses, and even government agencies that purchase from us.

We're ranked well with the current site and I'm concerned about what changing the site altogether might do for our SEO purposes. So we'll start with both and go from there.

Same prices - just a different way of selling them. It's just like in the real world. No two salespeople have the same approach to selling and some are better at selling one product while others are better at selling another.

[raviv]

Hi Matt
Make sure you host your sites on different C class servers and do not do anything that can make Google determine a relationship between the various sites.

Also, the site designs should be unique with different site architecture and unique content.

You could use seohosting dot com

Best
Raviv

[rohnsmith]

Yes, you can do it. In fact many are doing this. By doing this you will get a wide range of key words. At the end it will ultimately benefit for your business.

[healthstatus]

If you don't link the sites, I don't believe it matters. Think about all the websites out there on shared hosting where 100's of domains are on the same IP. My belief is that Google will ignore incestuous linking between sites on the same IP, or obvious use of the same content.

[cashcow]

You should be able to do this with no problems even on the same hosting account. Many people do it, in fact it is a smart business model to try to scoop up as much traffic as you can for your product.

Lee

[thegotoguy]

I saw some internet marketer a while back selling some kind of product (I can't rememeber) but it was an annoying site with an auto-load video (which is why I remember it) and he had dozens of sites with the same exact squeeze page, all on page one for different keywords. I stumbled onto his sites when I was researching serp's for one of my sites. So why didn't google ditch his sites if it is so important for them to be unique? The only thing I could think of that could possibly be unique about each of them would (maybe) be the targeted keywords he is using. But ALL of the content was identical!