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Multiple domains - multiple sites - single brand

by rastabloke
6 replies
I'm starting a site on a five related niches, and I had an idea on an alternate site structure that might be advantageous in the long run.

The norm:

audi.cars.com
chevy.cars.com
ford.cars.com

My idea:

audicars.com
chevycars.com
fordcars.com

Have a separate homepage for each sub niche, but link to the other sites with the main navigation. This produces the feel of a regular website, but offers the opportunity for each domain to gain its own unique SE status within its niche. Each domain will have forums and reviews for products in the sub niche. After some decent traffic comes though the site, I should be able to make a little money from affiliates.

Pros:
easier to target a single sub-niche
one domain will drive a significant amount of traffic to the others.
Not putting all my eggs in one basket

Cons:
significantly less traffic to one domain
slower to realize potential rankings

Can anyone add to my little pros/cons list... I don't really know how the search engines would handle this scenario.

Thanks
#domains #multiple #single #site
  • Profile picture of the author Tyrus Antas
    When you interlink between domains in such a way, Google already knows with a certain degree of accuracy that those are all your domains and they belong to the same company.

    Now that doesn't mean your links would stop driving pagerank but it could happen.

    I don't see the advantage in this unless you are willing to invest in heavy branding each of these sites but you said you want to cross-brand the domains. I sincerely don't see the point other than potentially provide a more user friendly URL for each of the car makers.

    Generally it's easier to optimize for one domain than multiple domains. I'd go with one domain and directories.

    Tyrus
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    • Profile picture of the author rastabloke
      Originally Posted by Tyrus Antas View Post

      When you interlink between domains in such a way, Google already knows with a certain degree of accuracy that those are all your domains and they belong to the same company.

      Now that doesn't mean your links would stop driving pagerank but it could happen.

      I don't see the advantage in this unless you are willing to invest in heavy branding each of these sites but you said you want to cross-brand the domains. I sincerely don't see the point other than potentially provide a more user friendly URL for each of the car makers.

      Generally it's easier to optimize for one domain than multiple domains. I'd go with one domain and directories.

      Tyrus
      There are a few reasons I would do this... treating these as separate sites will generate more income in the long run

      Each of the sub-niches are their own entity. Like:

      footballplayers.com
      baseballplayers.com
      soccerplayers.com

      I do understand where your coming from... the links between the domains would not help in search rankings. I would only expect one domain to drive traffic to the other simply because people who like football may like baseball too.

      I guess my question is, would google index these sites separately.

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
    your idea sounds like a blognetwork, different topic domains interlinked on each and ever site, nothing new

    I would only do this if it was a long term strategy and I was going to work real hard on it, otherwise it's easier to put effort/backlinks/content into just one site
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  • Profile picture of the author rastabloke
    Thanks for the input

    This is a long term strategy... and I would promote as separate sites. Simply under the same brand name.

    Each one of these sites will have much more than blogs.. there will be product reviews, videos, stories.. I plan to run raffles and give free dvd's for people who submit stories and videos to me. So ideally, the sites will be very content rich.

    I just don't want to start on this until I am fairly certain how google will respond to the interlinking of these sites within the main navigation.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    This is a tricky question, because having more domains can actually lead to overall weakness with no one site that is really powerful. On the other hand, the domains can help with keyword reach. Personally, I have moved away from multiples, and focus on my main sites.
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    It is okay to contact me! I have been developing software since 1999, creating many popular products like phpLD.
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    • Profile picture of the author rastabloke
      Because these sites will have very similar site structure, I would be worried about dup-content penalties. Especially if they are all linked together.

      So I thought I might link them with a flash header.. or some other simple way to keep search engines from seeing the links.

      I also just realized that I didn't label this thread correctly.

      correction: Multiple domains - multiple sites - single brand
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