11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Is This Duplicate Content Or Not?

by carsonben
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have a new local business client that offers several related services in his industry. What he has done in the past is buy a domain and then all the other extensions that are available, plus he will buy domains with a slight alteration of the original domain e.g. roofreplacementservice com,.net.org.us.biz etc. and then he'll buy roofreplacementservices with all the other extensions and then he'll buy roofreplacementservices or needanewroof etc. with all the additional extensions.

Now, he has maybe 10 - 30 domains all with the exact roofing website. He also uses adwords for these and has them all grouped in different ad groups and none of them are really getting any activity.

My questions are, is this duplicate content that is perhaps being penalized by panda and should he do 301 redirects or either remove the websites on all the additional domains and then concentrate on driving traffic to his main .com or .net sites in each of his service categories.

He has 100's of domains that he has purchased that he wants me to put sites up and manage his adwords. Some of the domains are keyword related and some are not - just different variations.

What would be the best action for this situation?

Any help will be appreciated.
#content #duplicate
  • Profile picture of the author awj888
    if there are exact match value for these domains then it could be worth setting up multiple landing pages (not with the differnet extentions but just the .com variations) and have unique content on those which then directs potential client to the main business site. the other extentions unless trademark related are not going to be giving much value. if samedomainmatch.com/.us/.net/.org etc and youre going after exact match keywords then you can keep these other domains but redirect them to the .com> another option would be to use them to set up some kind of blogging network which will create SEO links for the main business page. theres lots of options and depends if your client minds about spending renewing all those domains each year if they dont really bring all that much back for him!
    Signature

    :: AWJ of Thinking Creativity :: My wifey is a photographer, check out her work @ OLEXIE ::

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5108678].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author carsonben
    He actually buys the additional domains for competitor protection, but since they all have the same website on them I didn't know if this was hurting or not.

    And yes, he is spending literally hundreds of dollars each month on renewals.

    Yes, I'm thinking on the same lines - have unique content on the higher rated .com or .net domains. It will get a bit challenging as how much unique content can you have about roofing services or landscape services.

    So, what should I do with the content on all those insignificant extensions? Delete or some kind of redirect?

    One more question, have all these duplicate websites hurt the seo of the main brand?
    Signature
    Authority Media Marketing Strategist
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5108793].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by carsonben View Post

      And yes, he is spending literally hundreds of dollars each month on renewals.
      That makes no sense. Most renew yearly. For "hundreds" a month, you would
      need to be renewing about 30 domains a month, or a total of 360 or so a year.

      That's a crazy management nightmare.

      But big sites do this with no problem. Gasbuddy uses this to the max.

      They have hundreds of domains, like arizonagasprices, texasgasprices, etc.
      and they all have the same stuff, and point to gasbuddy.com.

      But the average person would not, and I repeat, would not be buying
      hundreds of domains, renewing them, spending tons of money on
      nothing, just for one site. A dozen, maybe so.

      Pau
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5108839].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author carsonben
        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        That makes no sense. Most renew yearly. For "hundreds" a month, you would
        need to be renewing about 30 domains a month, or a total of 360 or so a year.

        That's a crazy management nightmare.

        But big sites do this with no problem. Gasbuddy uses this to the max.

        They have hundreds of domains, like arizonagasprices, texasgasprices, etc.
        and they all have the same stuff, and point to gasbuddy.com.

        But the average person would not, and I repeat, would not be buying
        hundreds of domains, renewing them, spending tons of money on
        nothing, just for one site. A dozen, maybe so.

        Pau
        But that is exactly what he is doing. He hired me to fix all of this and it's confusing as heck. I think he has close to 500 domains and I don't know how someone let him get this far with this kind of marketing.

        I'm trying to get a handle on why and how he is choosing the domain names. Some are kw related and some are service related, but rarely search terms a homeowner would use.

        It's just over kill, but I want to have a way to explain some kind of workable strategy for him. The additional extensions are so competitors can't use them.

        So, he has 124 hosted sites with 75% of the domains with duplicate site content, IOW 20 domains all with the same site content, images and layout. And 350 more domains just waiting to have sites built. It's like everytime he could think of some kind of term or phrase - he bought it!

        I feel like his previous web person took advantage of him. So, how should I proceed with this client?
        Signature
        Authority Media Marketing Strategist
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5111140].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by carsonben View Post

          But that is exactly what he is doing. He hired me to fix all of this and it's confusing as heck. I think he has close to 500 domains and I don't know how someone let him get this far with this kind of marketing.

          I'm trying to get a handle on why and how he is choosing the domain names. Some are kw related and some are service related, but rarely search terms a homeowner would use.

          It's just over kill, but I want to have a way to explain some kind of workable strategy for him. The additional extensions are so competitors can't use them.

          So, he has 124 hosted sites with 75% of the domains with duplicate site content, IOW 20 domains all with the same site content, images and layout. And 350 more domains just waiting to have sites built. It's like everytime he could think of some kind of term or phrase - he bought it!

          I feel like his previous web person took advantage of him. So, how should I proceed with this client?
          Domain hording!

          The guy has a serious problem If all he keeps doing is buying domains then holding them with no ROI at all.

          Stop the madness, sell them all, except for a single domain, then build the site out.
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5111232].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author down
    A lot of good answers already posted by other fellow warrior above. Just want to add, do redirect all domain to main domain you used.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5111163].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Don't mess with redirects, that's just useless for this situation.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5111242].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    Wow, I smell opportunity....

    Does he really want to dominate the roofing market in the area that badly?

    Imagine if he could put together a consortium of small roofing companies providing them all with simple websites utilizing all of his existing domain names with all of the quote requests flowing through his office.

    Most of these small roofing companies have no clue how to market online or how to get new business. With your assistance he could become the "master contractor" over the entire group of them while building an SEO funnel from all these unique websites pointing back to his single primary domain...

    I'd suggest you start thinking bigger for his business, instead of smaller for his website..

    You could be the person responsible for building out websites for dozens of small roofing companies and making an overall online marketing strategy and quoting system.

    Imagine the possibilities...he has...he just doesn't know how to pull it off.
    Signature
    Brain Drained...Signature Coming Soon!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5111824].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author carsonben
    Thank you - these are all good suggestions for this client. He has several local residential and commercial improvement companies and I believe the best move is to concentrate on simply driving traffic by multiple means to his main niche sites and leaving the other variation domains parked or redirected.

    Then work on his Adwords campaigns and make sure they are optimized with the best keywords and bids and that everything is in the proper adgroup. Also, to comb over any reports and see where the most immediate action is needed.
    Signature
    Authority Media Marketing Strategist
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5120428].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author James-
    Thats not duplicate content. Thats seen as syndicated content.
    You only suffer from the 'duplicate content' problem when say you have 2 pages of the same content on your site.

    In your case, the site that put the content up first will have the unique goodness that google loves, and the rest of the sites will just not be seen as valued as its copied.
    Signature

    2 nuts walked into a bar, 1 was assaulted! :p

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5120554].message }}

Trending Topics