Multiple sites - ownership & link structure
-
Hi All
I am in the process of creating a number of sites within the garden products sector; each site will have unique, original content and there will be no cross over. So for example I will have one on lawn mowers, one on greenhouses, another on garden furniture etc.
My original thinking was to create a single limited company that would own each of the domains, therefore all the registrant details will be identical.
Is this a sensible thing to do? (I want to be totally white hat)
And what, if any, are the linking opportunities between each of the sites? (16 in total). Not to increase ranking, more from an authoritative perspective.
And finally, how should I link between each site? Should I no follow the links? Should I use keyword contextual links?
Any advice ideas would be appreciated
Please note: It has been suggested that I just create one BIG site. I've decided against this as I want to use the keyword for each website in the domain name as I believe this still has value.
Thanks
-
Yes, one of my exact match domains outranks a much stronger domain even with thin content and zero marketing efforts. It don't think it should and I don't think it always will outrank stronger domains.
-
Thanks EGOL, much appreciated.
-
Sounds like it has to be an exact keyword match for the domain to be effective according to EGOL. I have some exact keyword domains and I will have to look into this too. I sounds like it is okay to add a link to a main site as long as it is a no follow from the responses so far. Hopefully more info is forthcoming.
Boo
-
Most of the sites that I own are exact match keyword domains. I think that they still have some bonus value in the search engines but I believe that they were cut significantly in February 2011.
If you have domains like GardenFurniture.com or LawnMowers.com then I might agree with you and use the method that you propose.... however, if you have domains like LawnMowerReview.com then I would strongly vote for putting everything into one huge site.
Anybody can register a domain like LawnMowerBob or LawnMowerSomething... why should google give extra credit for that?
In my opinion the "exact match" keyword domains are effective, but "keywords in the domain" are nothing special.
And... any linking that you would do between your sixteen sites would be more dangerous than valuable.
That's just one opinion... but my opinion on this is firm enough that I would use it as a rule for my business.
-
Thanks Brian...should have checked webmaster tools befor posing the question!
As I replied to EGOL the reason for the individual sites is that I wanted to get the primary keyword for each in the domain (for example gardenfurniturereview.co.uk, or shedsreview.co.uk) and build focussed authoritative sites for each. Do you think the keyword in the domain is still relevant?
-
Thanks EGOL, the reason for the individual sites is that I wanted to get the primary keyword for each in the domain (for example gardenfurniturereview.co.uk, or shedsreview.co.uk) and build focussed authoritative sites for each. Do you think the keyword in the domain is still relevant?
-
If you go to Google Webmaster Central, you will see a mantra of non-following interlinks for sites under your control. The amount of risk you are undertaking with interlinking depends how you do it and the how your link profile looks overall. Do-follow contextual links in the footer would be the most risky and a bad idea. If you put a single do-follow link to another store/site (using the store name in the anchor) in the "About Us" page, you may be safe but I have read reports of getting a -10 for doing even this.
Ultimately, the more you leverage your sites for juice - the more risk you undertake (pardon the stating the obvious).
BTW, I concur with EGOL about doing one big site. I've done it both ways and everything is so much easier if you focus on a single store. Better to spread your icing nice and thick over a cupcake than thinly over a sheet cake.
-
If you create one big store your average shopping cart value will be higher because people who need garden furniture might also want something for their plants. And, one big site would impress the visitor more and be much less work for you to maintain.
And what, if any, are the linking opportunities between each of the sites? (16 in total). Not to increase ranking, more from an authoritative perspective.
huh? Authoritative perspective?
Wouldn't one big site be more authoritative?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will link juice still be passed if you have the same links in multiple, outreach articles?
We are developing high quality, unique content and sending them out to bloggers to for guest posts. In these articles we have links to 2 to 3 sites. While the links are completely relevant, each article points to the same 2 to 3 sites. The link text varies slightly from article to article, but the linked-to site/URLs remain the same. We have read that it is best to have 2 to 3 external links, not all pointing to the same site. We have followed this rule, but the 2 to 3 external sites are the same sites on the other articles. I'm having a hard time explaining this, so I hope this makes sense. My concern is, will Google see this as a pattern and link juice won't be passed to the linked-to URLs, or worst penalize all/some of the sites being linked to or linked from? Someone I spoke to had suggest that my "link scheme" describes a "link wheel" and the site(s) will be penalized by Penguin. Is there any truth to this statement?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cutopia0 -
Linking to one of my own sites, from my site
Hi experts, I own a site for castingjobs (Site1) and a site for selling paintings (Site2). In a long time, I've had a link at the bottom of Site1, linking to Site 2. (Basicaly: Partnerlink: Link site 2). Site1 is for me the the only important site, since it's where Im making my monthly revenue. I added the link like 5 years ago or so, to try to boost site 2. My question is:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KasperGJ
1. Is it somehow bad for SEO for site 1, since the two sites have nothing to do with each other, they are basically just owned by me.
2. Would it make sense to link from Site 2 to Site 1 indstead?0 -
Multiple sitewide (deep)links devalued by Google?
In my experience sitewide links can still be very powerful if used sensibly and in moderation. However, I'm finding that sitewide text blocks with 2 or 3 (deep)links to a single domain appear not to be working that well or not at all in raising the authority of those target pages. Anyone having the same experience? In your experience, is the link value diminished when there are multiple deeplinks to a single domain in a sitewide text area? Is anything more than 1 link per target domain bad? Or could it even be that it's not so much the number of deeplinks to a single domain that matter, but purely the fact that they are sitewide "deeplinks"? Are sitewide deeplinks treated differently than sitewide links linking to an external homepage? Very interested in hearing your personal experience on this matter. Factual experience would be best, but "gut feeling" experience is also appreciated 🙂 Best regards, Joost
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JoostvanVught0 -
Site Redesign - Inbound Links
Hello all. What would be some of the best practices or good resources on site redesign while maintaining inbound links? We would hate to have the natural, organic links to the site we have generated over the past 3 years to all of a sudden become broken. The domain is not changing but the URL structure very well may. For example, www.domain dot com/blog/postabouttopic which has many inbound links may move to www.domain dot com/news/blog/postabouttopic Is it a matter of simply using 301 redirects from the old pages to the new pages? Is there any issues to be aware of when having hundreds of 301 redirects? Is there a best practice? A good site that explains this in detail? Thank you for your time! Have a great day!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | S2RSolutions0 -
Does having small ticket items (say under $1) available for customers to find & buy help or hurt our site?
I feel really silly asking this question to begin with, but... as a music store, we have a lot of "smalls" for products, like a guitar pick. We sell picks for $0.50 each, or a single clarinet reed at $0.79. Some believe this is too small, finicky, and cumbersome to have listed for sale on our site. To me, I wholeheartedly disagree with the notiion of excluding "smalls" for a plethera of SEO, customer service, & online SALES reasons... Also we offer USPS shipping to offer low shipping costs on small goods. Can I really be wrong about this? Thanks, Kevin
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kevin_McLeish1 -
Does link juice pass along the URL or the folders? 10yr old PR 6 site
We have a website that is ~10yrs old and a PR 6. It has a bunch of legitimate links from .edu and .gov sites. Until now the owner has never blogged or added much content to the site. We have suggested that to grow his traffic organically he should add a worpress blog and get agressive with his content. The IT guy is concerned about putting a wordpress blog on the same server as the main site because of security issues with WP. They have a bunch of credit card info on file. So, would it be better to just put the blog on a subdomain like blog.mysite.com OR host the blog on another server but have the URL structure be mysite.com/blog? I have tried to pass as much juice as possible. Any ideas?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jasonsixtwo0 -
Does the number of links on a page metric include repeated links?
Just wondering if the number of links on the page metric includes links that are repeated? So, if I had 100 links to one page would this count as 100 or 1 link?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cornwall
If it's the former does this mean more links to one page adds weight? Thanks0 -
If google ignores links from "spammy" link directories ...
Then why does SEO moz have this list: http://www.seomoz.org/dp/seo-directory ?? Included in that list are some pretty spammy looking sites such as: <colgroup><col width="345"></colgroup>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | adriandg
| http://www.site-sift.com/ |
| http://www.2yi.net/ |
| http://www.sevenseek.com/ |
| http://greenstalk.com/ |
| http://anthonyparsons.com/ |
| http://www.rakcha.com/ |
| http://www.goguides.org/ |
| http://gosearchbusiness.com/ |
| http://funender.com/free_link_directory/ |
| http://www.joeant.com/ |
| http://www.browse8.com/ |
| http://linkopedia.com/ |
| http://kwika.org/ |
| http://tygo.com/ |
| http://netzoning.com/ |
| http://goongee.com/ |
| http://bigall.com/ |
| http://www.incrawler.com/ |
| http://rubberstamped.org/ |
| http://lookforth.com/ |
| http://worldsiteindex.com/ |
| http://linksgiving.com/ |
| http://azoos.com/ |
| http://www.uncoverthenet.com/ |
| http://ewilla.com/ |0