Will combining multiple websites/brands into one Wordpress Multisite Installation hurt SEO?
-
My company currently operates four websites, independently of each other, a corporate website and three separate store brands.
- innovativemattresssolutions.com - corporate website
- mattressking.net
- sleepoutfitters.com
- mattresswarehouse.com
All of our stores have the same branding, same TV spots, same print ads, etc across the company, we just swap out logos on all marketing pieces.
It is proving nearly impossible for us to maintain four separate websites, currently on three different platforms. all four are hosted separately as of now. We would like to combine all four websites to one Wordpress Multisite installation so we can manage the pages from one place, using the same theme and even content in many places because all brands share the same info, policies, products, etc. We would set up wordpress multi using subfolders for installation and point the URL directly to resolve to the appropriate subfolder. The only site that would crosslink to the others would be the corporate website.
Is this a bad idea for SEO? What other options would we have? Should we keep the corporate site on its own installation, but put the other three brands on a multisite install? Would duplicating content on the three brand pages be an issue? Less of an issue if they were not on multisite?
Any insight is much appreciated.
-
My first reaction was the same as Brads. After looking at the sites themselves and hearing your response, I think it's very normal to operate these sites separately since they are separate brands. I wouldn't worry about that aspect.
-
So, for the most part I don't see any issue with this.
The only thing that comes to mind is that all 4 domains would suddenly be on a single IP address. While that's fine for the brands that aren't competing with each other, it looks like there are a few store location in KY under competing brand names. In the event that there are geographic areas where you have competing locations that are suddenly on the same IP address, I could potentially see one of the domains being affected if the SERP for "city name KY mattresses" is highly competitive. I don't have any tests I can point you towards to support this, it's primarily a theory that Google might display just 1 in the interest of domain diversity. That said, I wouldn't worry about it too heavily.
Another option is a paid service such as ManageWP.com. This would allow you to manage multiple Wordpress installations on separate servers and mitigate any unforeseen consequences of having the domains on a single IP address. I can't say that the risk of experiencing issues simply due to server IP address is enough to justify the expense, however, so that should show you that I'm not very worried about the IP consideration overall.
-
Brett,
It sounds like there are more business reasons other than search visibility. Given that information I can see this is a more difficult issue for you. I don't envy you. I stand by my assessment that managing 3 brands that are so similar is going to prove to be difficult. In my business we attempted to manage 2 for a very long time. Ours was more driven by search visibility but we also had a brand associated. Ultimately we decided to perform the 301s and certainly lost some business by doing so. In the end I stand by the decision. I think the focus on 1 hurts in the short run and pays huge dividends in the long run.
-
Thanks Brad, I don't take that as harsh at all and I don't disagree with you. Yes, search visibility, rankings of local store listings, etc is one of the primary reasons we have operated the sites separately to this point. One of the sites is a recent acquisition so that has just compounded the issue. I should clarify that content is not 100% duplicated, mainly store locator functionality and local partnership content on each site.
The other reason we have not gone the 301 route is marketing perception. Several years ago, this is how we handled it. But the brands operate independent of each other in different areas of the country. It's not a Limited example where they operate Gap, Old Navy, etc. Customers in the Mattress King area of the country, have no idea what Sleep Outfitters is and 301s to the strongest domain was causing huge bounce rates, customer confusion and low visibility for individual store locations.
So there is our issue. Weighing pros and cons and not sure which side is winning right now.
-
I think there is a bigger issue going on here. Why are you operating 3 different sites where you are just swapping out logos? I don't see the multi site causing you any specific problems but my gut tells me your long term prospects are not good. All the effort that you are going into for this elaborate scheme are probably causing you to not do as well in search as you would with one brand. I would suggest instead of trying to maintain 3 brands (for no other perceivable reason than search visibility) that you bite the bullet and reduce to 1 site. Take your best one and 301 the others to it. Maintain one platform and you might be able to cut some operational costs internally. To me the strategy you are outlining above was a good idea in 2005. Not trying to be harsh. Hope this helps.
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
-
I have multiple URLs that redirect to the same website. Is this an issue?
I have multiple URLs that all lead to the same website. Years ago they were purchased and were sitting dormant. Currently they are 301 redirects and each of the URLs feed to different areas of my website. Should I be worried about losing authority? And if so, is there a better way to do this?
Technical SEO | | undrdog990 -
Will you get more 'google juice' if your social links are in your websites header, rather than its footer?
Hi team, I'm in the process of making some aesthetic changes to my website. Its getting quite cluttered so the main purpose is to clean up its look. I currently have 3x social links in the header, right at the top, and i would really like to move these to the footer to remove some clutter in the header. My concern is that moving them may have an impact on the domains ranking in google. Website: www.mountainjade.co.nz We've made some huge gains against our competitors over the past 6 months and I don't want to jeopardise that. Any help would be much appreciated as i'm self taught in SEO and have learnt through making mistakes. This time however, with Moz, i'd rather get some advice before I make any decisions! Thanks is advance, Jake S
Technical SEO | | Jacobsheehan0 -
Hosting Multiple Websites
I want host multiple websites in geo-specific locations, and also have them be unique from each other. Does anyone have suggestions of a software or another method to use for this? Any experience with http://multiplecloud.com?
Technical SEO | | theLotter0 -
How much will changing IP addresses impact SEO?
So my company is upgrading its Internet bandwidth. However, apparently the vendor has said that part of the upgrade will involve changing our IP address. I've found two links that indicate some care needs to be taken to make sure our SEO isn't harmed: http://followmattcutts.com/2011/07/21/protect-your-seo-when-changing-ip-address-and-server/ http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-forum/275513-changing-ip-affect-seo.html Assuming we don't use an IP address that has been blacklisted by Google for spamming or other black hat tactics, how problematic is it? (Note: The site hasn't really been aggressively optimized yet - I started with the company less than two weeks ago, and just barely got FTP and CMS access yesterday - so honestly I'm not too worried about really messing up the site's optimization, since there isn't a lot to really break.)
Technical SEO | | ufmedia0 -
Changing the URL structure will it help me or hurt me?
I got handed a website running on Joomla without the SEO friendly URL check box selected so our URLs all look like this www.rotaryvalve.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=37 . I am hoping to rework this website in the near future here and plan on changing the URL structure across the website so there are some actual keywords in the URL. When I did this I was thinking of just doing 301 redirects to the new pages and hopefully the hit from the search engines wouldn't be too bad. Can anyone speak from experience as to what the best way to go about doing this would be so I don't end up falling back ranking wise. Would change the URLs end up helping me or hurting me? Thanks
Technical SEO | | wmwmeyer0 -
2012 SEO/Customer Experience Goals
We are putting together our marketing strategy for 2012 and I was made responsible for putting together the SEO and customer experience goals for 2012. Over the past few months SEO has taken a backseat on the priority list as we have had other marketing goals we wanted to take immediate action on. We don't want to let that happen again. Our sites are rushIMPRINT.com and rushIMPRINT.ca. If anyone out there would be kind enough to take the time, do you see any glaring observations of our sites that need priority? Thanks in advance for any help!
Technical SEO | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Seo template for new website
I am revamping my website (www.UltimateBasicTraining.com). It's going to be major and I am concerned about the potential traffic loss since over 60% of my overall traffic comes from organic search results in the military basic training area. Are there any good SEO website templates I can start from? I see a lot out there but would prefer the advice of professionals. Thanks
Technical SEO | | TheVolkinator0 -
Wordpress Problems.. SEO-Yoast is Toast?
Hello; I have installed the WP Yoast Widget in my Blog, and 2 weeks, after my issues went away, they came back X's 300! lol So I uninstalled it, and my issues obviously got worse, and then I re-activated, and reset everything, and still got the 300+ issues. Is there a secondary plug in you would suggest, to run at the same time as Yoats, or theat will fix all issues? Ever think of making an SEOmoz Widget for WP since it is gaining so much popularity?? Thank you Great work by the way! Loved the Webinar today!
Technical SEO | | smstv0