Does Google penalize duplicate website design?
-
Hello,
We are very close to launching five new websites, all in the same business sector. Because we would like to keep our brand intact, we are looking to use the same design on all five websites. My question is, will Google penalize the sites if they have the same design?
Thank you!
Best regards,
Tiberiu -
To tell you the truth we are already ranking with our main domain for some of the keywords we are after but we're just trying to speeding things up a bit. We've tried the strategy with exact match domains before for some different keywords and, after just 1 week and like 60 listings in different local business directories, the domains ranked for the exact match keyword somewhere between position 3 and 7. The designs were different though.
As long as we don't have to invest more than the actual domain price and we get about 20 bookings per month for each domain, it still counts as profit.
Well, thank you very much once again for your answer. Your oppinions have been more than helpful for me.
Best regards,
Tiberiu
-
Often you're better off ,putting your efforts into a single domain and getting that to rank, rather than splitting your efforts between all those other domains--I mean, what are you going to do with those new sites that is going to get them to rank that you couldn't do with your original domain? If they're exact match domains, I wouldn't count on their effectiveness for the long term--or even for the short term.
-
Hello!
We already have a main website which ranks well for some of the keywords, and not so well for others. The new websites are targeted on the keywords that don't rank so well.
I forgot to specify that we have separate offices for each of the new websites. The websites are already registered with TPH(Taxi and Private Hire) as branches of the main business.
Thank you!
Tiberiu
-
Do you already have a main site that is ranking for all the main keywords and you're just about to roll out these five new ones or are these five new sites your first ones and your business plan revolves around those five?
-
Good morning and thank you all for your answers!
As to respond all questions, we are launching the websites to have more keyword targeted domains. The main business area of the company I work for is "airport transfers". As London has five main airports we have created an website for each of them. We will not be doing any link crossing between the fivem while the content on each of them is different. On the other hand they will be hosted on the same server and will probably have the same contact info.
One tactic I had in mind in order to dodge any possible penalty for duplicate website design was to talk to my developer and ask him to specifically rename the files he will use for architecture of the sites so they are named different for each website in particular. But that is a pretty time consuming task.
If you have any more suggestions I`ll be more than happy to hear them.
Thank you once again!
Best regards,
Tiberiu
-
Bad idea to launch 5 sites for the same company addressing the same targets. One site representing your company (if same product) is the rule.
If you can use different IPs, private domain registrars, no interlinking, different contact info, and different content you can get away with it. If you're just throwing up 5 sites on the same server with similar info you're asking for trouble.
-
Think of the gazillion Wordpress sites out there--they're all the same architecture and they can rank. Your tactic used to be more prevalent, back when linking between sites (you won't be doing that, will you?) with thin content (they won't have that, will they?) helped lift all of them in the rankings.
While there are plenty of examples of multiple sites owned by the same company showing up in the same page-one search results, there are as many, or more, examples of them all showing up at the bottom of the results. It seems to me that if you're asking the question you're asking --at this point in the project, you may not be well enough informed to keep yourself out of the later group. I'd kindly recommend doing some additional homework before you launch.
-
Hi Tiberiu
No, a site won't be penalised because it has the same site structure, design or architecture as another site. For example, I've worked with a number of companies that have multiple websites for different countries. To establish brand consistency and awareness, the designs are all kept the same.
Of course, your website might get penalised if it contains duplicate content, so obviously it's important to ensure all your content is unique before launching. Google may also look negatively on your site if it contains a lot of ads above the fold, or tries to use ad-space too aggressively, so be wary of this.
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
-
Do things like using labels on an element that is not a form input affect how google sees us in regards to accessibility?
Do things like using labels on an element that is not a form input affect how google sees us? It's an accessibility error that our devs have made - using a label element because it looks good, not because it's an actual label on a form field. Just wondering how that affects accessibility in Google's eyes.
Web Design | | GregLB0 -
Need An Honest Opinion Of My Design
Just looking to get an honest opinion on my website design for my scuba diving client. Trying to decrease bounce rate and have seen some results from tweaking design. Honest opinions appreciated. Recommendations appreciated even more 😉
Web Design | | InfinityTechnologySolutions0 -
Website Redesign - What to do with old 301 URLs?
My current site is on wordpress. We are currently designing a new wordpress site, with the same URLs. Our current approach is to go into the server, delete the current website files and ad the new website files. My current site has old urls which are 301 redirected to current urls. Here is my question. In the current redesign process, do i need to create pages for old the 301 redirected urls so that we do not lose them in the launch of the new site? or is the 301 command currently existing outside of our server so this does not matter? Thank you in advance.
Web Design | | CamiloSC0 -
Do you know any tool(s) to check if Google can crawl a URL?
Our site is currently blocking search bots that's why I can't use Google Webmaster Tools' URL fetch tool. In Screamingfrog, there are dynamic pages that can't be found if I crawl the homepage. Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | esiow20130 -
How do SEOMOZ calculate duplicate content?
first of all i have to much duplicate stuff on my website end cleaning it up. But if i look at GWMC the duplicate stuff is a lot less than in SEOMOZ? can someone explain to me what the difference is? Thnx, Leonie.
Web Design | | JoostBruining0 -
Question #1: Does Google index https:// pages? I thought they didn't because....
generally the difference between https:// and http:// is that the s (stands for secure I think) is usually reserved for payment pages, and other similar types of pages that search engines aren't supposed to index. (like any page where private data is stored) My site that all of my questions are revolving around is built with Volusion (i'm used to wordpress) and I keep finding problems like this one. The site was hardcoded to have all MENU internal links (which was 90% of our internal links) lead to **https://**www.example.com/example-page/ instead of **http://**www.example.com/example-page/ To double check that this was causing a loss in Link Juice. I jumped over to OSE. Sure enough, the internal links were not being indexed, only the links that were manually created and set to NOT include the httpS:// were being indexed. So if OSE wasn't counting the links, and based on the general ideology behind secure http access, that would infer that no link juice is being passed... Right?? Thanks for your time. Screens are available if necessary, but the OSE has already been updated since then and the new internal links ARE STILL NOT being indexed. The problem is.. is this a volusion problem? Should I switch to Wordpress? here's the site URL (please excuse the design, it's pretty ugly considering how basic volusion is compared to wordpress) http://www.uncommonthread.com/
Web Design | | TylerAbernethy0 -
What are the top 3 things you evaluate when contracted to SEO a website?
As a freelancer, what are the top 3 things you evaluate when contracted to SEO a website for a client?
Web Design | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Map Search Tools to integrate on Accommodation Website
Hello all, Can any recommend a Map Search tool that i can integrate into my accommodation website. Ideally I want to be able to pin my clients on the map search with links back to their listing page on my website and provide an alternative search facility for clients looking for accommodation. Am covering the South Africa region specifically. Am assuming that i could go down the Google Maps route but would really like to know what alternatives there are on offer. Also what SEO considerations do i need to think about when adding this to my website. Thanks in advance for any help.
Web Design | | SamanthaRiggien0