Multiple domains, same website

[domainer]

So let's say I own a bunch of domains for the same small niche. I don't really think it's worth me making 5 sites for the same micro-niche (or is it?).

Should I just be 301'ing all the domains towards the one website?

For example (NOT the real domains in question):
obamapoker.com
obama-poker.com
obamapokeronline.com
obamaonlinepoker.com
obamapoker.net
etc, etc

Does the main website gain anything SEO-wise by having the 5-10 other domains pointed/301'd at it? Most of the domains are at least a few years old, but only some have a little content (ie 1 page).

[dirkjan]

write one relevant article for each site, with links in it to your main site

[domainer]

If I go that route, does it matter if they're all hosted on the same ip?

[dirkjan]

different hosts might be slightly better, but doubt if it will really make such a big difference... I think google links your sites to you anyway, via analytics, things you search for etc, whois records, etc.

And linking to your own sites isn't a crime, and will usually not negatively influence your ranking. Ofcourse, you should add affiliate links on your sub-sites as well...

[domainer]

My main concern with this technique is that Google's webmaster guidelines specifically states:

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"Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content."

also...

"Doorway pages are typically large sets of pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword or phrase. In many cases, doorway pages are written to rank for a particular phrase and then funnel users to a single destination.

Whether deployed across many domains or established within one domain, doorway pages tend to frustrate users, and are in violation of our webmaster guidelines."

---

That's why I was interested in the 301 instead. Like you say, they probably already know I own all those domains...so it seems a bit risky to build a bunch of 'doorway' sites.

I'm just not sure what is best for the long term.

[dietcola]

Yea you should really 301 them into one place - the main site...


but yea if you want seo value - then you should put something ont he sites - like an orgininal article and then let it get indexed and such - then maybe turn the site into the 301 to pass the juice - 302 doesnt pass the backlink value or anything like that - and you swap listings in serps - so x 302 position becomes y postion,

but yea - the 301 is the way to pass the seo value - same with the url shorteners - some are 302 and some 301 so use the 301 tyeps - li think ting url is a 302... but yea


why reproduce your domain over loads of different sites - i would say it goes someway to estbalishing your brand presence -


in this experiennt i tested 301 to see what effect they have on serps - if you get a related domain with index presence and 301 it into your domain - you will jump up in rankings, but it wont sustain... butyea - i paid 20 bucks for a game site and 301 'd it to my domain (which is a keyword/ gambling phrase) and it saw me take pos one - way better than any link i could have bought for 20 bucks - but yea -

keep it tidy and 301 them all in - if you want to pass seo - then make the sites rank for thier names then 301 them

[pokerextras]

301ing them will get you penalised by google alot faster than doorways. If google thinks that you're buying domains to rank for different terms, only to point them all at the same site, you could get deindexed. I've never known anybody to have a problem with doorways though. You should try asking this question on blackhatworld as those guys will have loads of experience with this sort of thing.

[Michael Martinez]

If I go that route, does it matter if they're all hosted on the same ip?

It will not matter, but you probably don't want to interlink the sites unless you link out to many more sites you don't control.

Avoid doing anything that looks like it will save you time and effort. That is the shortest path to a search engine penalty.

[domainer]

Thanks for poking your head in here Michael. Seems like I'm reading conflicting advice about this. What would your advice be:

a) build one domain up, leave others alone with no content or 301
b) build one domain up, 301 the other (very similar) domains towards main website
c) build all domains into smaller sites, try to get natural links to all of them

Thanks again

[Michael Martinez]

Thanks for poking your head in here Michael. Seems like I'm reading conflicting advice about this. What would your advice be:

a) build one domain up, leave others alone with no content or 301
b) build one domain up, 301 the other (very similar) domains towards main website
c) build all domains into smaller sites, try to get natural links to all of them

Thanks again

The most practical course is the middle one. However, if you want to build up the domains one at a time, then use 302-redirects instead of 301-redirects.

You want to create a valuable resource for visitors. Spreading yourself too thin in a competitive market with a lot of sites is not an optimal strategy. Then again, if you have a lot of money to work with, maybe you can do it for multiple sites.

As a rule of thumb only, and only because there is really no better measure I can think of, consider devoting about six man-months of work to shaping a site into something a search engine will deem a useful resource.

How you get that work done is up to you. I was suggesting (earlier) that trying to shave time/work off the process is counter-productive. But if you can throw two people into the mix then maybe it will only take 90 days to get your six man-months of work done.

On the other hand, throwing too many resources at a site may not help much, either. So putting 180 people to work on a site so that it's done in a day is probably going too far.