Multiple Domains, One Site?

[salty reeds]

Hello Everyone, I'm Ben and I'm brand spanking new to all this.

I have several variant domain names that I would like to develop as affiliate sites. I read that it's probably better to work on one site first, then grow. But what about taking the same site and replicating it over several domains?

In other words, I have (these are examples): siteA. com, site-A. com, Asite. net, A-site. com.

If I place the same site on each of these domains, will this help or hurt the SEO process (which I really don't understand just yet). Would I need to tweak the contents of each site so it is unique?

I guess I'm just hoping that I can use my niche site and ftp an exact copy of it to each domain.

Thanks in advance for your help! I look forward to being active here.

-Ben

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Ben,

Welcome to 5 Star. Nope, search engines would look at that strategy as mirror sites or give you a duplicate penalty. If the domains and the subject are all about the same thing you'd be MUCH better off focusing all your efforts on building DEEP content on one site instead of dividing your efforts.

 

[salty reeds]

Thanks Linda! That's exactly what I was afraid of.

I am excited to be on this forum; I have a feeling it's going to be more helpful than I ever imagined (actually, it already has!)

-Ben

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thrilled that you are finding our info so helpful. Dig deeper. There are tons of good threads on page 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 of most forum categories.

 

[YourMlmTools.biz]

Better to do some article marketing with links pointing at your site and using your sig file in forums which also helps with back links

Rick

 

[salty reeds]

What about pointing domains?

Thanks for the help!

What about pointing several domains to one main name? Will that affect any SEO or other variables? Would it help improve results?

-Ben

 

[route609]

Another tip for you

Hi ben

Also you will want to link all your sites together but dont do it very obviously. Google loves more than 2 way reciporcal linking and you will benefit from this.

I would also advise you to go to linkmetro.com and sign up for free with the link exchange. If you sign your sites up seperately this will also be a great way of gaining links to all your sites with others.

I hear you are new to this so when it comes to your sites design i will give you some basic tips that will help you. (i have vast experience with affiliate design so dont worry, i wont mislead you)

1. Keep the size of your images down to prevent high load speeds.
2. Keep the titles and subtitles within your site text based- works well for SEO
3. Add title and alt tagss to images and diagrams- again good for seo.
4. Always try and stay clear of a white background- it gives an illusion of an unfinished site and does not help the reader to easily navigate through your site.
5. Keep your navigation seperate from your content.
6. Try and use a trail navigation so you dictate where the reader reads first and where they go next
7. Promote and offers/affiliate link graphics at the top of your site and for any promotion text use red. Red is always percieved as an 'offer' or promotion by the reader.
8. If you can or know somebody who can, build the site in CSS. this is great for google and page load times
9. Use header tags for your titles. This helps search engine crawlers navigate through your site

and finally...
10. you don have to use your domain as your logo. This is a common mistake. People will go to your site based on article links, a description or title from google, a pay per click add etc. It is very rare for people to click through to your site based on its domain name. Instead you can use a logo that is similar to your domain to get a strong message accross of what your site entails.

Good luck

Paul

 

[Linda Buquet]

Is linkmetro safe to use these days? Just curious.

 

[route609]

LinkMetro safe to use

Good point linda

I know that 6 months ago it had some security issues, press releases etc but since i know that it is safe again to use.

It is a resource i use and often recommend to others and have never had any problems with.

You can now select different option to chose who you accpet requests from and who you dont.

If in doubt im sure other affiliates will recommend some good safe link exchange programs for you

Paul

 

[salty reeds]

I hear you are new to this so when it comes to your sites design i will give you some basic tips that will help you.

Thanks for your really awesome advice, Paul! I've spent many hours in the last week or so (when I began this adventure) and you have provided information I haven't come across yet.

As for link exchanges, doesn't this go against most affiliate network programs? It seemed to be so in the TOS I've been reading.

Again, Thanks!

-Ben

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ben the link exchanges are for your site, not the actual affiliate link itself. So if your niche is health you would exchange links with other health sites.

Paul, I didn't mean safe as in security, I meant safe as far as Google.
READ Google's WebMaster Guidelines re Link Exchanges

"However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results."

More... Webmaster Help Center - Link schemes

 

[jcorkern]

Linkmetro is not a good choice, and neither is any link exchange for that matter. I have also been telling people not to buy links for over a year now and there are many times in this forum i mentioned this.

Matt Cutts has just laid out the WARNING just like he did a year ago on paid links. Matt Cutts tells you in plain language what they are going after next. and now it seems that link exchanges are on the hit list. so i would stick to articles, Press releases and social bookmarking for quality one way links. recips are going to get you punished soon just like selling or buying links are now.

As far as the site coding. basic html is the best for SEO, but just about any coding will do as 80% of SEO is about links, and you need quality links.

Red does have some effect, but it is also a warning color and if used too much, it can drive visitors away.

Onpage should consist of the title tag. Meta descritpion if you choose. a few alt tags, and some of your targeted phrases in the content. you can put them in bold or italics to make them stick out to the search engines.

I agree that basic navigation should be in one location on the page for simplicity, and if possible they should be static. Every page within your site should have a link back to the home page that is static and every page should be targeting a keyword phrase.

SEO is not as complicated as some may want you to think, it is basic principles. do it right the first time and you will have no worries. take shortcuts and you will get caught sooner or later. It is just as simple to do it right the first time instead of over and over as the rules (algorithmns) change to get the trash out.

keep your site clean and user friendly, some simple onpage, and build links steadily and you SEO will be trouble free.