Any problems with two sites by same owner targeting same keyword search?
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I have a site, let's call it ExcellentFreeWidgets.com. There is a page on the site that is very popular and we'll call the page title, "Big Blue Widget." That page is currently #1 for the search "big blue widget." This week, I was able to buy the exact match domain for that page, we'll call it BigBlueWidget.com.
I want to build a site on BigBlueWidget.com to better capitalize on that search "big blue widget," which is huge. The content would not be the same wording at all, but it would be the same subject. It would probably be a five page or so website, all about Big Blue Widgets: what they are, where to get them, etc.
The sites will not reciprocally link to each other. New new site, BigBlueWidgets.com, would link to the existing site, ExcellentFreeWidgets.com.
The new site and the current page will compete for position in the SERPs.
Here are my questions to you experts:
1. Will Google care at all that the same entity owns both sites, or will just just rank for the term as they normally would.
2. I am not sure I'll run Adsense on the new site or not. I will be pointing a link back my ExcellentWidgets.com site from a button that says, "Get an Excellent Widget." But if I do run Adsense on it, does Google Adsense care that the same entity has a site and another site's page that are competing for the same term that both have Adsense add on them?
Note: I do not want to start a new entity for the new site (I'm in CA and LLC's are $800/year) as it's probably not worth all that hassle and money.
Thank you so much. I hope the that obfuscating the real domain names did not confuse the issue too much.
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I have adsense on niche sites that are on same topic as small portions of much larger sites.
I don't see any problem at all with adsense.
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Thanks for the answers thus far. I should add the following:
The existing site has perhaps 300 pages. The target keyword for the new site only competes with one of those 300 page's primary keyword on the existing site. All the other pages of the existing site are optimized around other keywords that are in the industry but not the same. And the new site will not even contain the words that are the keyword base for most of the entire existing site. Hope that makes sense.
So far we've talked about SERPs, but what about Adsense (if I add it to the new site). Do they care about any of this?
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This is going to sound off topic at first... stick with it....
Two years ago you could easily get double listings by having two or more pages about the same keyword on your website. Now those are really hard to get.
Two years ago it was easy to have a page of your site on the first SERP and another page of your site on the second SERP. Now those are really hard to get.
Google has really cut down on the ability of one website to get two listings in the top thirty positions of the SERPs. They have successfully increased the DOMAIN DIVERSITY of the SERPs. (Yes there are some exceptions - but well deserved or in low competition.)
Now, it is possible that Google is trying to increase the COMPANY DIVERSITY of the SERPs.
One company having multiple websites on page one of the SERPs is not showing searchers much company diversity. It would not surprise me if Google started making it very very difficult for the same company to have two sites competing.
I watch some websites owned by the same company and many of them have been struggling - for no good reason that I can see. So, I am starting to think that Google has some company diversity happening. I don't have data to publish about this, just my gut from what I have seen and I have been watching this alot. If you link your sites together I think that this make you a real target.
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Way Way Way back Google penalized a well know company that I believe were selling gifts and also owned 5+ others sites that basically took the first half of page 1 for major keywords.
Google's terms and conditions suggest not doing this, especially if you are already targeting the same niche or similar with similar content. If asked by Google would you be able to explain it that would not sound like you were trying to game the results?
HOWEVER! So many sites are getting penalized so easily these days that you would have to be a fool not to have backups. This is the very bad side to slow and sometimes impossible recoveries that many site owners have been reduced to owning multiple sites because anything can happen.
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Why not expand and optimize the current website to focus even more on "big blue widget"? What things can you do to serve the visitors better?
You're success in ranking well for that phrase (congrats by the way), is a result of the effort you put into the entire site, not just that page. -assuming the volume is decent
If it were I who needed to make this decision, I would do so WITHOUT the #1 ranking being a deciding factor. Though it's hard to say w/o knowing the details of your situation and the risks you're willing to take.
With a new site, you're essentially starting over, so I'd look at it w/ a long term focus in-mind.
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