Alternative domains redirected with 301 to the main domain

[Digitator]

Hi everyone

I've got a website which gained a Panda penalty back in March 2012 which was because of the implementation of a range of spammy practices (keyword stuffing in titles, indexed category and tag pages, duplicate domains).

I've fixed the titles and deindexed any pages that could be seen as thin or duplicate so I'm confident that any onsite Panda issues have been fixed.

As mentioned above the client had also created over 40 alternative domains to the website and pointed them to their main website folders (hence duplicating the website and content 40 times over). These domains have now been redirected via 301 redirects to the main website to ensure that any links they have gained are captured.

The reason for the redirection is that we initially took the domains down and saw a drop in traffic and this seemed to be the most likely reason. While Moz and Majestic are not showing any significant links to these domains (which is why they where originally taken down), past experience has told me that these tools don't always pick up all referring domains.

Primary domain

• workingvoices.com

5 Example Alternative Domains

• presentationskillslondon.com
• workingvoiceslive.biz
• workingvoices.co.uk
• livingvoices.co.uk
• working-voices.net

Question 1: At the same time we took down the alternative domains (and experienced the drop in traffic) we removed duplicate instances of Google Analytics code from the webpages. All the guidance that we could find stated that duplicate instances of code shouldn't affect your Analytics numbers, hence we assumed it was the taking down of the alternative domains, but maybe the guidance we found was wrong?

Question 2: It is 3 months later and these alternative domains are still indexed by Google, and Panda hasn't run since October 2014 so we haven't experienced a recovery yet. Redirecting the domains will remove any issue of a Panda penalty, but now of course I am worried about Penguin - the last thing I want to do is trigger that can of worms!

This whole saga has been pretty complicated and I think I need some fresh sets of eyes.

What does everyone think? Could the initial drop have been due to the duplicate Analytics code being removed? Could the redirecting domains trigger Penguin? Should we take the alternative domains down and be done with them? Any other thoughts!

Looking forward to hearing your opinions!

Damon.

[DonnaDuncan]

Question 1: Could duplicate instances of code affect your Analytics numbers?

Yes, but not all of them. Duplicate Google Analytics roughly doubles your page views, pages per session, and causes your bounce rates to fall to nearly zero. Other metrics are not impacted.

Question 2:  Paraphrased - can Penguin penalties transfer with a redirect?

Yes. See - http://moz.com/community/q/site-penalized-301-redirect-question. There doesn't seem to be clear direction on that particular question but general consensus is yes, penalties transfer.

You don't mention timing. When did you put the redirects in place? Have visitors had a chance to experience the redirects and learn the new domain? Have you used Tools to identify incoming links to the 40 domains and changed the substantive ones to point to workingvoices.com?

If it were me, I'd remove the redirects and be patient. It can take Google quite a while to drop pages from it's index. You can use Google Webmaster Tools to try to expedite their removal, but it doesn't always work.