Thanks Nigel for your very generous response and thanks Egol for your confirmation as well.

We do have a small team and we are not dominating rankings in our sector yet, so your point is well made. From what you are saying, it seems there are no technical limitations in terms of search engines penalising the under performing site (originally it was a copy of the main site). It seems to come down purely to a well constructed, designed and marketed site.

So thanks again for your really wise words - it has been an enormous help

Marc

We have two websites (different businesses) in the technology sector that sell the same products on the same platform (OSC) but have different branding. We have tried to make the static content different and the user generated content is different. SEO as largely different. But the one site has much better rankings than the other.

Whilst the under performing site is not responsive yet, I need to decide whether to merge the two businesses into one or continue on the two separate websites approach. I would only pursue the latter approach and invest further time and effort into this under performing website if I knew I was "on the right" track.

My SEO knowledge is not extensive and so I would be interested in any views the community has?

I note that kogan.com.au and dicksmith.com.au have a similar dual website approach (same company) and they are both major brands in Australia.

I thank you in advance for any thoughts you may have.