Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Thanks Sean.

I went that route as you suggested

This is the most helpful post that I have read so far on this issue. Much better than the info even Google's Places forum is offering. Thanks for posting this Miriam!

We have recently started work with a dealership group that operates ~20 separate dealerships (different locations and brands) and individual websites for each. The group also operates two umbrella websites for the group brand that shows the inventory across All 20 dealerships.

All websites are basically using the same template and all product listings are from the same data source (same back-end system). All websites are currently also hosted on the same IP address.

Typically we work with clients to rectify duplicate content issues and work towards having just one version of any piece of content.

However, this is a unique situation in that each dealership has a legitimate brand and marketing need for having their own website. It also is not realistic to ask the client to create unique content for the same product listing 22x.

We understand there are numerous options to consider but I would appreciate hearing any advice/feedback from individuals who have dealt with similar situations. If you know of any good resources on such a scenario, that would also be helpful to verify our thoughts.

NOTE: the duplicate content for product inventory is not across all 22 sites but just usually between 3-4 for each product. Often each product listing is shown on 1 or 2 dealerships and the 2 umbrella sites (one is the main group site and the other a product used/clearance site). Currently we can see multiple domains indexed for the same product listings.