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Hi

I have a UK based website using a .com, we also own the .co.uk which points to the .com. We get IRO 40,000 UVs per month and we have good domain authority. I now want to launch the site in America however if I seperated the sites out and used the .co.uk for the UK and the .com for the US I would decimate my UK rankings.

Am I able to target both the US and the UK under the one domain, or will the fact that I host in the UK ultimately impact on any rankings I may achieve in the US?

Thanks EGOL, much appreciated.

Thanks Brian...should have checked webmaster tools befor posing the question!

As I replied to EGOL the reason for the individual sites is that I wanted to get the primary keyword for each in the domain (for example gardenfurniturereview.co.uk, or shedsreview.co.uk) and build focussed authoritative sites for each. Do you think the keyword in the domain is still relevant?

Thanks EGOL, the reason for the individual sites is that I wanted to get the primary keyword for each in the domain (for example gardenfurniturereview.co.uk, or shedsreview.co.uk) and build focussed authoritative sites for each. Do you think the keyword in the domain is still relevant?

Hi All

I am in the process of creating a number of sites within the garden products sector; each site will have unique, original content and there will be no cross over. So for example I will have one on lawn mowers, one on greenhouses, another on garden furniture etc.

My original thinking was to create a single limited company that would own each of the domains, therefore all the registrant details will be identical.

Is this a sensible thing to do? (I want to be totally white hat)

And what, if any, are the linking opportunities between each of the sites? (16 in total). Not to increase ranking, more from an authoritative perspective.

And finally, how should I link between each site? Should I no follow the links? Should I use keyword contextual links?

Any advice ideas would be appreciated

Please note: It has been suggested that I just create one BIG site. I've decided against this as I want to use the keyword for each website in the domain name as I believe this still has value.

Thanks

Thanks EGOL...much appreciated.

Hi

Thanks for that - a very interesting idea indeed. Sometimes it requires a fresh perspective to see the wood for the trees. My only concern is that with our proposed structure we were planning on using the primary search term in the domain name of each site. It might not have much of an impact but we were working on the assumption that every little bit helps. So for example we might create a site talking about keyword and the domain would be keyword(our company).co.uk. In that respect we were thinking that with it talking specifically about a keyword / product and having that in the url would help.

Once again thanks for your thoughts.

Daniel

Hi All

I am setting up a series of affiliate sites; each site will focus on 1 category of product and there will be no cross over (i.e. no 2 sites will promote the same type of product). I'm setting up approximately 40 and they will all share the same domain: product followed by brand name.co.uk.

Because of the numbers I intend to get a dedicated server and create a 'parent' website which I was going to use as a blog to promote the individual sites.

My question is: should I set them up as micro sites, or should I set them up as sub domains? Wanted to know which is the best method from an SEO point of view as all sites will be hosted and owned collectively so I appreciate that the link building between each site will be limited.

Thanks!

Thanks Keri, I have heard that when engaging in such nefarious practices webmaster tools should be avaoided like the plague!

Thanks for that Josh...good point about the sidebar content, heads and footers. They will hopefully appear to a user (as well as Google) totally unique. I guess paranoia is the name of the game...hence the question in the first place!!

Hi All

A question regarding multiple sites in the same niche...

If I have say 10 sites all targetting the same niche yet all on different C-class IPs with different hosts, registrars, whois data and ages can I use the same template, or will Google discern a pattern?

Basically I have developed a WordPress template which I want to use on the sites albeit with different logos / brand colours.

NB/ All of the 10 sites will have unique, original content and they will NOT be interlinked

Hi Journeyman

Many thanks for the reply and the advice, which begs another question!

If Google can still see the road that the visitor takes to the no index no followed page where I intend to place the affiliate links will it restore the authority and therefore ranks of the parcel related landing pages where I originally placed the links, or will it still devalue these pages on account of the fact that we are linking from them to pages with affiliate links?

I have no intention of trying to achieve rankings for the no indexed page where I want to place the affiliate links but I desperately want to restore the parcel related pages for which previously I had some good rankings.

My understanding was that Google determines the value on a page by page basis so my thought was that if I remove the affiliate links from the landing page and then provide a to an internal page with the affiliate links it might restore the authority of the landing page even if it attributes zero value / authority to the other internal page on which I want to place the links?

Hope that makes sense!

Many thanks

Hello all, my question relates to the recent panda changes and the subsequent impact on pages with affiliate links.

I have a hub of pages on my website talking about parcel delivery. Each page has unique, quality content and up until about 3 weeks ago they were starting to achieve strong rankings. We then decided to add some affiliate links (just 3) on each of the 5 parcel related pages we have. The rankings for each of these pages have tanked completely; rather than top 20, we're now outside of the top 100 for all of them.

When we noticed this we masked the link, changing it to domain.com/index/affiliate; we also no followed the link. Alas this has had minimal effect in restoring the rankings.

What i'm now thinking of doing is removing the affiliate links from the parcel landing pages altogether and instead providing users with a no followed link to another page within the site upon which we would have the affiliate links. This page would also be no indexed as well.

My question is: Is this a good idea and if so will it restore my previous rankings over time, or have those pages (as a result of the affiliate links) been permanently down graded?? Any assistance would be gratefully received!