[Pro] Unusual Mals Question

I have a client that wants me to something a bit unusual. She has a main site, but she wants me to set up two “sister” sites. She doesn’t want a simple domain forward. Down the road, there may be differences between these three sites, but at least initially they will be identical. I have the primary site set up at flowersongherbals.com using mals and paypal.

I’m not sure the best way to proceed. I could just change the upload settings to use the new web addresses. That would certainly make future changes go more smoothly. But, I’m not sure what that would do to all the buy buttons I currently have set up.

Another option is to create a copy of my FW document and change all the buy buttons and the upload settings to the new “sister” website. This could make future updates more time consuming.

It seems the biggest question is what will happen with the buy buttons I currently have set up. Should I set up a separate Mals account for use with each website? I’m currently using the free Mals account with this client.

Thanks for your input on this rather unusual client request.

Doty


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

Hi Doty,
I’m assuming that the sites will differ at some point in the future? If your client just wants the same sites under different domains then (as you mentioned) domain forwarding would work best. You can even do some clever things with htaccess files on Apache servers so that they serve different content depending on the domain name used to access the site.

For now I would advise you to make two copies of the site using the File > Save Archive command and change each to point to their own site folders and upload to their own domains. Set up two new accounts with Mals and update each of the new Freeway sites top point to the new stores. This will ensure that the three sites are all totally separate and can diverge at some point in the future without one interfering with another. It is a lot more work than a domain redirection but will provide you with a solid solution to your problem.
Regards,
Tim.

On 17 Oct 2012, at 20:54, Doty wrote:

I have a client that wants me to something a bit unusual. She has a main site, but she wants me to set up two “sister” sites. She doesn’t want a simple domain forward. Down the road, there may be differences between these three sites, but at least initially they will be identical. I have the primary site set up at flowersongherbals.com using mals and paypal.


Experienced Freeway designer for hire - http://www.freewayactions.com


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Tim. I appreciate hearing how others would approach this.


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

Hi Doty

The only concern that I would have doing anything other than a redirection before you have created differences in the content on the three sites, is the duplicate content issue.

You can google that term to see what comes up, but it is never a good idea - in my humble opinion at least - to have the exact same content at more than 1 location. It could have an affect on your client’s sites appearance in the search engine results.

I don’t want to ‘throw a spanner in the works’ as it were, but it can take some time to rebuild your credibility with those Search Engines if you rub them up the wrong way.

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt (and the scars)

Hope it all goes well for you and you find an ideal solution.

Alan.


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

Google comes across duplicated content all the time. It will make a decision to list what it thinks is the correct content and disregard the other. Chances are it won’t be the result you are looking for. If it’s confusing for the user then consider it’s probably not a good thing for the search engines either.

David.

On 19 Oct 2012, at 14:46, Alan Herbert email@hidden wrote:

Hi Doty

The only concern that I would have doing anything other than a redirection before you have created differences in the content on the three sites, is the duplicate content issue.

You can google that term to see what comes up, but it is never a good idea - in my humble opinion at least - to have the exact same content at more than 1 location. It could have an affect on your client’s sites appearance in the search engine results.

I don’t want to ‘throw a spanner in the works’ as it were, but it can take some time to rebuild your credibility with those Search Engines if you rub them up the wrong way.

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt (and the scars)

Hope it all goes well for you and you find an ideal solution.

Alan.


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

That’s exactly how I understand it to be Dave. Thanks for making that part clear.

The problem can be that when a search engine selects the preferred domain and disregards the other/s, you can have issues getting it to reconsider coming back to the site/s that were duplicated - even after you have changed and updated the content. They can be out in the cold.

If the domains are for different countries ie: different TLD’s, it can be seen as more acceptable, ie: domain.com domain.co.uk, domain.com.au

Where the domain names are completely different is when the problems may occur.

This is just my interpretation of how things roll with duplicate content - it is not gospel. As Dave points out, it should not be confusing for the site visitor, after all, they are your real target audience and if they get exactly the same experience on 2 or 3 different sites, confusion may begin.

Hope some of this helps. You can always check out the google webmasters videos on youtube for a more detailed explanation of what is good etiquette.

All this said, you may well have no issues at all.

Alan.


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

Alan & David,

Thank you for bringing up this issue of duplicate content. I’ve had a similar concern, but I wasn’t sure how to present it to my client. I will have a chat with her and see if there is another way we can accomplish her goal.

Thanks again.

Doty


freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options