[MMcG]

Hi guys,
Ive created a website for a photographer friend, who happens to share the same name as another photographer in the same area.
My friends domain name is joebloggsphotography.com, while this other guy is joebloggs.com.
My problem is they both share the same title page heading. Joe Bloggs Photography.
Is this affecting my google search engine placing?
Will google see the Joe Bloggs Photography title heading and think its the same website?
Is there a way around it with meta?

Its just that I registered the site with google 2 weeks ago and still no placing anywhere, even 10 pages in.
But with Yahoo its near the top.

Any help would be great.
Thanks
M

[traxor]

MMcG, on 17 July 2009 - 01:41 PM, said:

Hi guys,
Ive created a website for a photographer friend, who happens to share the same name as another photographer in the same area.
My friends domain name is joebloggsphotography.com, while this other guy is joebloggs.com.
My problem is they both share the same title page heading. Joe Bloggs Photography.
Is this affecting my google search engine placing?
Will google see the Joe Bloggs Photography title heading and think its the same website?
Is there a way around it with meta?

Its just that I registered the site with google 2 weeks ago and still no placing anywhere, even 10 pages in.
But with Yahoo its near the top.

Any help would be great.
Thanks
M

Hi M, this is a definite issue and your friend should make sure that he's not trading under the same name as the other person, because he may be breaking the law by doing this. The second thing, search engines are clever, so they will position both websites in their rankings, and depending on how optimised each site is, one will always appear above the other, but never underestimate the power of a domain name, because your friend has 'joebloggsphotography', if someone searches 'Joe Bloggs Photography', somewhere in the near future your friends' site will hopefully appear first.

[gentlefoot]

Whichever domain name was registered first and indexed will generally be given better SERPs. Domain age is an important factor in Google's algorithm.

So having another very similar site out there is an issue.

I would want to change that page title anyway though to be honest. Page title is given great importance by the Google algorithm and I would add the primary targeted keyphrase in the title. A photography niche would be perfect.

Unless ofcourse you are trying to take business off this other guy with the same name. However, this is a dangerous game to play. The owner of the other site may send a spam report to Google showing your site and Google may apply a manual penalty to your page or even domain.

[lazytycoon]

There are millions of sites with the same page title, this won't do anything. Also why the hell are you going after those keywords? Surely a geo keyword is way more effective

[gentlefoot]

andymayhem, on 18 July 2009 - 02:41 PM, said:

There are millions of sites with the same page title, this won't do anything.

But not with almost identical domain name aswell.

[lazytycoon]

there are loads of almost identical domain names with identical titles. Unless they are on the same IP they will not be treated as the same site.

[MMcG]

Thanks Traxor, your answer made more sense than the others. Regarding trading under the same name, I think he's OK and has registered the business name.

Thanks for your reply Gentlefoot, but i dont think he's trying to steal business. I think its just a popular name in the area. Also, its not the same domain name or similar, as it has a whole 11 extra characters. if anything my friend is more specific in what the website content is. While this other guy has his name as his domain name. So why would the other guy want to send a spam report to google? Also, could you clarify what you mean by this?

Thanks Andymayhem for your reply -

"Also why the hell are you going after those keywords?"

What keywords are you meaning? do you mean the Page Title? Im using the page title "Joe Bloggs Photography" as the domain name is www.joebloggsphotography.com. What my friend wants is when someone types his name into google his website is listed. So i assume that the primary keywords are going to be Joe Bloggs Photography.

Thanks for all your help guys.

[lazytycoon]

I mean no one will be searching for his brandname and its very egotistical and very bad practice to do so. I mean if he lives in bristol he should go for 'bristol photographer' or 'wedding photographer bristol'

But I guess its up to him if he wants to use the internet to promote his business or to show off to friends.

[traxor]

andymayhem, on 19 July 2009 - 02:20 PM, said:

I mean no one will be searching for his brandname and its very egotistical and very bad practice to do so. I mean if he lives in bristol he should go for 'bristol photographer' or 'wedding photographer bristol'

But I guess its up to him if he wants to use the internet to promote his business or to show off to friends.

Shut up, it's his business name he's worrying about.

[gentlefoot]

andymayhem, on 19 July 2009 - 01:33 PM, said:

there are loads of almost identical domain names with identical titles. Unless they are on the same IP they will not be treated as the same site.

I'm not suggesting they will be treated as the same site. I'm suggesting that the younger, weaker domain will have poor SERPs compared with the older stronger domain.

[lazytycoon]

traxor, on 19 July 2009 - 04:04 PM, said:

Shut up, it's his business name he's worrying about.

Why thought, doesn't make sense why he would worry about that.

gentlefoot, on 20 July 2009 - 09:28 AM, said:

I'm not suggesting they will be treated as the same site. I'm suggesting that the younger, weaker domain will have poor SERPs compared with the older stronger domain.

Well thats obvious... Its the same with any 2 sites.

[gentlefoot]

andymayhem, on 20 July 2009 - 11:10 AM, said:

Why thought, doesn't make sense why he would worry about that.




Well thats obvious... Its the same with any 2 sites.

Only more so if the weaker site appears to duplicating the content of the stronger one. A Google manual penalty is a very real possibility in this situation.

[lazytycoon]

Google isnt stupid, I am sure they would look at the sites notice oh hang on they are different people with the same name, the have sites which are different and images which are different.

I think you need to read up a little more on seo.

[gentlefoot]

andymayhem, on 20 July 2009 - 12:38 PM, said:

Google isnt stupid, I am sure they would look at the sites notice oh hang on they are different people with the same name, the have sites which are different and images which are different.

I think you need to read up a little more on seo.

They may also think that the second site is masquerading as the first in order to profit from the promotional effort of the first site. Here's an example http://www.twitter.co.uk/

Manual penalties are applied in this situation where they come to Google's attention.

[Martin Greenwood]

the simple answer to this is: yes... it does affect the google rankings.. I suggest changing your title tags on all pages to be different..

[lazytycoon]

Martin, would be great if you could provide sources and some examples.