Hi

 

I wonder if anyone can advise please.

 

I am about to host 3 websites to do with my 1 business. but unsure whether to purchase a reseller account (they will then all be hosted on the same server) but I'm not sure if there is a problem hosting all 3 of these sites on the same server because of the search engines. e.g.-

 

1) First site might sell a certain franchises actual products lets say www.smithsproducts.com

 

2) Second site will talk about the franchise opportunity e.g. www.smithsbusinessopportunity.com

 

3) Third site will be about franchises in general.

 

This means that the middle site (2) will have some similarities with sites 1 and 3, and the middle site will also have some similar content as the third generic site (third will also have added content).

 

Does all this make sense?

 

Thanks for anyones help.

 

Denise

Hi Denise,

 

Are you asking if Google et al will penalise you for duplicate content? The answer, based on what you described, is "No." Search engines' ideas of duplicate content are quite different from your average human's ideas; it's not just a few similar paragraphs here and there but a nearly-100% copy with strikingly similar code too. Your sites sound way too different to ever fall into that category.

 

BTW, you don't need a reseller account to host multiple sites for yourself. Most web hosts now let you host a few domains on the same account; some (Bluehost) even let you have unlimited domains. You'll save yourself a bit of money this way, as reseller accounts are much more expensive than regular hosting.

Hi there

 

Yes I suppose it is a duplicate content issue I was thinking about, I just remember reading somewhere about not putting similar sites on the same server but wasn't sure to what degree it mattered. Although all 3 sites are different 2 of them would be pretty similar in some ways.

 

Thanks for your reply and I'll also take a look at the hosting you mention.

 

Denise

Yes I suppose it is a duplicate content issue I was thinking about, I just remember reading somewhere about not putting similar sites on the same server but wasn't sure to what degree it mattered. Although all 3 sites are different 2 of them would be pretty similar in some ways.

 

There is a small issue with linking to different sites hosted on the same server - the links are not as valuable from a PageRank standpoint. But even that is relatively harmless, as you should be assembling a lot of inbound links, not just linking to yourself.

In terms of server issues, the answer is as expat has already said - no real problems there. The only way you would get picked up is if all three sites were breaking terms and conditions and google placed a manual penalty on you by seeing that all three are on the same server (highly unlikely)

 

However.

 

In terms of SEO, I would strongly strongly advise that you do not use 3 sites for one business. While you may see this as spreading your eggs across different baskets, what you're in fact doing is spreading all your power more thinly across 3 domains. I guarantee you that if you put all the content that you have for 3 sites into one MAIN site, that site will be infinitely more powerful and certainly rank better as a result