Mirror Sites a Bad Move for SE?

[katiab]

I market intl-roots.com and internationalrootscompany.com, mirror sites.
I paid a company to get me top ranking, all it did is delete me from all SE. I need to rank for "Vintage Posters" and "Collectible Photography" mainly. The tags they generated on my home page are not proper English but they insist I need to keep them the way they are to rank on Google. I don't!
They also told me that the mirror sites might be the reason why I no longer rank well. Is this true?
If so, what can I do? The SE have pages on both URLs.
HELP!

[sfowler]

You are going to have to lose one set of content. One easy way is with a server side 301 redirect. If both addresses have been in use for some time you are going to have to contact all your partners who link to one address and get them to swap to the other address. That page description has to go. The keywords will also need some severe pruning.

[incrediblehelp]

fowler,

It looks as if these two domains are pointing in the DNS to one IP. You cannot do a 301 redirection unless both websites are actually being hosted.

[sfowler]

I didn't cut them out and try them. If it is just a parked dmain, then there should not be a problem with that. They re not mirror sites, just one site. The description and keywords will have to change though.

[incrediblehelp]

sfowler, I don't agree. I have seen parked domains cause many issues lately within Google. For some reason Google seems to index multiple parked domains for the same web site. Sometimes Google picks and choose which domain to use with the natural search results when both domains have inbound links to it. This can cause GREAT problems with duplication within the index. How is Google to decide which domain to use within its listings? Sometimes it is uses both. I have not seen this problem with parked domains that have never had a real website exist within it (hence no inbound links). It is only when you try park domains that have had previous rankings and popularity with the Google index.

An example of this is when a client acquires another company and its website. What they point the DNS to the new IP or main domain. This can cause the issues above.

I have brought this problem to the attention of this forum MANY times in he past with no real answers or solutions coming from any members.

My only solution is that I have found to correct the problem mentioned above is to set up hosting for both domains and do a proper 301 redirection so Google can finally realize the secondary domain name is going away for ever.

[sfowler]

You may be right. I will probably find out soon, since we just parked www.sensonic.co.at and started www.sensonic.at. I will keep a closer eye open for this sort of problem. Thanks for the warning.

[katiab]

All I know is that my ranking has suffered severely from it. I also paid a marketing company $1,000 to get these keywords and description. Once, I changed them because I really don't like them but they made me put them back for results. I guess I should just do my own thing because their help (not cheap) has put me under! Thanks for your help. I'll try and fix the keywords and see if it helps.
Have a nice day,
katia
http://www.intl-roots.com

- I'm taking internationalrootscomapny off the air as soon as possible!

[bhartzer]

katiab, you should go back to that firm and ask for your money back. They did not do the right thing--they should have told you that putting up duplicate content (mirror sites) will get you severely penalized in the search engines if not banned completely.

What you need to do is to pick one domain name and put up a 301 Permanent Redirect from all your other domain names to that one domain name.

The search engines don't want people littering up their databases with useless duplicate content. They want to index one set of your content, not two or more.

[cspelts]

Katiab, you should feel very free to redo the meta tags - as they are now, they aren’t helping you much. There’s a lot of repetition - the word ‘art’ appears in the title twice, in the description four times, and in the keywords six times!

But the thing that really stands out to me is the phrase ‘poster art’ is used nine times, but ‘art posters’ in not used at all. When you choose keywords think about different ways a potential client might go looking for you. You can’t worry about every variation, but you should try to hit the most obvious.

The good news is that at least they used different meta tags on each page! With a little tweaking you should be in good shape!

[freehits]

<h2><font size=2 face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica">Newsletter:

<input name="ea" type=text value="Enter Email Address" size=25>
<input type=hidden name="m" value="1011096931213">
<input type=hidden name="p" value="oi">
<input type=submit name="go" value="Go">
</font></h2>


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >

This is not the <h2> Tag I normally target. I think the headings need a major overhaul.

[katiab]

You have helped me make a final decision to change the meta tags and links on the site.
I never liked the limitations with text, and the tags were not even proper English. I finally set myself free and changed the tags to content more suited to what I see. -- AND asked for a full refund from the marketing company which i believe they agreed on. Thanks for the support.
Let me know if there is anything unpleasant in my new approach...
And I tried to understand the comment on <h2> tags, and as I understand it, there shouldn't be <fonts> and the like in between. If I am mistaken, kindly clarify your explanation, otherwise, it's on my to do list!
Thnaks a million for the guidance.

- OH, I ALSO AM GETTING RID OF INTERNATIONALROOTSCOMPANY.COM.
It's long, newer and probably the best choice to get read of.

Katia
ORIGINAL VINTAGE POSTER GALLERY 1880, 1980
http://www.intl-roots.com

[katiab]

I used to be very high on Search Engines but seem to have lost that priviledge.
I am not sure what needs to be done to get me good placement. Any tips would help.
Take care
Katia
ORIGINAL VINTAGE POSTER GALLERY 1880 TO 1980
http://www.intl-roots.com

[GnnC]

what's the difference and which is better?