two domains on the same host

norbiu · #1 (**permalink**) 12-15-2005, 08:47 AM

Hi,
I currently own a website about mobile news only. I got an idea of a cool domain and want to start a different site, more news, about tech stuff. (phone news will link back to my first one)

I already have a host and enough disk space on it so I decided not to purchase another one. I used the addon feature to add the new domain to this host. But I had no idea that the content will end up to appear on both sites.

So the 2 domains that I have are on the same host and the content that appears on www.second.com, is also available on the first site at www.first.com/second/

I'm afraid that Google or other search engines will notice the same content on different domains and I'll get in trouble.

My host said that this won't become a problem but I don't really trust them. I wanted to hear what the experts have to say about this.

Thank you!

**incrediblehelp** · #2 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 02:16 PM

Yeah that could be a problem. This is a tricky subject. The thing about content duplication is that you could be fine for 2 years in the current set up you have and then one day Google updates the algo and BAM you gone. It is better to be safe than sorry 2 years down the road.

I guess my question is why have content at two different locations? What is worng with just www.second.com and www.first.com?

alienzhavelanded · #3 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 03:15 PM

Would've been easier if you'd made the second site a subdomain of the first. I don't think the SE's care in this case. I have the same thing and I don't get penalized.

id_webdev · #4 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 03:27 PM

I am in the same situation and have yet to have any problems with the search engines for the last 4 years.

Josh

id_webdev · #5 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I guess my question is why have content at two different locations? What is worng with just www.second.com and www.first.com?

The simple answer is because it costs less to use one hosting account with multiple websites via add-on domains verses multiple hosting accounts for multiple websites.

Josh

alienzhavelanded · #6 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 04:03 PM

In my case, I was just holding on to the old domain while I transferred most of it's content to a new one. At one point there were two domains with apparently the same content until the DNS changes went through. This was mostly to preserve any rankings the content on the old domain had. This worked out really well with most of the SEs because I did a 301, except for a slight downturn on Google which eventually righted itself after the last big update.

**incrediblehelp** · #7 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by id_webdev

Quote:

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I guess my question is why have content at two different locations? What is worng with just www.second.com and www.first.com?

The simple answer is because it costs less to use one hosting account with multiple websites via add-on domains verses multiple hosting accounts for multiple websites.

Josh

um, instead of $5 a month you pay $10?? If the website is so important then spending $5 is not that much is it? Or just get a reseller account and host as many as you want for like $30 a month.

id_webdev · #8 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

um, instead of $5 a month you pay $10?? If the website is so important then spending $5 is not that much is it? Or just get a reseller account and host as many as you want for like $30 a month.

If you don't need something as large as a reseller account, but have a few small websites to manage why in the world juggle multiple accounts when you can consolidate into 1? I guess if you have extra time to devote, but I doubt most people do.

**incrediblehelp** · #9 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 05:36 PM

huh?

OK now I just dont know what the heck your doing. Either you have two seperate hosting accounts for two domains or not. I dont care if it is there one admin or username or not that is not in question here. Short and simple:

Bad
www.second.com
www.first.com/second/
www.first.com

Good
www.second.com
www.first.com

Not ideal, but OK
www.first.com/
www.first.com/second/

alienzhavelanded · #10 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

huh?

OK now I just dont know what the heck your doing. Either you have two seperate hosting accounts for two domains or not. I dont care if it is there one admin or username or not that is not in question here. Short and simple:

Bad
www.second.com
www.first.com/second/
www.first.com

Good
www.second.com
www.first.com

Not ideal, but OK
www.first.com/
www.first.com/second/

What he's pointing out is that those with a few diff domains that dont want to pay for separate hosting for each one can do it with a single host. There is nothing wrong with this as far as the SEs go as long as you optimize correctly. This includes using things like robots.txt, 301s, .htaccess, etc. Done properly there is no worry.

Furthermore, one could easily be running their own servers and have multiple domains on a single host..what do you think SHARED hosting means when you get it from a provider? Thats right, your domain along with several others on the same machine.

Some people have no need for reseller accounts or mutliple hosts for that matter. Others like me have pointed two domains to the same place for the sake of updating the SEs. All of these methods including your suggestion are tools of the trade.

There never was a question of using a single admin/username. That is usually NOT the purpose of using multiple domains on a single host and the original poster never brought that up.

What you are saying is "Bad" and "Good" is only your opinion since there are numerous examples of your "Bad" ones working just fine.

**incrediblehelp** · #11 (**permalink**) 12-16-2005, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alienzhavelanded

What you are saying is "Bad" and "Good" is only your opinion since there are numerous examples of your "Bad" ones working just fine.

Yup you are right and then you wake up one day and the duplicated content domain is banned. Sorry I am not going to duplicate content on two domains that I own.

Now if they simply own www.first.com and then put the second site on www.first.com/second for the sake of saving money then I agree it is OK, but the way they made it sound was they own www.first.com and and www.second.com and for some reason they also have www.first.com/second/. This is what doesn't make sense to me. Why have the same website in two locations????

alienzhavelanded · #12 (**permalink**) 12-17-2005, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Quote:

Originally Posted by alienzhavelanded

What you are saying is "Bad" and "Good" is only your opinion since there are numerous examples of your "Bad" ones working just fine.

Yup you are right and then you wake up one day and the duplicated content domain is banned. Sorry I am not going to duplicate content on two domains that I own.

Now if they simply own www.first.com and then put the second site on www.first.com/second for the sake of saving money then I agree it is OK, but the way they made it sound was they own www.first.com and and www.second.com and for some reason they also have www.first.com/second/. This is what doesn't make sense to me. Why have the same website in two locations????

They're just pointing that second domain to a location on that host, it's not uncommon.

**incrediblehelp** · #13 (**permalink**) 12-17-2005, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by "alienzhavelanded

They're just pointing that second domain to a location on that host, it's not uncommon.

I agree with you there, but that is not what was implied in the original post which is why I was confused:

Quote:

I'm afraid that Google or other search engines will notice the same content on different domains and I'll get in trouble.

He is saying that the content resides at both locations. One domain is not redirecting or pointing to another, but if that is what he meant so be it!

:)

Faglork · #14 (**permalink**) 12-17-2005, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norbiu

So the 2 domains that I have are on the same host and the content that appears on www.second.com, is also available on the first site at www.first.com/second/

This might be easily solved with mod_rewrite ...

Look at
http://www.goldner-stern.de and
http://www.vacation-hotel-germany.com

both are on the same webspace, the latter residing in a subdirectory /e

The mod_rewrite code:

Code:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.vacation-hotel-germany\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$  $1/index.shtml [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.vacation-hotel-germany\.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/e
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.shtml$  /e/$1\.shtml [L]

(for the curious: the rewriting does only rewrite .shtml ... so I can use the same pictures with the same paths at both sites.)

hth,
faglork

OneMoreBite · #15 (**permalink**) 12-17-2005, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norbiu

I currently own a website about mobile news only. I got an idea of a cool domain and want to start a different site, more news, about tech stuff... I have are on the same host and the content that appears on www.second.com, is also available on the first site at www.first.com/second/

I'm afraid that Google or other search engines will notice the same content on different domains and I'll get in trouble.

My host said that this won't become a problem but I don't really trust them. I wanted to hear what the experts have to say about this.

First, why didn't you give the actual urls? Then it could easily be checked whether you have the domains correctly configured.

If you have the DNS set to resolve domain No. 1 to that url, i.e. www.first.com and the second domain to resolve to it's primary url, i.e. www.second.com, then it makes no difference to Google if you have that second domain located off a subdirectory in your structure. Use a robot.txt file to keep the robots from crawling inside the entire structure.

In other words, www.first.com would have a robots.txt file that would disallow /second, so the crawl of disciplined robots would be only to directories pertaining to that first domain.

The second domain would have it's own robots.txt file, and so on.

Hope that makes sense. There are tens of thousands of virtual domains and they are all subdirectories of something.

Kathryn

mailboxlady · #16 (**permalink**) 12-17-2005, 06:42 PM

I own 11 url's all pointing to one domain and have been fortunate to be on page 1 in the most popular keyword used in my industry in Google and page 2 in Yahoo for most of the past 7+ years. As far as I know it's not a problem. I didn't know that if could be an issue.

I have that many in an effort to #1 prevent competition from using a good domain name and #2 in hopes that a person trying to find me will acctually type in the domain name and find me that way. So far, so good.

I am not the person to ask...Right now I pay a webmaster to take care of my web site for me but want to learn so I can do a bit more for myself. That's why I suscribe to Web Pro World.

vwebworld · #17 (**permalink**) 12-18-2005, 11:30 AM

Just have the content on one site different.

You said one would have MORE news and info..
there should NOT be a problem.

~Roland

alienzhavelanded · #18 (**permalink**) 12-18-2005, 02:21 PM

The original poster asked their question lacking more info about what they were doing. They assume that since second.com points to first.com/second that the SEs will see it as duplicate content when spidering BOTH URLs.

But as was already explained, using proper SE optimzation techniques such as robots.txt and mod_rewrite, this is NOT a problem especially since second.com is to have DIFF content.

Incredihelp came along and misunderstood the original poster, assuming they really meant there would be the same content at the same place. Technically this is true, but not to the SEs if you don't want it to be. LOL

Norbiu, you should have plenty of info to do this with no worry now.

**incrediblehelp** · #19 (**permalink**) 12-18-2005, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by norbiu

I already have a host and enough disk space on it so I decided not to purchase another one. I used the addon feature to add the new domain to this host. But I had no idea that the content will end up to appear on both sites.

So the 2 domains that I have are on the same host and the content that appears on www.second.com, is also available on the first site at www.first.com/second/

Pretty easy to misinterpret those comments if the content is not duplicated. Now that we understand they are redirecting they should be happy with the comments.