Duplicate Content Very Technical Question

[ctabuk]

I've been buying up URL's - basically the UK Government have introduced a range of new Shared Ownership Mortgages

These are as follows:
Key Worker Mortgages - I have the .org.uk
First Time Buyers -I have the .uk.com & Firsttimebuyersmortgages . org
Social Homebuy - I have socialhomebuymortgages . co .uk and the dot org and dot com
Shared Equity Mortgages - I have the .org.uk
Open Market Homebuy - I have the .org.uk

Now - here is my dilema - each site will have the same corporate logo and address details. Ie same page heading -We have to be compliant under the Financial Services Act so all UK Mortgage sites in theory have to have the same information.



The content on each page will be in the same basic style - each site will have the same hosting.

Each site is bound to pick up links from the same sources - I have pretty huge links across the board for anything branded CTAB Mortgage Desk
my username alone is at over 12,000.

We will make the content varied - but the contact page will be virtually identical.

What issues will that raise under 'duplicate content'?

Thanks guys

David

Sudden Thought - No Follow tags on Contact page -would that do it? or robots txt ?

[wige]

My understanding is that the duplicate content issue comes in based on some percentage of the content. Heading and footer information, for example, such as the content information throughout the sites shouldn't cause problems if there is sufficient content on the page to "drown out" the duplicated address. As far as the contact page, if there is no way to avoid large scale duplication on the one page, I would simply not worry about optimizing that page - how important is it for that page to rank after all? One mostly duplicated page should not affect the rest of the site, if it did, affiliate sites that copy spec sheets would see more problems than I have seen reported.

[ctabuk]

Hi wige - I have given that some thought -the contact page does not need to rank for any keywords. so just robot txt and no follow?

I've managed to get Shared Ownership Mortgages to page one on all the Majors except Ask -Live has it top - but all the other sites will look pretty identical. But my competitors have no conception on SEM (I'm not SEO) and have left nearly all the decent URL titles alone.

So with proper linking (one way same Directories - gradual build up) I reckon I could dominate the UK Market on those topics. My home page ( Different to the one shown in post) already shows on all the SE's for similar keywords. I just would hate to fall into Google's bad books.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by ctabuk

....in theory have to have the same information....



...The content on each page will be in the same basic style....

.....We will make the content varied....

So is the content itself on each of the pages totally different from site to site? If yes you should be OK. I also agree about blocking the contact us page. Maybe you have an example live for us to view?

[ctabuk]

Hi and thanks guys this is extremely helpful

Content - different on each new site -but similar words pertaining to Mortgages.

Example

Live.com
Search 'Shared Ownership Mortgages' there you will see us top with the new site and 2 entries for counciltenantsmortgages on page 2

[SemAdvance]

I think your biggest problem besides a dupe content filter is Googls not likely going to allow you to corner the market with multiple websites.

Also in the US under the IRS rules a .org is not likely to be offering mortgages and so I see some disconnect between your commercial aspects and using the .org TLD

Not sure how things would fare for you when the competitive marketplace heats up.

[craigmn3]

As to your corporate information and header they can all be placed on a graphic (unless they need to search) and the graphic can be renamed for each site.

The biggest problem I see is the use of the same hoster (and probably the same Registrar) Google notices this stuff and if it sees multiple sites from one registrar with similar content they are going to sink all but one for the major keywords.

Changing site content is not to hard, just pesky

She hit the ball hard
The girl struck the sphere with great force
Her swing smacked the flung object with gusto.
etc etc

[kjohnson5576]

Ever thought about having just one contact page for all the sites? Just use one domain as the contact page host and link all the other domains contact hyperlinks to that one page. If filling out a contact form is a goal, you may be able to get some SERP advantage.

Just a thought.

[flanok]

I agree with some of the comments here.

If all these urls are on the same ip address I doubt you will gain much from linking to each other.

Many corporate companies have different sites around the world, sell the same products, keep the same header and branding, but then change the content to suit that particular country and they have no issues.
But the ones that benefit the most are those that choose different hosting to suit the country that site represents. .co.uk hosted in the uk, .com hosted in the usa etc with different ip addresses, then linked together.


This next comment is an my opinion not based on fact, just on my experience.

I have started a finance site too.
But rather than buying several urls covering the range of products I do and link throughout each of the sites, I chose to put it all under one url.

That was because I eventually want the site to be seen as an authority site in as you know is a very tough financial seo market. I believe the shear size of a site can help towards authority status.

I believe a site with thousands of pages with unique quality content will outrank others where this content is spread over several urls, by its size, all links going to the same url and the internal PR it will create.

As I said earlier, Google knows these sites are all on the same ip address and PR and trust factor may not filter through.

Of course other factors come into play, but just my opinion.

Mark

[flanok]

One more comment.

Do searches for the terms you have bought the urls for.
And measure how many of these results on the first page, have the keywords in the url against the subpage url.

I calculated that about 90% of the results were subpages of a brand name or an authority site, rather than the homepage of a url.

Again just my own opinion.

Mark

[ctabuk]

Thank you all - I have taken all of this on board and my decision is to avoid even the slightest chance of 'The wrath of Google'
So I have simply created pages for each site as 'General Information' on the relevant topic - I have used one of my Non FSA Registered Companies as a Marketing Company and then simply pointed the information to my main two sites. I will rely on the URL titles to get SERP by staged linking both as high quality out links based purely on relative topics -with no cross linking between the sites other than the home sites.

I'll keep you advised on progress. Many thanks for all of your input
Rep points all round

[Traffic Master]

Have you considered doing a redirect.

[ctabuk]

No that's the last thing I'd do. Each page will be a 'Authority style Site' very detailed info but with a splurge on my own Company. Cheating - Yes - Marketing - Definitely -no different to a blog basically

[hwajcman]

ctabuk............... No that's the last thing I'd do................why??

[ctabuk]

In my opinion a redirect can make the spiders ask why - I know the SEO guys will leap in and say it's OK - but my sites have literally hundreds of keywords and it's just a personal observation.