Second store question...

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice. I want to open a second store under a different domain. I'm using xcart, so uploading the my existing products via an csv file (to the new store) would be relatively easy. I don't want to be penalized by Google of course for duplicate content, and I'm wondering what I would need to do to avoid this. I can easily change all the prices by say 1% to make a difference, but would I need to alter all of the descriptions a little as well? Also, the site I would be adding it to in a subfolder ranks excellent in Google, so I'm not sure if it will help the store or hurt the whole store/domain if there's another store already out there. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

If you want to take this route.... I would suggest a start-from-scratch rewrite of every description and item title. Do this with NEW KEYWORDS in mind - making the rewrite and the the titiles, the descriptions and the SEO work together. Why would you make two stores with dupe content? Go for more reach with new keywords. This assumes that your store is getting spidered and into the SERPs properly - if it isn't performing well try something totally new.

If you are lazy and use the same content then one of your stores will likely not show in the SERPs after google figures you out. And if you link two stores that are really close in content google will figure it out a lot faster.

Personally, if my first store was working well, I would put more energy into it. Making it larger, adding content pages that describe how the products are used, other information that your customers might want to read. These pages would be built and structured to collect traffic and have appropriate links to where they can buy. IMO, big stores with good supplemental info can earn links and become keyword vacuums. I've gotten some nice .edu links to my supplemental content... those pages are slamin in the SERPs right now.

Thank you very much, I appreciate all the info. The main reason was when I originally started my store (about 3 years ago), I added it as a subdomain to my existing site and it did extremely well in google; however, I lost advertising from similar sites at my main site, so I created a new site with just the store, and basically advertised on my own site. However, now I'm learning how seo works, and I regret the move. But again, the new site is doing fair and probably just needs more time. The second reason is of course the same as many big businesses who own several of the same type of businesses, just different names.

I am glad that you are learning SEO. Your situation and mine seem to have some similarities - we are small operations trying to make money where Goliaths are taking over and many other small companies are trying to get started in ecommerce. In that environment you can't mess around. If you are not HUNGRY and attacking HARD and CONSTANTLY then you are getting your *** kicked. You must grow faster than your small competitors and be smart enough to beat Goliath in your niche.

Agreed, and thank you very much again.

Agree with Egol here 100%. I would not really go the 2nd site route. I have done it and at this point, we have done 301 redirects on all of our dupe sites to our main sites for those products. This is allowing us to focus more time and resources on those sites and we have started to see some real rewards from this (after about 3 months). Adding content, pages and BL's are probably the best things you can do other than adding high margin complementary products to your stable.

But, like Egol said, if you are going to stick with that 2nd site, be sure that the content is 100% original.

Thank you again. Here's what I've done and I'm curious anyone's opinions. I've basically put up the second store but have password protected it so search engines can't get to it for now. Secondly, I'm going through each product one by one, by hand, and editing each title and paragraph by adding sentences, and/or deleting or rearranging lines. I've also changed all the prices by 1% and changed most of the category structure and titles as well. I realize now I'm not going to be able to maintain both stores, unless when I add items each time I'll have to change the descriptions to each. But to the point, when I'm finished, would you agree this will meet google's requirements? At that point, I will focus purely on the new store. Thanks again.

honestly, I think you answered this one for yourself. If you are going to "change a few sentences" and you know that you are not going to be able to maintain both sites, then don't do it. I think you will find that having two stores to look after is going to give you more to do and bring you less money in the long run.

This sounds like a "light edit" to me.

I was afraid someone would say that I'm convinced. Thanks again, I appreciate it.

If you are building an entirely new site... start from scratch on the titles and descriptions. Target ALL NEW KEYWORDs.... take advantage of this. A light edit and you will have a second site that competes for same traffic. Claim new turf!

Yep, I've dedicated myself to your advice (and chachi's, and other threads here, thanks) and actually deleted the entire store (it was a copy I was going to just edit). I'm now manually adding items one by one and trying to be 100% original on each description. I would just continue with the existing store, but I want the new one to be part of my existing site which does extremely well in the search engines, again, something I didn't realize when I first moved it to a new domain.

If I could throw just one last question: to help protect original content (text), is it a no-no by google to put scripts that dis-allow copying of text (i.e. high lighting and copying text via right click) just a measure to help avoid copiers (I know they can still get it from the source). With products, there are just so many sites that have the same descriptions (directly from manufacturers and other sites) that I'm certain down the road, competitors will simply copy my text.

I think that the copycats know how to get your text and the most aggressive copy artists harvest your words with robots.

You must have plans to make really good descriptions if you are asking this. I would have copyright statements on the site but maybe other who read this will have better ideas.

Thank you again.