Power Sellers Unite

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Like most posters to this forum, I'm working hard at more than one venue and website. I got to thinking about it, I pretty much copy over my item descriptions, sometimes even my store template and description, from site to site.

Wikipedia lists a number of definitions of a mirror site, one of which is:

Quote: › docWrite("quote")is an Internet site that duplicates the functionality and content of another site.

I'm worried about search engines seeing these duplicated items and store descriptions as mirror sites and booting all of them out of the index. How closely. They are of course all on different servers, will just creating a whole new store template (FAQs, policies, etc.) and changing the wording work? What can I do to make sure that all of my stores and websites are viewed as "unique"?

Would sure appreciate input on this from the pros....thanks!

Linda

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Oops, butterfingers. I mean to ask how closely can you come in item descriptions, etc. before it's viewed as a mirror site?

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4035 Location: Wi

I don't have a good answer for you, but I too list on several sites and I use pretty much the same template on all of them.

When I check Froogle for a common key word in my listings, often I dominate that word. Often the same item is listed from all the sites or at least 4 or 5.

I would also be interested in the "mirror" answer as later this year I want to "mirror" my site on another of my domains. That site will be my GoogleCheckout site and the original site will be my PP checkout site. I hope that will work OK.

Carol

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

Not sure Linda (aka) butterfingers :D

Usually when I copy the item's info from site to site I sometimes tweek it just a bit with the wording to hopefully allow the search engines to pick it up.
I've noticed some sites it picks up rather quickly while others seem to not show it at all :(

Good question though and not really sure what the correct answer is

Try rewording the item description a little or possibly the title if possible. Yea I know. More work :)

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

I won't worry about the 'mirror' issue. It only applies for an exact duplicate of the whole site.

If you are listing on different sites everything is different except for your product and discription. People are selling hundrends of the same products online.

A mirror would be if I would make an exact copy of the PSU site and put it on another server. That way if I get a surge in traffic and the first server starts to slow down I can redirect them to the other server and it will look just like the first one.

joflora · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 1760

I've got a lot of the same item listed in several different places. My website has the largest inventory and the others have bits and pieces of the same thing in a lesser quantity.

Hope that made sense. Sinus headache is making me dull and dumb this morning.

Jo

airborne82 · Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 108

Linda,
I think you are using the wrong term.

Mirroring is when you muliple servers running exact copies of the same web content. the purpose is to balance web traffic across servers for sites with high traffic.. this is implemented at the network and server level by network admins

mirroring is transparent to client software ( people hitting your website ).

how exactly are you mirroring your site?

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Got that butter off (I hope!) Gato, let's see if we can get this post to read right lol!

Thanks, PSU, that makes sense. I just was a little confused by the exact definition of "mirroring", and Wikkipedia is not really much help :-) I'll just make sure I fiddle a little with each site just to be safe. You are probably wise to do that, Carol (and OT here, love your selections, you and I are gonna PM on peppers soon!)

Jo, sorry to hear about the headache, I get those pesky kinds of headaches when the weather changes (as it is now)

Hi, Air, yeah, I think I was just a little confuzzled. I understand about exact duplicates so as to balance the traffic, the Wikkipedia definition just threw me a curve, had me worried!

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Here's an article I just received by email, interesting food for thought, especially the responding email by Google:

Do Multiple Sites = Google Penalties?

Google says:

Quote: › docWrite("quote")it's typically advantageous to have more content in fewer domains, assuming the content is closely related. With that said, though, I wouldn't worry too much about duplicate content penalties unless, indeed, the CONTENT is highly similar. Similarities in look, feel, and structure alone shouldn't be a problem.

So if you duplicate the welcome page, the FAQs page, item descriptions, payment and shipping terms, and meta tags, that would be considered duplicate content, no, and may cause Google pentalties, even though the "offending" websites are not specifically "mirror" sites?

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4035 Location: Wi

I wouldn't worry too much about it if you are just listing on different listing/auction sites.

Here is a search I just did for "tomato seeds" on Froogle http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&q=tomato%20seeds&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf
All the listings for a price of "2.25" are mine.

You will nitice that at the bottom of the page there are 2 listings for Siberian. The pics and description are absolutely identical tho they are on 2 dif sites. And above that is another listing for Siberia on another site. I forgot the N in that one.

If you go thru several pages of that search, you will find many dups of mine. Some are on the same page, others are on different pages.

G Base isn't as easy to figure out as that search seems to be more like the crummy thing that E is using on Express. Some of my listings are there but are buried down around page 20+. They used to be at the top a couple of months ago.

But I'm not too worried about Base as most people don't seem to know how to use it anyway yet.

Carol

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

I agree with PSU and Carol - not worrying is the right approach. From my experience in selling and supporting IT solutions, mirroring applied to sites and databases moreso than content.

The biggest concern I have when we list on mulitple sites is that you end up competing with....yourself! If you've got very intriging product and most are 'movers' in the market place, you may affect your own profit by 'competing' with yourself and flooding the market.

Make sense - I too have a sinus head-ache today....must be the darn weather! :oops: :roll:

EleganzaJewels · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 519

Carol:

DANG those tomatoes look YUMMY! Nice job on the Base listings. I agree with you, the search function is just whacky on Base. Same with me, things sure seem to do a see saw on G Base, up and down, who can figure it out?

I'm less concerned with ranking in Base than in ranking in the general Google search. Don't want to get penalized by them, and the email response in that article does mention duplicate content specifically. I'll do some checking out of the forums over at G and let you guys know what I find out.

MOI, worry? It's my specialty LOL!

Erin, so sorry to hear about the headache. Go take a hot hot shower and let the steam do it's work :-) Too true about competing with yourself, good point, hadn't thought of that!