Running a high-quality, attractive website can take a lot of time and resources, not to mention the creativity required to make it stand out. Sometimes, especially when it comes to very commercial topics like currency rates or stocks, we see webmasters trying to compete with many other sites on the same topic in order to increase their site's visibility in Google search results. If you want your site to appear in our search results, there are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about your strategy.
A less creative webmaster, or a webmaster with less time but more resources, may create a large number of similar sites without necessarily adding unique information to them. From a user perspective, these types of repetitive websites may constitute a bad user experience when they appear in search results. Fortunately, over time, our algorithms have gotten better at identifying similar content in order to provide users with a variety of different information. We don't recommend creating lookalike sites like this as it's not a good use of your time and resources.
If all of your websites offer essentially the same content, no amount of more websites will contribute much to the Internet.
While you can run as many websites as you like, remember that users prefer to see unique, engaging content. It's a good idea to give each site its own content, personality, and functionality. This applies to any site, whether it's a personal site with just one page of content, or it's part of a larger site. When you create a website, try to add something new or some value to the Internet, create something that your users have never seen before, something that will inspire them and fascinate them, something they can't wait for Something to recommend to their friends.
When coming up with a website idea, do some browsing online first. There are many websites dealing with such mundane services as vacation planning, price comparisons or Forex trading. There is often no point in needlessly repeating and competing with existing broad-topic websites. It is often more practical and beneficial to focus on smaller or appropriate topics where you are best at and where the competition for users may not be so fierce.
A few webmasters choose to concentrate their resources within one domain but leverage their domain resources by creating many smaller sites that link to it. In some cases, these sites are considered doorway pages. Without their own value, these gateway sites are unlikely to stand the test of time in our search results. If you register several domains but only want to focus on one topic, then we recommend creating unique and engaging content on each domain, or simply redirect all users with a 301 redirect to your preferred domain. Think about your website positioning as if it were a restaurant: you want every dish to reflect the great service you provide; your restaurant won't be able to do that if the same items are always repeated on your menu so good. Find and enhance your strengths or uniqueness. Ask yourself the following questions: What makes you better than your competitors? What new services do you offer that others don’t offer? What is unique enough to make users visit again, link to your website, and even recommend your website to their friends? What are the features and attractions?
However, we recommend not spreading your stall too wide. It can be difficult to maintain multiple websites while keeping your content fresh and engaging. It is better to have one or a few high-quality websites than to have many shallow, low-value-added websites. As always, we encourage you to share your thoughts by commenting and posting on the Google Webmaster Community.
Original text: Best PRactices for running multiple sites
Reprinted from: Google Chinese Webmaster Blog