Risks associated with having multiple similar ecom sites together under the same analytics account?

[apo11o177]

Any downsides to having multiple (similar) eCommerce sites linked to the same Google Analytics account? Traffic splitting or other penalties?

I've heard a range of answers from "Yes, traffic was split between my two first-page ranked sites, it was awful" to "no, Google couldn't care less/ they'd be able to tell if your sites were related outside of having them in the same account anyways"

Any info would be much apprecaited

Thanks!

[AmericanOutlets]

I lean towards the second response, especially if you have separate profiles for each site. Of course, having two very similar sites could cause you problems with duplicate content and by competing for the same keywords. For those reasons, I wouldn't recommend having two sites that sell the same things, but just having the same GA account won't make a difference.

[apo11o177]

Thanks Maxwell, We're very cognizant of dupe content, but thanks for the advice! Im leaning towards the second response as well, but better safe than sorry (which is why I'm asking). I've heard the first response "split traffic, etc" more from affiliates who run networks. While I wouldn't say we do the same, we definitely work with / have affiliate programs. Any and all additional responses welcome!