4 sites on same server with similar theme

[AndyMediaLounge]

Hi,

We're building 4 e-commerce stores at the moment which are all very similar. They all sell sofas but to different markets. Product content will be different on each site so the content won't be duplicated but the overall theme of the sites will be the same, all on the same server, being launched at the same time.

Should I be concerned that Google may not index all of them?

Thanks,

Andy

[RankSurge]

Google will index them, the question is will you be able to get all of them ranked?

[Keszi]

I would ask another question Andy, are you targeting different zones with the 4 e-commerce websites?

Istvan

[AndyMediaLounge]

What do you mean by zones? They will be targetting:

• retail sofas
• wholesale sofas
• funky sofas
• leather sofas

[legalseo]

Google will index them all if they are correctly built to prevailing SEO standards, with optimal nav navigation, good hierarchy, perfect on page optimization, etc. Each of your domains is targeting a slightly different segment of the same market, so "retail leather sofas" and wholesale leather sofas" target their specific niches; you'll be competing against yourself for "leather sofas' (and a whole lot of other sites) but if your content is good (and differs across properties) you shouldn't have an issue getting indexed.

Our sites has 12 sub-domains covering specific sub-categories of the same general topic - with over 600K pages - 95% are indexed, and frequently pages from two or more sub-domains appear for the same search query, even though the page layouts and templates are virtually identical and have the same IP address. It's the content that differentiates them, yet at the same time makes them relevant for the same KW phrase.

[donford]

Chas gave a very good answer.

And, more people then not will tell you working on 4 similar (but different) sites isn't the best use of time. I am one who understands that in certain cases it does make since to have 2 or maybe 3 sites in the same industry, but I wouldn't go as far as creating more then 1 e-commerce sites dealing with the same products even though the demographics maybe a little different. That doesn't make good sense to me.

Your original question I think was more about the server then this sort of advise so I'll give you the best information I have at this time. The sites will be treated as different sites, look at shop services like prostores or stores.ebay they consistently have many people on the same server and all of them are able to be indexed provided they do a fair job at SEO.

The issues you'll have is more with building unique and differentiating content for each site and getting good quality back links to each one, then it is with how search engines will treat them.

I hope that answers your questions and helps with your goals.