Clone sites at new company

[CFSSEO]

I just came in house to our company for SEO.  We have one main site and 182 that are exact duplicates and almost exact clones of the main site.

It's no surprise that half of these clones are deindexed already.  The meta tags are just the domain name URL.  I want to add unique text on the home page to each site, fix the meta tags and switch them up so they aren't clones.

Other than a huge rewrite of the code for each site, I'm not sure what else to do to prevent the rest from getting deindexed.

Is there any way to prevent the rest from getting deindexed?

[Aran_Smithson]

To what end do you want to use the other sites for?

Surely, its easier to optimise one site than hundreds?

Will  rewriting the other sites benefit you and if so will the benefits outweight the amount of work required, or could that effort be applied elsewhere to beefit the main site?

[DougRoberts]

I've got the same thoughts as Aran.

What are these 182 sites for? Why do they exist? What are they meant to achieve?

If these sites are deindexed, do they have any value? Do these sites get any traffic? Does the mainsite get any traffic via these sites (and is this traffic worth anything - does any of this traffic convert?

Do these sites have any inbound links?

If these sites provide no value, no links, no business etc then I would seriously question why you need them.

The effort required to get these sites up and running and delivering some value is almost certainly going to be better spent on your main site.

[CFSSEO]

The main site has inventory, the clone sites also have the same inventory listings.  I believe the hope was that with more clone sites, the inventory will get more traffic and more sales OMG!  Of course, that hasn't happened, but time and money went into these domains and so they want to get something out of them now.

I think the best to hope for would be for these clone sites to just count as more backlinks to the main site because they are not ranking anywhere on their own.

[CFSSEO]

The main site has inventory, the clone sites also have the same inventory listings.  I believe the hope was that with more clone sites, the inventory will get more traffic and more sales OMG!  Of course, that hasn't happened, but time and money went into these domains and so they want to get something out of them now.

The sites provide value to the people listing their stuff for sale, and to the user who finds items to buy.  The sites do not actually have any backlinks but all link to the main site.

I think the best to hope for would be for these clone sites to just count as more backlinks to the main site because they are not ranking anywhere on their own.

[RobertFisher]

CFSSEO

It sounds as if someone in the past thought having multiple sites would improve things. There is no point in even redirecting these.

1. Keep your main site.

2. If one or two of the clones happen to have any PA, DA - from different links than you have on main,  you should redirect those pages to the same page on the main site. (Highly likely they do not)

3. On the other sites, take them down. Save money and time on hosting, etc. 
4. Teach those in your company it must be about content, etc. and quality links and focus like crazy on the one. 
5. On the chance someone would later question this, I would do a screenshot on every one possible showing the traffic to the site over the last 6 months in GA. (This is to protect you).

6. When the main site increases in traffic, etc. Demand a raise!!

Best

[EGOL]

If I inherited these sites and didn't have a boss to answer to I would deindex all of them but one intentionally.

I would then redirect them all to the main site.

"and so they want to get something out of them now."

ha... I would allow them to expire and use the savings to buy beer.   Savings is what you will get out of them IMO.

[KeriMorgret]

Hi CFSSEO,

I'm going through some older Q&A questions and wondering how this project is going for you. Is there anything more we can do to help you convince management that 182 clones aren't in their best interest?

[CFSSEO]

What about turning them into regional sites?  A has inventory located in this state, B inventory only in that state, etc.  So they are not exact clones.