How do I fix a multiple domain mess?

[KristinnD]

I just picked up an account that is a franchisee and they have 6 exact match domains plus their main domain (all exact duplicates, not 301s). GA shows the main domain as getting the lion's share of hits, but for some important local keywords, the exact match domains rank higher. Some pages may have the exact match domain, primary domain and the franchise domain all ranking on the same SERP. Yuk!

My strategy is to work on the main domain and as the work progresses, the main site will surpass the exact match domains and main franchise domain for the important searches. For the exact match domains I plan on just leaving them alone. Is this a sound strategy? I could pull the exact match domains down, but since they rank well for their keywords, it seems most sensible to leave them up. What do you think?

[kchan]

Hello,

What extensions are these domains? are they different country gilds?

[KristinnD]

They are all .com extensions. [service[city].com withing the same county in a US metro area.

Kris

[Cyrus-Shepard]

3 domains ranking in the same SERP? Not necessarily a bad thing there, as you now own that page. Must help with the CTR.

My gut tells me that duplicate content is hurting your main site more than the traffic to the EMD justifies. Leaving the duplicate content up may continue to cripple your rankings over time.

Fortunately, you have a lot of tools at your disposal. If the backlinks aren't spammy, you shouldn't have much problem redirecting the domains to the main site. I'd experiment with redirecting a single EMD (exact match domain) and filing a change of address with Google Webmaster tools. (here's an excellent guide on site migration: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos)

After this, look to see if the keywords sending traffic to the old domain now send traffic to the new. I'm not sure migrating one site out of 6 is going to make that big of difference, but it's much safer than migrating all six at once - which could be seen as somewhat suspicious by Google.

My guess is that combining your content into a single domain will give you a ranking/traffic boost that justifies the trouble.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO

[KristinnD]

Good point on owning the page! Phasing out the EMD's over time sounds like a good way to go.