Can I redirect duplicate blogs to give credit to one?

[PhoenixDev]

I have two sites that have no duplicate content (yet).  One ranks better than the other but has a crappy hyphenated domain name (Domain A), and the other one is the "brand site" with a better domain name (Domain B).  I'm creating a blog with technical articles and corresponding videos.  I want the videos to refer to the better domain name (Domain B) because I can't see referring people to a hyphenated domain (it would sound horrible).  But, the hyphenated domain has a better chance of improving it's rankings (long story why).  Can I duplicate the content and just use a canonical tag on Domain B to give the credit to Domain A?  If I do that, is it done on each post?  Or the blog's main page?  What I think would happen is any links to Domain B would pass the juice to Domain A.  Is that correct?

I know Canonical's are tricky and I don't want to screw this up, so I'd greatly appreciate some advice from the experienced people on here.

Thank you.

[IainReloadMedia]

Hey PeachTree,

Sounds like you have a complicated situation there. However to answer your specific question, Canonical's only work for pages on the same domain, so it won't have any benefit.

You could 301 redirect pages from the hyphen domain to the equivalent page on the branded domain. This will pass the majority Authority of the hyphen domain to the brand site.

Hope that helps

Iain - Reload Media

[PhoenixDev]

Thanks, and yes - I did over-complicate my explanation.  There are a lot of articles out there about a cross-domain canonical, so I think it could be done, but maybe there's a simpler way to do this without duplicating content.

I want the authority to go to the hyphenated domain (it's higher ranked and I'm trying to push it a little further).  So if MyDomainA/blog doesn't exist, but I add a 301 to send that to My-Domain-B/blog, what happens if there's a link to MyDomainA/blog?  Would that still pass authority if the linked url (MyDomainA/blog) doesn't really exist?

Thanks again.

[Dr-Pete]

Sorry - have to chime in here. Canonicals DO work cross-domain, and they often do pass link-juice, but it's somewhat at Google's discretion.

[Dr-Pete]

My gut reaction is that this is starting to sound too complicated, and you may be shooting yourself in the foot, but I don't understand the nature of the two sites, to be fair. I assume that they each have a unique role, since they currently have no duplicate content.

When it comes to canonical vs. 301-redirect, I think the core difference is what you want to have happen to users. A 301-redirect will take the user to the other site, whereas a canonical won't. If you essentially want to syndicate content to your own site, then a cross-domain canonical is a valid way to do that. This has to be done on the level of each individual post, though.

Google can ignore cross-domain canonical - it's just a hint, and definitely don't abuse it. For two sites, though, it should be reasonably effective. Again, the situation still sounds a little overly complex to me, and I can't say there's not a better solution, but I think the canonical is viable here.

[PhoenixDev]

Thanks.  You're right - I was making it to complicated so I just acquired an easier to remember domain that will 301 over to a single copy of the blog.  I think putting a canonical on every post and hoping for the best would be, as you say, shooting myself in the foot.

Thanks for the help.