Owning multiple domains across similar fields

[BobAnderson]

We have a printing website specializing in a single field but had added other products to it along the way, we are looking at adding a second site (redesigned from the ground up) that with cover everything (so will inevitably cover some of the same keywords) is this ok.

We are considering some of the other things such as putting both sites on different IP's and also wondered about the registration details (would it be ok to have them under the same company?).

Just to make it clear they will not be used for cross link or any other such things so just wanting to know if they could end up on page one for some of the same keywords and Google would be ok with this.

Thank you for your time.

[josh-riley]

How this is done will determine if Google is OK with it and it's debatable because there is opportunity to get yourself into a pinch.  To get to your primary question, yes, most likely, assuming you are covering some of the same keywords and industries, you will be competing against yourself for rankings (and possibly confuse your audience).

Multiple sites for one company or brand work best when there's better differentiation between them; for example, Honda has a site for cars and powersports, but a different one for financing. However, Ford pretty much rolls everything under one. So, again, the outcomes will be based on how you do it and what it means for the customer experience.

As for registration, we own a lot of domains and it's never been a problem.

While this is a direction I'd never advocate for, in your case, you don't mention why you want to go down this route, so I don't want to guess at your strategy and goals.

This article has some good details on risks especially in the comments ("Is Google OK with this?": http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/uncover-competitors-using-multiple-sites-for-multiple-first-page-rankings).