Website spread over two domains - The Good,The Bad and the Ugly ?

[EdsonGroupMedia]

Hi,

I am wondering if the way I have set up our website site is creating more harm than good ?

All our SEO efforts and content is located @ www.sparrowmakeup.com.au however our portfolio is located at www.make-up-artists.com.au.

Questions ?

Will Analytic bounce rates effect my SERP, as most people click on the portfolio link in the first 5-15 sec of landing on our page ??

Is there a better way of setting it up ? the reason I set it up like this in the first place was because we wanted a different look/theme for the portfolio. (using WP)

Is there any other issues that this setup might have in the SEO / SERP department ??

Is there any benefits and how can I maximize on them (silver lining)

Your help and experience is greatly appreciated.

Regards

Ed

[EEE3]

You can also implement cross-domain tracking in Google Analytics so it won't be considered a bounce as your web visitors go from one site to the other.

See these guides https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSite

http://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034342?hl=en

Your other option could also be to make one domain a blog of the other domain. For example, something like:

www.sparrowmakeup.com.au/portfolio

You'll have to forgive me if that structure is incorrect. International SEO is not my forte yet.

[Mike.Goracke]

Hi Ed,

First - cool websites! Visually they look really nice.

According to Matt Cutts, Google does not consider bounce rate as a ranking factor. Think of it this way, if you Google weather in Minneapolis then click on the weather.com page, and see the high today is 36 degrees <sigh>then leave the page, you are bouncing. BUT, does that mean that weather.com didn't answer your question and should be ranking lower because of a higher bounce rate? That is why Google claims they do not consider bounce rate a ranking factor, because users could easily find the answer to their question and leave a site within seconds.</sigh>

That said, if you look at OpenSiteExplorer.org you will see that your SparrowMakeup.com.au site has very high authority, while your Make-up-Artists.com.au does not.

If I were you, I would incorporate the cool functionality of your portfolio into your main SparrowMakeup.com.au site. I understand your reasoning for having two separate sites, because of the different look/theme; however, I think when people are looking at a portfolio, they expect to see something more artsy and different looking. I think you could definitely get away with incorporating the same functionality from your portfolio site onto your main site.

Since it appear that you don't have any text on the portfolio page, it isn't super likely that you'd rank for that page, but directing someone to an "external" website might be confusing, since the portfolio is essentially an extension of the main site. If you want to continue to have it be a separate site, that is fine; however, I would recommend that you open your portfolio page in a new window... that way, once/if they close your portfolio window, they are brought back to your main website.

Does that all make sense?

Hope this helps.

Mike

[EdsonGroupMedia]

Hi Mike

Firstly Thank You for taking the time to answer my question, I sincerely appreciate it!!

What you mentioned makes perfect sense I" actually saw a clip that Matt Cutts did on the topic, the reason I had concerns is that I out rank all my competitors according to seomoz reports; however I still can't seem to crack that no1, no2 position,

In your opinion do you think its harder to compete against local search results when you don't have an address in that locality ?? e.g. keyword "makeup artist sydney"

I will take all your suggestions on board and see what we can come up with.

ps thanks for the comments, it nice knowing the amount of time I spend revamping that site isn't fruitless.

[EdsonGroupMedia]

Hi,

Thanks for the info on analytics, I'm going to try and implement it now!!

Cheers

[Mike.Goracke]

I would think it would be difficult to rank locally if you do not have a physical office; however, depending on the competition, you may be able to do so if your page is really optimized and you get some decent backlinks pointing to it. Now... for clarification, I am not talking about a localized SERP where it has local businesses and addresses, but a search where someone is including the location in the query and Google returns a regular 10 item SERP. (if that makes sense)

And cracking those top positions can be difficult. You just have to keep at it. Create a better website, create better content, create a better following than your competitors - you may not get into positions 1 or 2; however, if a prospect clicks through 1 and 2, then gets to your site, it will be a no-brainer for them to choose you if your site and content are better.

Don't fixate on ranking, worry about building your brand

Good luck.

Mike