Need some advise on using a micro site

[doorguy88]

I thought I would use a micro site with just some main product landing pages being used. I would use the same design and code as main site, then re-write the text and then link everything to the new site. “BUT” I'm concerned about getting a penalty (duplicate) as all the anchor text links going to the main site would be identical!

EG. To use the same design as the main site I would need to use the same layout etc including navbars, anchor text links in the footer etc.. and I'm worried this may trigger a duplicate content penalty ?

Any advise please

[Matthew_Edgar]

What is the point of creating this kind of microsite? Is it for search or for another subset of users (for instance, you want to drive ads to the microsite instead of the main site)?

If it isn't for search purposes, I'd disallow access to the site to prevent Google/Bing from crawling and prevent issues with duplicated content or spammy links. This way you avoid all problems and won't impact your main website in any way (where search engines are concerned).

If it is for search purposes, why build what sounds like virtually the same site? That seems like it could do more harm than good. If it is for search purposes, you'd probably be better off putting the same effort into marketing the main site. Possibly consider A/B testing new content that new content within the current site.

[doorguy88]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for your reply. Would you be so kind as to read my previous question which will answer your questions.

I would appreacate you advise on this.

Thanks Chris

Here is a copy:

Hi, I will try to explain my situation as clearly as I can, and any positive advise would be greatly appreciated. Obviously please let me know if you have any questions but I'm sorry the domains are private.

I started by business 4 years ago and launched a website (site A) and worked hard to promote it in the best way I knew how. It brought in a good income for around 3 years but then was hit with some sort of google penalty/filter!

Knowing then what I know now would probably of avoided the problem altogether but that's another story...

So I brought another domain (site B) and started again with a new design and completely re-branded the company, and again have been working hard to promote it. It has been preforming well and there has been steady progress

However since then I have been steadily promoting the penalised site (site A) and keeping an eye on it to see if the penalty/filter may be lifted. It had initially lost around 75% of traffic, but recently has been doing much better in SERPS and is again on the increase.

My problem is that with my company now being completely re branded I want to keep consistency but (site A) looks old and dated compared the new one (site B) and I don’t want to be confusing users etc...

So I need a cost efficient and “safe” solution to this in terms of SEO and budget.

301 Redirect to site B

I thought of a 301 redirect “BUT” I'm concerned about the penalty/filter being passed onto the new site (site B) and have read this dose happen ?

Complete Redesign/brand for site A

This would probably be the best option except I'm limited on funds. I would need “another” full commerce site as its just way to much money at the moment.

Remove site A completely

Funds are tight and I'm still feeling the affects of the penalty so really can't afford to loose any traffic at all!

Use site A as a micro-site

I thought a micro site with just the main product landing pages being used. I would use the same design as site B, then re-write the text and then link everything to the new site. “BUT” I'm concerned about getting another penalty (duplicate) as all the anchor text links going to site B site would be identical!

EG. To use the same design as site B I would need to use the same layout etc including navbars, anchor text links in the footer etc.. and I'm worried this may trigger a duplicate content penalty ?

I hope there are some suggestion for my situation and thanks in advance for your help.

Thanks Chris.