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Yeah I agree with that Andrew - it is always best to work on one site and build its strength rather than lots of microsites - however lots brands that have franchises have standalone websites from the main brand and they do well with SEO. Peter stated above that new franchises will get their own website with identical content, except contact details etc, so it is still essential to work on unique content which will help gaining links and more.

Maybe Peter would consider your sub-directory suggestion as an alternative but I think as Egol says he should be demanding about those that take on a franchise creating unique content that will fit in with the brand, benefiting everyone involved.

I don't think you can get away from the fact that creating unique, decent content is the way forward with this -  after all you know what they say content is king!

Hi Andrew - I understand what you are referring to when you use the term skinning and I have seen several sites use this in relation to franchises. I came across this in the past when working for a motor group that had several car manufacturer franchises. However rather than use this option at the time we created unique content written by ourselves in relation to the makes and models, adding user reviews, etc. I found that we out ranked those using the skinning method. Also one question - do you mean that a menu option on your website actually takes you straight to the main manufacturer domain rather than containing information on your own page? If this is the case I think that you will be loosing out from a search point of view as there is no content to be linked to your site in relation to this kitchen refacing - essentially your site for this product is just a gateway page. If people find the kitchen refacing page from the manufacturer in the search engines they will be taken to their site and not yours - if I were you I would look at creating some content of my own as it will benefit you in the long run. Skinning doesn't allow you to control the on-page elements such as title tags etc. Keeping content on your site for instance would allow you to target a local area in the search engines in relation to this franchise - so you might have thiels kitchen refacing in (location).

I don't believe there is any other way round this than creating unique content - you need to remember that search engines will strip away all the fancy layouts etc. and analyse your sites on a textual basis so if all the textual content is the same then you have duplicate content in their eyes! You also need to think about the long term aim of promoting both sites - taking time and effort to produce decent unique content will be far more beneficial!

Hi

I would stick with making your website stronger rather than redirecting to a new partial match domain. I still think that if you work hard and develop excellent content across your site you will win out in the end. You can still improve things and an can I ask what your Domain Authority is currently? Website ranking isn't purely about the authority of a page on the site when it comes to beating exact match domains I have found. Of those 1,000 linking domains do you have some links with decent anchor text from authoritative sites in relation to your targeted terms?

peter have you thought about including some unique testimonials on the products to dilute the duplicate content on the pages of the franchise? also how about rewriting the content with a different structure to your own. there are always ways to create unique content have you read the latest artical on seomoz by gianluca - maybe an option some content curation around the subject? you could also include different unique snippets from the course on both sites to make the content different. hope these ideas help!

the obvious thing could be that your user engagement has increased at this point and more users are returning to your website, but your traffic and potentially your ranking has dropped in search engines so less new traffic is being sent. Have you looked at the traffic sources for this period and are there any noticeable differences before and after the 15th feb in search engine traffic etc?

Hi Gareth

I have just checked for the period from 15th up until yesterday and the same number of days prior and my new visitors are several percent up, so I haven't experienced the problem and I haven't heard anything when talking to others and reading the latest news etc.

Hi Julien,

I think Philipp B is right with the fact that 10 hours shouldn't pose a problem. I too have experienced much longer down time and this hasn't caused me any problems in relation to site ranking on Google. I would however check GWT as already suggested - that way you can see what pages weren't available during your down time and check the impact.

EGOL,

I think humorous video would be a good idea for spreading the brand and I would expect it to work on a subconscious level (as with most marketing the psychology behind it is important)  - if people need a pest control company and a decent viral video campaign has made an impression on them then they should remember the brand. When remembering the brand rather than the term this should hopefully influence their search i.e for the specific company rather than the generic term - do you agree with my thought on this?

Hi Brian,

I think EGOL is pretty much spot on with the fact that your average person won't want to stay connected with their pest control guy other than using them to discretely fix a problem. However I have seen examples of other pest control companies using games and creating characters to help educate customers and keep them interacting with their brand - but this is still a sensitive area.