Do You Own More Than One Website? (ActiveRain doesn't count.)
Yes? Then this is for you!
Okay, a little marketing 101 to start off: When Crest decides that they want a larger market share of the toothpaste market, they try and come up with a new product to attract additional market share.
So they come up with Crest Tartar-Control. Personally, I think this is the dumbest thing in the world, because... Well, why in the heck would anybody want to buy regular Crest when there is a tartar-control version available right next to it? Do some people want tartar? It's stupefying when you think about it.
So Crest doesn't get any additional market share; instead, they cannibalize their own brand. That is to say, they spend a bunch of money trying to get new buyers, and meanwhile, all they succeeded in doing was getting some people to switch from regular Crest. Tartar -control Crest is a cannibal.
From Answers.com: In marketing, cannibalization refers to a reduction in the sales volume, sales revenue, or market share of one product as a result of the introduction of a new product by the same producer.
How This Applies To Realtors with Multiple Sites:
Although everything about the Google algorithm is "secret", most search engine experts agree that Google looks at who owns a site and where it is hosted on this big blue marble.
Makes sense, right?
So again, when Google indexes your page, they also index the name of the page owner and the domain host's I.P. address, using a service called WhoIs.
If you visit WhoIs.net you can put in your own website address and see your name, address, probably your home phone number... All kinds of neat stuff. Try it on any domain you'd like. You can get the email address of the big cheese in charge, direct phone numbers, even the name of their hosting company.
So, if you have 4 sites about Orange County Real Estate, all registered to you, and all hosted by the same company (which means it is extremely probable that all of your sites have the same host IP address) --- do you really think Google doesn't know this?
If you have 4 sites about Denver Real Estate and all are registered by the same guy or gal and hosted with the same hosting company, you will not do as well in Google if you just had one super-site. After all, you know you need unique content for each site... So you must be dividing your energies, right?
Remember: The Google algorithm is far too sophisticated to be outsmarted by even the smartest Realtor or mortgage broker.
1. If you have multiple domain names, register them under different names. Not fake names. Just "give them away" to all of your (married) sisters. It will keep you from being identified as a search engine spammer.
2. Host each domain name with a different company. This will mean that you will have four websites-- all with different IP addresses. Do you really think Google is impressed that there are 5 Phoenix mortgage websites, all hosted with a Phoenix company (goDaddy.com), all registered with GoDaddy.com and all owned by the same guy? That is a great way to be identified as a black-hatter.
3. But the best advice of all: Retire all but your best website. Keep a blog on ActiveRain and have one website under your name, about a particular topic, in the Google index. I only have one site: www.azwm.com and the last time I checked, I was number one for Arizona mortgage in Google. I don't have more than one website for National Wholesale Mortgage.
I hope this makes sense. Any questions?
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