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View Full Version : Best way to duplicate a website on a different domain



Harold Mansfield
08-17-2009, 06:52 PM
I have a few domains that are in the same niche that I'm not using, and I would like to put a duplicate site on them.
For instance I have a store on "big wheels.com" and would like to duplicate the same site on "big tires.com".
I am assuming I need to put the new site on a different database (SQL) but what is the best way to do this ?

billbenson
08-17-2009, 07:35 PM
If you are talking about dup content, I would think that would hurt both sites.

If you really want to do it (I'm assuming wordpress):

Open phpmyadmin in control panel
click once on the first table (wp_comments)
click export at the top
check "Add DROP TABLE"
scroll down and click Go
copy and paste the resulting code into a text editor.

Do this for every table except wp_options, wp_usermeta, wp_users
Note: if you have plugins installed, there may be other tables you don't want to copy; I'll explain below

Go to big tires
do a standard wp install
open phpmyadmin
click on SQL at the top
erase what is in the box and copy from your first text editor the entire file (wp_comments) into the box.
click go - if you don't have any errors, you have just copied the comments table from site a to b.
Do this for each table you have in your text editor.
If any tables are really large, you may get a timeout error. Post here if that happens.

What you have just done is copied your blog tables from site A to site B. You have not copied install information such as user name, password,

As long as you only use the export command on your working site, you can't really do any harm. You are copying to a new site, so there is no database to corrupt if you make an error.

You are messing with databases, however. do a backup before doing anything and be careful.

It's not a bad idea anyway, to get comfortable with this stuff. If you ever did get a corrupted table or hacked, it might help you deal with that.

VG may have an easier way, but probably not as you need to copy some tables but not all tables.

Harold Mansfield
08-17-2009, 07:59 PM
It's actually a BANS store so the content changes with new listings.
What I am trying to accomplish is to have each domain go to the same store, but I am now thinking it may be best to just recreate the store (Changing a few pages around).

I just want to capitolize on the different search terms that match each individual domain, rather than have to SEO for another long tail on a non-matching domain.

vangogh
08-17-2009, 08:39 PM
I'm not sure I'm following quite what you want to do. You mentioned duplicated sites, but you also mentioned the content will change on each.

Is the idea for these sites to be 100% mirrors of each other, the only difference being the domain name?

Is it that the sites will start out with a copy of another site, but then the sites will grow in different directions?

Are the sites to have the same basic set up, but the content on each will always be different?

Or am I completely off and it's something else.

In the first case I'd just park the domains or set them up as addons pointing to the same site.

In the second case I'd do what Bill suggested.

In the third I'd build a basic template that was quick and easy to install.

I'm wondering how much seo benefit you're really going to see if the sites are all essentially competing with each with what's mostly duplicate content. I would think the net result will be to get less traffic overall than just having the content all on one site.

billbenson
08-17-2009, 09:03 PM
I'm curious as well eborg. If I recall from a past post, both Amazon and Ebay put content on your pages via iframes. I gather you are then building content on the page around those iframes. If that is the case, G wouldn't see the content in the iframe and only the content you have built around it on the page. If that's the case, the content that G sees would be exactly the same even though the user sees whats in the iframe?

Is that it, or am I missing something?

RJ2
08-17-2009, 11:43 PM
Are you trying to leverage the same products on multiple domains. Each domain having different keywords and perhaps a different target audience?

Harold Mansfield
08-18-2009, 12:33 AM
Are you trying to leverage the same products on multiple domains. Each domain having different keywords and perhaps a different target audience?

Yes. That is exactly what I want to do. Unless there is a way to SEO a domain without content to climb the SERP's, I assume I need to have a site on each domain.
Am I correct ?

billbenson
08-18-2009, 01:00 AM
Yes. That is exactly what I want to do. Unless there is a way to SEO a domain without content to climb the SERP's, I assume I need to have a site on each domain.
Am I correct ?

That makes sense to me. I would want to keep my dup content as low as possible though.

vangogh
08-18-2009, 02:07 AM
So really you're looking for a way to have the same products rank for a variety of keywords and appeal to different audiences. Depending on how different the keywords and audience you might be able to do this on one site. I can see though why it might make more sense for multiple sites.

I'd think you'd want unique content on each site. Aside form any duplicate content issues, if the audience for each site is going to be different they're going to respond to different content. If the only think that would end up being unique is the domain, I don't think it makes sense. If you want to create unique sites around the same set of products then it makes sense.

Harold Mansfield
08-18-2009, 11:24 AM
So really you're looking for a way to have the same products rank for a variety of keywords and appeal to different audiences. Depending on how different the keywords and audience you might be able to do this on one site. I can see though why it might make more sense for multiple sites.

I'd think you'd want unique content on each site. Aside form any duplicate content issues, if the audience for each site is going to be different they're going to respond to different content. If the only think that would end up being unique is the domain, I don't think it makes sense. If you want to create unique sites around the same set of products then it makes sense.

OK. Well I have a store that has a brandable domain name on it, and I also have domains that are direct matches to keywords and phrases.
How do I utilize the extra domains since they would have more of an opportunity to capture a first page or top spot.

Just make a landing page directing to the main store ?

What's the best option here ?

Harold Mansfield
08-18-2009, 11:36 AM
So really you're looking for a way to have the same products rank for a variety of keywords and appeal to different audiences. Depending on how different the keywords and audience you might be able to do this on one site. I can see though why it might make more sense for multiple sites.

I'd think you'd want unique content on each site. Aside form any duplicate content issues, if the audience for each site is going to be different they're going to respond to different content. If the only think that would end up being unique is the domain, I don't think it makes sense. If you want to create unique sites around the same set of products then it makes sense.

OK. Well I have a store that has a brandable domain name on it, and I also have domains that are direct matches to keywords and phrases.
How do I utilize the extra domains (without starting another blog) since they would have more of an opportunity to capture a first page or top spot.

Just make a landing page directing to the main store ?

What I really wanted was all domains to point to the store, and I know I can do that with a redirect, but like I said, you can't SEO a domain that has no content. I know you can text link to it, and article link it but that's not good enough to really do anything.

What's the best option here ?

vangogh
08-18-2009, 11:40 AM
In that case I probably would create landing pages on the keyword rich domains that then point to the brandable domain. If you only had one keyword rich domain I would probably build the site on that domain and then have the brandable domain point directly to the site. That way search engines see the keyword rich domain and people can still type the brandable domain and get to the right place.

Why not start with the landing pages on the keyword domains and see how it works. If you aren't getting people to then click to the brandable domain with the full site you could start expanding the keyword domain sites.

billbenson
08-18-2009, 01:39 PM
Eborg, how is the main site structured? Does it have the products on it, or are they in iframes?

If the main store has the products in html, why not build up unique content sites with the others but put the products in iframes on them from the main site?

Harold Mansfield
08-18-2009, 04:14 PM
Eborg, how is the main site structured? Does it have the products on it, or are they in iframes?

If the main store has the products in html, why not build up unique content sites with the others but put the products in iframes on them from the main site?

I was thinking that too. (Yes, it's frames).
It sucks, I have it all jacked up. It's a BANS store and it's actually marketed as "brandable domain.com" which is redirected to "different domain that has nothing to do with it, but is the.net of a similar niche blog". But I would rather have it on "long tail keyphrase.com".:o

It's been like this for a while and I haven't done anything about it because it makes consistent money now, and I didn't really expect it too, so I didn't set it up right in the beginning, but now I have to clean it up in an effort to get my "portfolio" neat and trim.

bacterozoid
08-20-2009, 02:49 PM
If you wanted to, you could make multiple domains point to the same server. You do lose some customization, but then you have multiple domains pointing to one common place and you don't have to duplicate anything.

billbenson
08-20-2009, 11:09 PM
What he's trying to do to the best of my knowledge is utilize multiple niche keywords in the domains and build around those but sell the same product. A 301 won't do that for you.