3 replies to this topic

[anne999]

Hello,

I have a regional service-based business where I have enjoyed a rank of #1 or #2 for a highly competitive keyword for several years. I regularly update the site with new unique content. Site size is about 800 pages. We are emphasizing a new service offering and I though that it would be a good idea to launch a second site, which is complementary to the main site, to focus on promotion of the new service. It has been about 3 months since the new site has been on-line and I see a drop in my rank of my main site for multiple keywords (position 1 dropped to position 6 for the highly competitive keyword,as one example).

I realize now that almost all the content on the new site is basically 90% or more duplicate to the main site. I have taken down the new site. How long will it take for Google to register that the duplicate content has been removed, as a result of taking down the new site? Should I expect the rank of my main site to pop back to where it was? Is there anything else that I should keep in mind (other than to never do this again)?

Thanks,
Anne

[Jill]

Since it's impossible to say, and highly unlikely that the new site caused the old one to drop, who knows?

But if it some how is the reason then I would think you'd see a difference within a few weeks.

[anne999]

Thanks Jill. It sounds like the new site may not be the source of my rank change on the main site. I have one more question. When I add new content to my main site, it is typically by adding original posts onto my blog (Wordpress). When I add new posts, I usally use 5 or 6 relevent "tags" within Wordpress. Am I correct in assuming that this should not cause a duplicate content problem?

Thanks again.
Anne

[Jill]

Tags can cause dupe content problems. Not the tags themselves, but the resulting pages. I recommend using only a finite number of standard tags, and not putting content into too many different categories at once.

Alternatively you can simply no index the resulting tag pages.