Our website was placing #3 on Google searches for big bear cabin, big
bear cabins, etc.  Now it's disappeared.  If you could be of any help
with suggestions, we would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks so much.

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Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 05 Nov 2003 10:01 PST

Hi Isabella ~

It would help to have the URL of your site. Then a researcher can take
a look and may be able to help.

Serenata

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Clarification of Question by isabella10-ga on 05 Nov 2003 17:37 PST

So sorry!!!  Can't believe that I forgot that.  We are www.bigbearcoolcabins.com
Thanks for your help.

Hi there,

The problem is that you have the same content under different URLs. 

http://www.bigbearcoolcabins.com redirects to:
http://www.4bigbearcabins.com/

A Google search for "big bear cabin" has your 4bigbearcabins site
coming in at #10 without the quotes, and #7 if the phrase is within
quotes.

Google puts effort into making sure multiple URLs for the same content
don't clog up the listings, so that the search results are the best
they can be for searcher. They recommend:

"Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content."
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html



If you are seeing different search results, or if you have any further
questions on this topic, just ask for a clarification and I'll be
pleased to help.


Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by isabella10-ga on 05 Nov 2003 21:33 PST

Thanks so much!  I suspected that was the problem but my web people
said it wasn't.  If I change the content and don't do the redirect,
can I resubmit the site and will Google probably accept it again??

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Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 05 Nov 2003 23:37 PST

If you intend to run two websites for the same underlying purpose, the
best way to do it and not be penalized by Google is to avoid as much
of the following as is practical:

- duplicate pasages of text
- linking the websites to each other 
- using the same graphics    
- using the same web host   
- duplicate contact details (like your phone number)   
- duplicate legal disclaimers    
- duplicate ownership details in WHOIS records   


Obviously some of the above are easier than others to achieve. If the
content is different, and you get a link from a website other than
your own, and you wait a while for Google to update their index, then
all should be fine.

In my experience, it is better to concentrate on a single website,
with a single URL - and invest your time into improving your visitor's
experience, and asking other sites for links.