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  1. #1

    2 Domains linking to one forum?

    I was curious to know if this is a proper way to approach this situation.

    I own a domain that has it's own following and a friend of mine owns another domain with it's own following. Both sites are related to the same topic, with no overlapping material. The only difference is location. Our sites are niche in that it appeals to the specific province/state we are in. We both live in different provinces/states.

    I've created a forum on my subdomain and he wants to create a forum as well, but we feel having one unified forum will be more powerful.

    let's call my domain "A"
    my friends domain "B"

    At current, it is set up so that domain A has a subdomain named forum (ex. forum.a.com) and my friend links his website (B) to point to (forum.a.com). Does this in anyway take away from SEO'ing or efficiency?

    Also, Is it bad practice to create an entirely new domain for the purpose of a forum, lets call it "C" and have A link to forum C, and B link to forum C?

    Is it better to merge domain A and B (something I really don't want to do, way too much work)? What is the best way to cross promote both websites?
    Last edited by Willy27; 03-19-2012 at 01:11 AM.

  2. #2
    The problem with subdomains is that they lose all associated PageRank and authority, so for example, if domain A has a PR of 4, as soon as you create the subdomain (forum.a.com) this will be treated as a brand new domain (no authority, history or PR from a.com). It would be better to have a.com/forum and b.com/forum rather then using subdomains.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Yes linking 2 domains to the same content qualifies as duplicate content which can get you in trouble.

    You should pick 1 domain and *301* the other to the domain you pick. with the merged forums.
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  4. #4
    thanks for the info HC-ro and egghead design.

    both sites have quite a bit of content and merging the content doesn't seem possible (however, the sites are related by subject). If we want to keep the two sites on their respective domains but have one forum that users can go to from both sites, what do you think is the best solution?

  5. #5
    The best answer I can see (from an SEO point of view) is to keep both of your domains separate and just host the forum on the domain with the most PageRank (and domain history/authority)... I know this isn't ideal, but you have a better chance of having your forum ranked on search engines this way then starting from scratch with a brand new domain name (or sub domain).

    Out of interest, what is the PageRank of domain A and B?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    719
    If website (B) point to (forum.a.com) then it is only beneficial for site (A) and forum.a.com there is no advantages for site B.

    Create a new forum C and have A link to forum C and B link to forum C would be helpful for both A and B.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by eggheaddesign View Post
    The problem with subdomains is that they lose all associated PageRank and authority, so for example, if domain A has a PR of 4, as soon as you create the subdomain (forum.a.com) this will be treated as a brand new domain (no authority, history or PR from a.com). It would be better to have a.com/forum and b.com/forum rather then using subdomains.
    But in this case a.com/forum would be also treated as different entity as its new. As each page is having different PR. a.com/forum would also not have any PR, authority and history as u said. Correct me if i am wrong.

  8. #8
    Linking two forums into one domain is not possible. Google not allow this.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    235
    Quote Originally Posted by stormbrain View Post
    Linking two forums into one domain is not possible. Google not allow this.
    why won't google allow it?

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by steveschmidt85 View Post
    But in this case a.com/forum would be also treated as different entity as its new. As each page is having different PR. a.com/forum would also not have any PR, authority and history as u said. Correct me if i am wrong.
    Yes but a.com/forum would still be associated with the main domain and therefore a.com's PageRank and link juice would be distributed to the /forum page. If you had a brand new domain (like forum.a.com) would have no PageRank at all.

    Although the a.com/forum is a new page, it would still have associated domain/page authority because it is a page connected to the root domain

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Delray Beach, FL
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    33
    Using a Registrar level 301 redirect is the best choice. Note that the redirect used by GoDaddy is not considered an SEO best practice.
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    509
    Quote Originally Posted by SEOwhiz View Post
    Using a Registrar level 301 redirect is the best choice. Note that the redirect used by GoDaddy is not considered an SEO best practice.
    Hi SEOwhiz,

    Go Daddy's standard domain forwarding uses proper 301 redirects. Can you please explain why it is not considered SEO best practice? If there is something we can do better, I would be happy to pass this suggestion on to our domains team.

  13. #13
    If the forum is a social community that you want to build for customer attraction and retention, then it is OK to build it on a new domain (new brand) and seek collaboration with your friend. From the user point of view, they would prefer to go to one powerful forum than two less powerful forums.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    57
    You also need to define what kind of forum it is, and how close it is to what you do. Sometimes forums are also used as one form of UGC to help your site grow fresh and unique content (although I agree that the forum needs close attention and review).

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    357
    just use same directory path in apache vhost configuration file.. something like
    Domein A
    DocumentRoot /home/domainA.com/www

    DocumentRoot /home/domainA.com/www

  16. #16

    Same Domain

    By doing this the website having the forum will get more promotion and vistiors and the website which don't have forum will not get that much visitors.

    I would say you can keep both the forum in subdomain.

  17. #17
    I think the best position is to have one domain have the forum and the other site can link to it with the nofollow attribute stating this is another of our member forums, but I would not attempt to try and create a stand alone forum and have both sites linking to it? That doesn't make any sense and whichever site has the forum has the opportunity to get more pages more content, but you do have to have someone moderate the forum.

  18. #18

    2 domain linking

    I agree with you computegeek that was i am saying

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