duplicate content question

[amberto]

I am currently doing some analysis on a site, let's call it usedcarworld.com, which is a new and used car website with a few different locations. They have multiple domains - apparently because there is some requirement that each location has to have a website that uses its location name as the url.

so we have:

usedcarworld.com/locationa

and we also have:

locationa.com

Both websites have the same content on them - I know this is an issue. My question is - what is the best way to deal with it. Personally, I would rather have all of these sites on the usedcarworld.com domain and just redirect the locationa.com. This would be the best solution if they merely have to own the location domain. But my question is - if they have to use the location domain - how detrimental to future seo efforts is it to have the usedcarwold.com domain link to the external locationa.com domain? Thanks for your help!

[metasynman]

Aside from the fact that duplicate content is an easy way to sink your SERP rankings, it's also a good way to cannibalize your own marketing efforts. If the location site is branded differently from your main site, it's not really supporting your primary brand, even with the same content available. I would look into just 301 redirecting, or create more of a doorway portal to your main site. Maybe provide snippets and highlights on the location pages that point to full stories or car listings on the primary site. This will keep the content from duplicating (provided you're actually changing the doorway content) and still allow you to keep both types of sites up and running. You could even provide separate unique content for the location sites, possibly commenting on local issues pertaining to the used car industry to keep it personal for local visitors.

Bottom line, though, is don't leave that duplicate content active much longer or the SE's will tell you exactly how they feel about it... by dropping you a few pages down the rankings.

[amberto]

thanks for your reply - i understand that duplicate content is bad - i'm just wondering what the best solution is for right now. ultimately i'd love to create unique content for the location site, but that's not really in the works at the moment. The main focus site is the usedcarworld.com site - i guess my question is - if i can't redirect the locationa.com to the usedcarworld.com site and it has to live on its own (therefore getting ride of usedcarworld.com/locationa and having usedcarworld.com link out to locationa.com) what are the implications as far as seo is concerned for usedcarworld.com. Aside from leaking PR are there any major implications? Thanks!