Two unique websites or One - for Hotel Business with Bar, Accomodation, and popular Restaurant?
I have a client who owns a popular Hotel which also has a very popular restaurant (with its own separate name, which is different to the hotel name) and bar. The restaurant is a very lucrative part of the business with it's own set of customers. What is best for keeping good rankings and also gaining conversions (business, contact calls, interest, brand recognition, popularity, visitors to hotel/restaurant, etc...) and why?
1. One single website marketing the Hotel with the Restaurant in primary marketing spots on the home page and in the main navigation leading to it's own section within this single main website?
2. Split off the restaurant into its own website and give it it's own domain?
3. Any other suggestions?
Any advice here will be much appreciated.....
1. One single website marketing the Hotel with the Restaurant in primary marketing spots on the home page and in the main navigation leading to it's own section within this single main website?
2. Split off the restaurant into its own website and give it it's own domain?
3. Any other suggestions?
Any advice here will be much appreciated.....
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If it was me, I would have 2 separate domains. On the hotel domain, I would have mentions of the restaurant, highlights, calendar and but make sure I have links in the body and navigation pointing the the restaurant domain. And of course the restaurant a full site with mentions and navigation to the hotel.
I would not make the two match in design. Also, watch that you don't have duplicate content. Try and make the hotel site have great hotel content and good but brief info for the bar/restaurant. If you use copy/paste duplicate content, it will not help.
The other issue is, restaurants run their life cycle and there will be a time when they close the restaurant, rename/re theme it.
You can run both sites on the same server, but not on the same hosting account. The same IP is ok as that is common now.
Thinking about reviews.... what if down the road the restaurant starts getting bad reviews. You don't want that connected. Make sure you get different google plus /bing local accounts.
I would not make the two match in design. Also, watch that you don't have duplicate content. Try and make the hotel site have great hotel content and good but brief info for the bar/restaurant. If you use copy/paste duplicate content, it will not help.
The other issue is, restaurants run their life cycle and there will be a time when they close the restaurant, rename/re theme it.
You can run both sites on the same server, but not on the same hosting account. The same IP is ok as that is common now.
Thinking about reviews.... what if down the road the restaurant starts getting bad reviews. You don't want that connected. Make sure you get different google plus /bing local accounts.
ASKER
Thanks guys,I think I have a good idea now.
Padas, what do you mean by the comment "...not on the same hosting account"?
Padas, what do you mean by the comment "...not on the same hosting account"?
Sometimes people will but two domains on the same hosting account (domain 2 is an alais of domain 1) and this will be bad for seo.
If you have a dedicated server, you just create 2 separate domains. If you are on a shared server that allows x free extra domains, I would NOT do this and instead get a separate hosting account. Otherwise, you may end up seeing google results with domain2 content linking to domain1 and vice versa. It becomes an seo mess.
If you have a dedicated server, you just create 2 separate domains. If you are on a shared server that allows x free extra domains, I would NOT do this and instead get a separate hosting account. Otherwise, you may end up seeing google results with domain2 content linking to domain1 and vice versa. It becomes an seo mess.
ASKER
Hmmm, from my understanding and research - using addon domains (in Cpanel) does not affect search rankings. Whilst CPanel does cretae a subdomain for some reason also - as long as the sub-domain is permanently redirected to the correct addon domain url, then there will be no issues. From my understanding Google will see domain1.com as a separate website and domain2.com also as a separate website, regardless of hosting setup.
If I'm not correct here, can you please point me to any valid article by Google/Matt Cutts/etc that state otherwise?
Thanks
If I'm not correct here, can you please point me to any valid article by Google/Matt Cutts/etc that state otherwise?
Thanks
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ASKER
Ah okay - it sounds like it's okay to use an add-on domain as long as it has unique content and unique branding; which is the same case as for any type of domain; although Matt didn't really address the question correctly. So for SEO purposes I think it's fine, although there is a bit of speculation surrounding this as I am not sure everyone is talking about the same thing when mentioning "add-on" domains (in Cpanel). However I think it makes more sense to create a new hosting account for each unique domain as it has better forward-compatibility should another owner wish to take it over or should we want to transfer to a different server; much easier migration...
Thanks everyone for your help! :-)
Thanks everyone for your help! :-)
ASKER
Thus diluting the traffic to the Hotel...