400 domains, one hosting..

We recently had lost all of our website rankings on google, yahoo and all major search engine providers.

We have close to 400 websites, all similar in name.. (garagedoorrepairCITYNAME) (waterdamagerestorationCITYNAME) etc..

We are hosting ALL domains on one hosting trough domain.com... We had recently spoke to few people about this and many had suggested that the reason all of the websites disappeared and not coming back, due to the fact that they are all hosted on one hosting account..

Is this true? and if so.. what would be an ideal amount of websites to be hosted on the same hosting account.. and does any one have any suggestions as what hosting provider will be good for our case (ip location, variation, etc..)

 

is there similar or duplicate content on any of the websites? Are all websites updated weekly?

Many people recommend different IP's for each site for SEO reasons, but as there has been no changes to the google algorithm recently in regards to this specific issue, (or at least to my knowledge), I highly doubt that this is the reason for your drop in rankings. I have seen some of matt cutts videos where they go on to explain that they *generally* dont penalise one site, based on the others on the network (if the ip is being used by many 'bad' sites and your site is the odd one out, then yes, you might get a penalty)

Google has made many updates recently, such as changing the value of EMD's in search engines, penalising sites for too many ads above the fold, and penalising sites for duplicate content ( and or low quality content).
Just update all of your sites with unique quality articles weekly and see if that helps you to improve your ranking

 

wow, 400 domains in one hosting
but i think its okay, as long as you do with regular posts and are unique to each domain. and i agree with "matt_62", no duplicate content !

indeed there are advantages if we use one hosting for 400 domains or more, one of which is a matter of price, and ease of control over all domains, but also many weaknesses, among others:

1. not good for seo, there's so many domain but only has 1 ip.
2. if anyone tries to do the hacking and succeed, then he can takeover all of the domains on that hosting, and we as the owner would bother.
3. I think the performance of hosting will also be heavier because of too many queries.
4. and others.

 

Thanks for all the speedy replies!

Basically, we are a start-up marketing company for contractors, like garage door repair. We make them websites host them on one account through domain.com...

At first(about 6-8 months ago) we did have all duplicated content for all 400 websites. After the drop, we slowly but surely updated all websites with unique content.. I have submitted all websites and sitemaps to Web Master Tools in Google.. Yet, we still do not see any results.

We market, and advertise the website all over the web..(yahoo locals, yellow pages and about 10-20 other websites..

At this point, its been close to 4 months since all content been replaced to original per site content.. and still, no cigar.

I am thinking of trying 2-3 domains per account, as my last resort, it will be expensive, so that is why I am asking you guys if you have any suggestions as to what would be an ideal host for this many sites..

I am all out of ideas :/

These websites are about 5-6 pages each, and are updated rarely, so they are more 'informational' sites than anything.. (garagedoorsrepairburien(dot)com)
We also have another website that we host separately through GoDaddy, this one has been 1-2 page of google consistently.. (angelgaragedoors(dot)com)

 

I can't guarantee that moving each site to a different IP will help, it would seem that other penalties are in place. If you do wish to move to different Ip's, often you can get a cheap reseller account that will allow you access to dozens of different shared Ip's, so you might need just a couple of reseller accounts then in order to have each site on a different IP. You can also try to google for "seo hosting", to see if you can find a reseller with a massive number of shared IP's...

considering your niche though, I have seen sites that are more of a search engine, allowing users to find a tradie in their area, with the skills they need....

lets estimate your current costs. 400 domains x $10 per year, $4000.
Each site on a different ip per month (estimate only) $1 per site per month x 400 x 12 months = $4800.
total $8800...

Whereas you might be able to try something else. Have a google for trademan script example (http://www.cloneidea.com/scripts/tradesmen-script-redbeacon-and-mybuilder-clone-script#.Ugq0lX-_icU)
thats only an example... having 1 site that is well designed and has ALOT of content will outrank 400 sites with little content.

regardless of what script you use, by having 1 site, it might be easier for you to update and maintain, as well, it frees up over $8000 per year that can be put towards hiring people to do SEO, advertising, and even adwords / facebook ads.

whatever you do, spend the time to look at all the options. go as far as to add in the time cost of maintaining the current sites and plan your next move very very carefully.

 

Yeah.. well these websites are for actual companies that are located in every city.. Money is not the issue, as they are willing to pay for results.. The problem now, is to have their website show up in the search engine.. The owner is pushing for 2-3 websites per account(each account having its own ip..) not sure if this will help.. as many hosting companies can only offer 2-5 diff shared ip. :/

 

Sounds like a nightmare to be honest....

As I mentioned before, reseller accounts tend to have access to larger amounts of shared IP's. There are specialty hosts that can offer to you what you need (google for SEO hosting). maybe it would be better if you get reseller accounts located in the specific city that you are targetting?

at any rate, my advice is only worth 2cents. here is some quality advice well worth listening to:

 

Witch in hes case, having 400 websites with identical content on 1 ip makes google see it as spammy.So maybe try mixing them on the hosting account.A few with duplicate content mixed with few with rugulary updated content.
Just my 2 cents.

 

When the site disappear from search engine, there would be only two reasons

1. Internal problem.
2. External Problem.

If your site perform bad in almost ALL Search Engine, the problem would likely is with the site.
It seems your site is what cause the problem. I have checked multiple times and your site didn't even passed 'normal value' for great site. While it seems your site looks good, the content have some serious problems.

1. The image was not being compressed (while retain the quality).
2. Two images in the left and bottom would make your site looks terrible in the eye of SE.
   - First, it use 'blank' links (#). This is not good practice. Quickly remove the 'a href' link and just show the 'img source'. If you don't understand on how to do it, consult with the designer and ask to remove 'blank link' and only show image without link.
   - Second, Don't use the directory 'ads' even if the image is containing ads. There is high chance SE would think the site is just plain advertising. Just remember, using site to advertise a something is not bad but when SE think the site has no value to visitors (due the site only serve as advertisement) there is no doubt both rank and credibility would be lowered.
   If you don't really understand, I was talking about "garagedoorrepairburien.com/ads/". Change 'ads' to 'images'. I see the site already has 'images' folder.
   If it is possible, create 'index.html' and 'index.php' with blank pages in that directory. This is to avoid both SE and User from accessing the image directly. A good practice which should be done to any sub directory in your site.
3. All images in your site didn't have 'alt' attribute. 'alt' is very important as it help SE understand what the image is about. Some images in your sites has 'alt' attribute but it was wrongly placed/implemented. Consult it with your developer.
   You should rename all the images file with good name.
4. The menus in left sidebar is very bad. Read about it here:
   - First, it has no 'title' info in the link. Always use 'title' in your link to help SE understand what the link is about. If it is possible, use 'alt' too (not required but recommended).
   How to solve: Add 'title' attribute.
   Change
   

   <a href="http://garagedoorrepairburien.com/">Garage Doors Repair Burien</a>

   HTML:
   to
   

   <a title="Garage Doors Repair Burien" href="http://www.garagedoorrepairburien.com/">Garage Doors Repair</a>

   HTML:
   - Second, You were using 'www' as main permalink but the link is still 'naked' or using 'non www'. All request would be redirected to 'www' and this is bad practice.
   How to solve: Change 'non www' to 'www'
   Change
   

   http://garagedoorrepairburien.com/ ...

   HTML:
   to
   

   http://www.garagedoorrepairburien.com/...

   HTML:
   - Third, Avoid using the word Burien too many times. Use it only in 'title attribute'.
   Solution: Change the menu in left sidebar.
   Change
   Garage Doors Repair Burien
   to
   Garage Doors Repair
   Note: Using this code

   <a title="Garage Doors Repair Burien" href="http://www.garagedoorrepairburien.com/">Garage Doors Repair</a>

   HTML:
   in left sidebar as it would make the visible link as 'Garage Doors Repair' while SE think it as "Garage Doors Repair Burien'. A smart solution to not bombard SE with the excessive keyword 'Burien'.
5. Don't use 'Voted Best' if you didn't have link to who give the vote. Not quite important, only recommendation. Don't think too much on this. It only self-opinion.
6. Your site has abundant bad character which make it 'un-readable' to SE. Bots my dizzy reading your site. While your site looks fine, actually it was having severe 'readable' rating. Use 'lynx' text browser to troubleshot it. The easiest way is by right clicking your site and choose 'View Page source/View Source'.
   You would find unnecessary codes such as:

                                                         

   HTML:
7. You don't have 'robots.txt' file in your root site. Having 'robots.txt' is one more step to be ranked higher and better (if you use it correctly).
8. Your sitemap will make your site 'drown' in the history.
   I'm not kidding.
   Check your Cpanel account errors log for '404' pages.
   Did you use 'Google Webmaster Tools' or 'Bing Webmaster Tools'?
   I assume you have it (because you use Google Analytic in your sites) but never check the 'Sitemap' and 'Crawl Errors' pages.
   Your sitemap was misleading and make SE hate your site.
   If you don't know where the sitemap is, it was located in:

   http://www.garagedoorrepairburien.com/sitemap.xml

   HTML:
   If Bots/ SE follow your sitemap, they will hate you because you were referring to '404 pages'. Just remember, many 404 pages will hurt you IF you didn't configure it correctly.
   Your sitemap is in fault and would make your site gone from search result. Here is one of the error:
   It use wrong link
   

   http://www.www.garagedoorrepairburien.com/garage-door-opener-burien/

   HTML:
   Should be
   

   http://www.garagedoorrepairburien.com/garage-door-opener-burien/

   HTML:
   Solution:
   Fix the links
   
9. Page speed of your site is not that good. You have 'nearly static' pages but your site was loaded quite slow. Try to improve the codes and make the site load faster. Is it possible? Absolutely. Based on my estimation, you would gain more than 700% improvements and almost twice faster load speed (half time to load which is very good).
10. The content on your site didn't meet the standard of 'good content'. read carefully:
    - Don't use 'bold' too many times. It would trigger the 'spamming keywords' alarm.
    - The content is just like advertisement. Use natural 'post'.
    - You didn't use proper heading. Try to use proper heading in content. Messed heading will confuse SE. Good heading will make your page ranked better.
    - Add one or two links in content which refer to informative article within site.
    - Don't repeat 'site keyword' more than three times.
    If you didn't do five simple tips in this point (number 10), SE will categorize your site in 'suplemental site' which result your site will rarely shown up in SERP.
11. Your site has very low natural and related links.
    Solution:
    Create new pages and named it as 'Resources' or 'Partner'. List your 400 sites in proper category (create category or alphabetical sub pages if necessary).
    Please understand this has two effects:
    - First, your site will be ranked higher and you gain more rank (very good result).
    - Second, Sour site would lost current rank and devalued (ranked lower).
    To avoid bad result, fix all those 400 domains first and create links after you modify the content (to make it useful) and ironed out all the errors. If you links it before fixing all the problems, you would likely got bad result.

I would be really happy to assist you fixing all the stuffs but I'm afraid I couldn't help you too much due to some real life work need to be done.
However, you can ask and consult it with me anytime. If you want to do that, you may use this thread or via 'PM'. I recommend you to only consult it with an expert in sites and 'SEO' to avoid further troubles. It means, I recommend you to consult it with your developer.

ARICK.
Disclaimer: To check a whole site, I usually spend more than a week (three days is the shortest time). So, I would say I didn't check it very carefully and deeply in any aspect (HTML, Server, Coding, header sent, etc.). Use my assessment above just for review and not for reference.

Edit: About IP, I would say: "Your rank was not lowered because of the IP. SE will only lower rank if the IP was 'polluted' (your shared IP is fine)"