A post in the VAPS thread (about problems with the auto-add VAPS link) touched upon something that is a bigger issue...
I have been working through the following issues but wanted to bring it up now for discussion, since the above referenced post leads to this discussion. In short, none of the alternatives have seemed like it is automatically the best option... and I'm curious what thoughts everyone here has.
There are two sites (obviously) right now: klov.com and arcade-museum.com.
KLOV has a great name, history, following, nice short domain name, over 1000 inbound web links, etc. But the name really doesn't match an expanded offering covering EM games, pinball, etc. The expanded scope is one of the reasons the arcade-museum.com site exists. In addition to the added scope, the The International Arcade Museum brand exists because of long term projects in the works, including a coin-op library and work on a physical International Arcade Museum and/or exhibits down the road (like an exhibition we did in 2005 for pre-1940s machines). A "List of Videogames" isn't very accurate for any of this.
Having two sites creates problems including (1) cookie problems like what mentioned in one of the VAPS threads, and (2) serious SEO issues. The split site causes less traffic to go to each side than if all traffic went to just one domain and duplicate content and other issues that don't encourage high ranking of klov/arcade-museum search results. (other issues... the word 'arcade' in the title tends to help seo a little bit, through the search engines have figured out klov means essentially the same thing. On the other hand, klov.com isn't as quickly blocked by corporate and school web filters, one of the downsides of having 'arcade' in a URL).
The same issues and problems (ie: multiple log ins) resulted in VAPS being moved off its own domain. (The message forums are 1/2 way there. Both work, but forums.klov.com doesn't work as well as going to forums.arcade-museum.com for some tasks).
I could do the same thing with KLOV.com (make every page within it redirect to the same page on arcade-museum.com), and the KLOV.com domain would still work and every link into it would be saved. I've received several PM and email from users suggesting I do it. I've been reluctant to do so since I haven't wanted to weaken the KLOV name. While I site redesign of arcade-museum could still promote the KLOV name within the videogame section, it may not be exactly the same thing.
The rough alternatives now are (1) merge the two sites fully into one, or (2) keep them both separate and work out which one has what content on its own and what pages get shared--an internal battle that has been going on for a long time now. Then there will be a problem of someone logged in not being logged in when they move to the other side...
If I did the later, it is hard to avoid some back and forth. Someone does a search on KLOV, gets a videogame result, clicks on the manufacturer, and then you list some EM games made by the manufacturer too, then unless you bounce them over to the other URL when they click on an EM game you end up with the 'bad' duplicate content seo problem....
Comments?
I have been working through the following issues but wanted to bring it up now for discussion, since the above referenced post leads to this discussion. In short, none of the alternatives have seemed like it is automatically the best option... and I'm curious what thoughts everyone here has.
There are two sites (obviously) right now: klov.com and arcade-museum.com.
KLOV has a great name, history, following, nice short domain name, over 1000 inbound web links, etc. But the name really doesn't match an expanded offering covering EM games, pinball, etc. The expanded scope is one of the reasons the arcade-museum.com site exists. In addition to the added scope, the The International Arcade Museum brand exists because of long term projects in the works, including a coin-op library and work on a physical International Arcade Museum and/or exhibits down the road (like an exhibition we did in 2005 for pre-1940s machines). A "List of Videogames" isn't very accurate for any of this.
Having two sites creates problems including (1) cookie problems like what mentioned in one of the VAPS threads, and (2) serious SEO issues. The split site causes less traffic to go to each side than if all traffic went to just one domain and duplicate content and other issues that don't encourage high ranking of klov/arcade-museum search results. (other issues... the word 'arcade' in the title tends to help seo a little bit, through the search engines have figured out klov means essentially the same thing. On the other hand, klov.com isn't as quickly blocked by corporate and school web filters, one of the downsides of having 'arcade' in a URL).
The same issues and problems (ie: multiple log ins) resulted in VAPS being moved off its own domain. (The message forums are 1/2 way there. Both work, but forums.klov.com doesn't work as well as going to forums.arcade-museum.com for some tasks).
I could do the same thing with KLOV.com (make every page within it redirect to the same page on arcade-museum.com), and the KLOV.com domain would still work and every link into it would be saved. I've received several PM and email from users suggesting I do it. I've been reluctant to do so since I haven't wanted to weaken the KLOV name. While I site redesign of arcade-museum could still promote the KLOV name within the videogame section, it may not be exactly the same thing.
The rough alternatives now are (1) merge the two sites fully into one, or (2) keep them both separate and work out which one has what content on its own and what pages get shared--an internal battle that has been going on for a long time now. Then there will be a problem of someone logged in not being logged in when they move to the other side...
If I did the later, it is hard to avoid some back and forth. Someone does a search on KLOV, gets a videogame result, clicks on the manufacturer, and then you list some EM games made by the manufacturer too, then unless you bounce them over to the other URL when they click on an EM game you end up with the 'bad' duplicate content seo problem....
Comments?

