Duplicating a Store

[bobthemolder]

I have a store that sells products that can be searched for and classified under multiple "names" or product types. I'd like to set up a store with the exact same items and modifications, but just change the keywords that are used to describe the items.

Is there an easy way to go about doing this? Is there a way to make the duplicate store share some of the original store's databases (zen_products for example)?

[CoolCarPartsOnline]

You can duplicate a store easily by copying all the files from one website to another including database. Then you can edit what ever you want on the new site. Although I don't see the point in trying to trick the search engines.

[afo]

There's no way to share part of a database. Either the sites share a database or they have separate databases.

[bobthemolder]

You can duplicate a store easily by copying all the files from one website to another including database. Then you can edit what ever you want on the new site. Although I don't see the point in trying to trick the search engines.

There are only so many phrases you can realistically put into a site while keeping it readable. It's not "tricking" Google by any means - it's like if your market is cars, and you want to supply your market with Hondas AND Fords.

[CoolCarPartsOnline]

In that case you are talking about 2 different websites. Since you are the owner of the site you can duplicate and copy the database as you like, but the question is unless you are SEO Guru it would cost tons of time and money to get both sites to rank.
Niche business is good but if your niche isn't saturated with websites that try to sell the same item. If you line of business doesn't have a lot of competition I will encourage you to go with 2 different websites as you might have better luck getting higher traffic and better conversion.

[tino.schlegel]

it's like if your market is cars, and you want to supply your market with Hondas AND Fords.

There are two different cars meaning two different products. What you were talking about is the same product with a different name and description, which I think would let it appear as a different products.

But i answer your question, meta tags such as a keywords et al are not so important when the text descriptions the same. Since this is stored in the database, you cannot share it. Need new installation.

[bobthemolder]

In that case you are talking about 2 different websites. Since you are the owner of the site you can duplicate and copy the database as you like, but the question is unless you are SEO Guru it would cost tons of time and money to get both sites to rank.
Niche business is good but if your niche isn't saturated with websites that try to sell the same item. If you line of business doesn't have a lot of competition I will encourage you to go with 2 different websites as you might have better luck getting higher traffic and better conversion.

My main site (current) is targetting hard-to-rank-for keywords and it's coming along... slowly.
The new sites will be in using keywords that there currently aren't other stores ranking for, and will not be difficult getting it to the top of the first page for. If the SEO I'm doing on the main store is working, I will just copy it for the additional stores (on different usernames obviously). It does mean I will need to get a separate IP and SSL for each store though. If my hunch is right though - those costs will be insignificant.

There are two different cars meaning two different products. What you were talking about is the same product with a different name and description, which I think would let it appear as a different products.

I can see your point.

But i answer your question, meta tags such as a keywords et al are not so important when the text descriptions the same. Since this is stored in the database, you cannot share it. Need new installation.

That makes sense as well.

[bobthemolder]

You can duplicate a store easily by copying all the files from one website to another including database. Then you can edit what ever you want on the new site. Although I don't see the point in trying to trick the search engines.

I downloaded a backup of the main store, and re-uploaded to another folder (my other site). Didn't change any files, so it should still be reading off of the old database. When I visit the site though, a blank page loads. Not even anything in the "view source".

Could this be caused by missing files during the upload? I used Dreamweaver's FTP to upload the whole folder - is it known for being unreliable?

[afo]

Hard to tell, but folders/files can go missing or become garbled during upload. Can you try uploading them again?