SEO and addon domains on same server?

[RodG]

Hello, I am planning on creating 2 new ecommerce websites. Instead of making 2 new plans with my hosting service provider. I am planning on using my existing host and doing the add on domain method, so while I may not get a seperate CPanel account for siteB and siteC, i will be saving money.

Nothing wrong with this. In fact if you had asked for suggestions this is exactly what I would have suggested. Not only does it save money, but it can actually simplify maintenance for you.

now I did small amount of research and found that the problem with add on domains

Stop right there. There are no downsides to what cPanel calls 'add-on' domains.
A domain is a domain is a domain. Cpanel calls them 'add-on' domains because you are adding on a new domain under an existing cPanel management account. Nothing more, nothing less.

the problem with add on domains makes it so the the URL of the original domain (siteA.com) on the account is a subdomain of your new domains. Thus it has 2 url paths: www.siteA.com/siteB.com/etc.php. and www.siteB.com/etc.php will work.

Actually, the URL's will be more like
www.siteA.com/etc.php &
www.siteB.com/etc.php

The *file paths* will indeed appear as though one is subsection of the other, but don't confuse this with subdomains. These are a different kettle of fish.

Subdomains have URL's that look like:
www.siteA.com/
ww1.siteA.com/
shop.siteA.com/
secure.SiteA.com/
etc, etc.......

Instead of going to www.siteB.com directly.

If your main site is www.SiteA.com and you add another domain called www.SiteB.com you should be able to go directly to www.siteB.com without issue.

DON'T CONFUSE FILE PATHS WITH URL'S. THEY ARE DIFFERENT.

Now i find a short soltuion to this by changing the htaccess file and doing a 301 redirect

Do yourself a favour, Get rid of this .htaccess file and any redirects. These cause far more problems than they solve, mostly because people have been grossly misusing them for many years, doing the exact thing you are doing.

One of the original purposes of redirects was to allow sysadmins a relatively easy means to migrate websites from one server to another without interrupting the service, requests to the old site get redirected to the new site. Simple, effective...

What we see these days is people fail to set up their servers properly and find they need to go to www.siteA.com/siteB.com/etc.php rather than direct to www.SiteB.com, and instead of finding and fixing the actual problem, they'll add a redirect from this wrong URL to the correct one. In other words, the site has been effectively moved before it was even setup in the first place.. Then they find something else isn't tight, so another redirect... thing just fall into a big pileof smelly stuff.

Please don't abuse the .htaccess files.

to prevent the spiders fromm indexing both siteA.com/siteB.com and siteB.com. This will prevent Punishment of non-unique content.

I sure wish people would be more concerned about site functionality rather than concerning themselves over what Google, Bing, or any one of the other 1000 search engines may or may not do.
A decade or so ago things were different and 'SEO optimisation' (I use the term very loosely) was somewhat of a fine art. The search software has moved along in leaps and bounds. Concentrate on your site content and let the search engines do what they do best. 'Punishment of non-unique content' is, and always has been a myth.

So my questions are, is there anything else I should be careful doing the add on domain to save money, in terms of SEO?

First thing to do is get rid of the redirects. Do you really think that Google and friends will give a high ranking to any site where the first thing it comes across is a redirect to another site (or a different part of the same site?) Of course not. In cases like this the preferential rankings will go to the the site being directed to. The original site/URL (the with the redirection) would be lucky to get listed at all.

i do not want their SEO ranking to be effected b/c they are parked on the same cpanel account.

a cPanel is simply a website that any given person or persons can use to remotely control their hosting server via a Web interface. If allowed Google and co will happily index these just like any other website.

does google see each site to be the same whether they are on same cpanel or different cpanels?

As a general rule Google cannot/will not be able to associate any given cPanel with any given domain. They are separate entities.

I think the only thing that makes buying a seperate cpanel account from the same host would be the different ip, correct?

Wrong. Chances are you'll get the same shared IP address for both cPanels (which depending on your host could also be on the same shared IP as 1000 other cPanels and domains).

On a note: I will be leaving a banner advertimsent on site A for site B and C.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

I may also leave site A on its own cpanel and pay for a new cpanel for SIte B and C to be together on. Site A has all the traffic and do not want to risk it losing traffic for sharing 2 other sites.

i appreciate your replies and wait anxiously!

You gain nothing by paying for another cPanel. You'll not loose any traffic by sharing with a couple of other sites. As stated, chances are you are already sharing with a 1000 others... one or two more isn't going to make a difference. Do get rid of those redirects though, seriously, they cause more headaches and problems than almost anything else on the 'net.
They *DO* have their place, but unless you are an experienced network administrator they need to be treated with care and caution. It is far too easy to abuse them to 'hide' a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place, and this is clearly a dangerous place to be.

That's my 5 bobs worth. :)
Cheers
Rod