With online advertising marketers soliciting your ad dollars things get confusing quickly.  It’s a lot of information to absorb and digest.  My biggest concern is ad campaigns including a “new”, “second” or “mirror” website.  Your website is the cornerstone of your business online.  It has never been more critical to know the value of your website, your domain name.  All marketing needs to point to this very website-your domain name.  Everything pointing to it helps drive traffic to your site, and that’s the goal.  All your advertising needs to be directed to your website.  You are then in control. 

This second website benefits the advertiser seller, typically giving them a tracking phone number – so they can report to you, which sounds good.  But the same can be accomplished by pointing to your website with your phone number, (Google AdWords do this very thing).  They simply give code to you to place on your website.  This hands the control back to you.

 As I’ve mentioned before, having a duplicate website (“mirror”, “second”) is NOT a good thing.  Google made this clear a year ago when it began penalizing and banning duplicate content.  Even if the content is not exactly duplicated the more one site looks similar to another – the less Google gives weight to it, thus effecting how it returns your site in searches.  Currently one client has a second website and both this mirrored site and his true website are suffering in Google’s ranking.

 Perhaps the simplest way to view advertising online is to ask: Is it strengthening YOUR website?