Why do you need to use a website mirror
A mirror of a website is a copy of it, which may have minor differences from the original. The resource is placed at a different URL, but in fact, the content of both web resources will be identical, except for minor differences. Below we will tell you why it is necessary and what problems the developer may encounter.
Why do you need a website mirror?
Mirrors are created for a variety of reasons:
- Domain reservation. Sometimes large businesses and companies reserve similar domains so that competitors cannot take them. Figuratively speaking, if your main domain is "www.smart-gadgets.com", it makes sense to also reserve "www.gadgets-smart.com" by placing a functioning mirror at that address.
- Data backup. If any problems arise on the main resource, you can connect redirects and thus resume work.
- Collection of data-in traffic. Users may make mistakes when entering the URL in the address bar, and if this happens systematically, it makes sense to set up a mirror site with a redirect. This situation may arise if the site name is hard to read or consonant with something else.
- Increased stability. If the main site will be unavailable or will be severely overloaded, the server can be configured so that under certain conditions, it will redirect visitors to a mirror.
- Switching to another domain. When a company decides to change its name and domain, a mirror can be a great help – the webmaster can configure the old site so its audience will be automatically redirected to the new URL. In this case, the old site should be closed from indexation, so that it does not interfere with the promotion of the new site.
There are other reasons why webmasters use mirrors. For example, for SEO promotion – to successfully promote the site in different regions. Changing the regional domain, for example, from .ua to .de will increase the position in the search results in Germany. For international companies is a great way to expand and scale.
Another reason is to bypass filters. A mirror may help a site regain lost positions after it was pessimized due to search engine sanctions. This happens all the time to sites that publish illegal or semi-legal content, as well as to those who practice gray SEO methods.
Why is the mirror indexing not working?
In principle, and should not work, because there is no need to index mirrors. Indexing mirrors does not bring any benefits in terms of SEO, because the top positions in the extradition anyway will get only the original site, indexed first. On the contrary, mirrors should be closed from indexing, instead of it makes more sense to simply set up a redirect.
Indexing duplicates are also dangerous because when the content is updated at the same time, you can not predict which URL will be indexed first. As a result, there may be a situation in which the mirror will be higher in extradition for some queries, and the original site – for others. Even worse, search engines may end up identifying your original site as a mirror, and then it will lose its position in the rankings.
Conclusion
Use mirrors competently and only when necessary, you should not try to cheat search algorithms with them – even if you temporarily manage to do so, there is a high probability of getting sanctions with the first forthcoming update. This concludes our article and thanks for your attention!