I have two second-level domains that I want to use to point to one set of content. I dont just want to do a redirect, because I want to the url1 and LocalURL2 both be visible (I will be using different themes and pictures based on the top-level domain) in the address bar.
But what I am reading makes me think that will adversely affect my SEO? But I am not sure, it is in the content of micro-sites and domain authority.
Basically domain one would be more of for a national audience, but i have a similar name with our small city in the domain name that I think would appeal to people in my community more - which is my primary market at this point in time.
If I understand correctly you’ll have two different domains resolving to the same page. That will mean the one page of content will be duplicated on two domains.
Instead I think you should create two separate pages, one for each domain, and have different cusomised content on each.
You could use the canonical link tag to identify one of the two addresses for the page as the one to use for those search engines that understand it so that they don’t split the incoming links between the two pages and mark one as a duplicate of the other.
you should use the canonical tag to tell the search engines which domain your prefer.
But before you do all of this. Do some research, talk to people, surveys ect. To find out if using the second level domain just to be local really matters to your local audience. You might find that most people don’t care and you just did extra work for yourself.