Contents
- What is a website mirror?
- How do search engines work with mirrors?
- Interesting fact about website mirrors
- Website mirrors in marketing
What is a website mirror?
A website mirror is an exact copy of the original web resource hosted on a different domain. This allows access to information even if the main site is unavailable for any reason. Creating a mirror helps preserve the functionality and content of the original site, which can be especially important for maintaining user experience.
How do search engines work with mirrors?
Search engines like Google actively crawl the internet and find duplicate sites. All resources with the same content are grouped together, and one main mirror is selected to be displayed in search results. The other duplicates are not indexed and do not appear on-screen. Identifying the main mirror is quite easy: simply enter the site name in the search bar, and the first result will be it.
Interesting fact about website mirrors
Website mirrors are often created to provide access to blocked information. One of the most well-known examples is Google's mirror called elgooG. This mirror was developed by All Too Flat in 2002 to bypass the search engine's blockade in China. Such cases highlight the importance of having alternative access routes to information under restrictions.
Website mirrors in marketing
In marketing practice, website mirrors are used in several key situations:
- When changing domain or rebranding: When a company changes its name or geographic scope, it can create an exact copy of the old site and set up redirection. This helps maintain customer flow by redirecting users from the old domain to the new one.
- To suggest the correct website name: Sometimes users may misspell the company name. Creating mirrors with similar names can help them find the desired resource.
- To handle a large influx of customers: During sales or promotions, the number of users may significantly increase. To avoid overloading the main site and maintain reputation, companies create several copies on different servers that can handle user requests. If the main site struggles with the load, visitors will be automatically redirected to other addresses.