Build and rank 2 similar domains or redirect?

[andydw]

I have my main site TenerifeMortgageBroker.com which ranks well for a fair few keywords. Still a long way to go though before it dominates...
I rank (usually) in the top 5 for the main keyword "tenerife mortgages" and lots of variations on that in this (very small) niche. But....

I also have TenerifeMortgages.net which is the main keyword for the tenerife mortgages niche. I have just reg´d it. Should have been my main site really but 1st site I ever started was the broker site and it is more a brand name now with some well placed banners in addition to a lot of advice I give on prominent forums that bring a bit of traffic.

I´m not really sure what to do with TenerifeMortgages.net though.
Most advice seems to be "redirect it" but that seems like a bit of a waste. Will that even help if people aren't actually typing it in?

I could fill it with content (although I would need to be careful not to duplicate my main site content) and put lots of deep links to my main site to help improve SEO but have also read that if there are too many obvious links there is the danger of being penalized for link spamming.

I have about 10 domains all Tenerife related that I was thinking of setting up to complement each other but am struggling with the duplicate content issue and the potential link spamming problem.

If you don´t simply redirect, how do you all approach this?

 

[aZooZa]

I'd do a 301 redirect on the .net to the .com, but I'm no SEO expert...

 

[Alex-Z]

have also read that if there are too many obvious links there is the danger of being penalized for link spamming.

could anybody please confirm if that's true and to what extent?
i'm a bit worried

 

[ddwebguru]

could anybody please confirm if that's true and to what extent?
i'm a bit worried

Obviously it is true. If you promote a website by adding numerous links in your another website Google might penalize that website as spam. I would rather suggest to promote the second website with similar keywords but different content so that both of your websites get top position.

 

[agbattery]

use the 301 redirect

 

[crabfoot]

If site no 1 gives a fair return, you could try having it translated to French and /or German, and run the same info on site no 2. Crop your pics slightly and start their names with a number to avoid being accused of duplicating your own content.