Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Helpful to utilize long-tail keyword URLs to point to parts of your website?
-
Does it help, hurt or do nothing for SEO to utilize long-tail keyword URLs to point to specific pages of your website.
For example, you're a vet and have your business name website, but what if you bought:
CharlotteVeterinarianforCats.com
CharlotteVeterinarianforDogs.com
etc. and pointed them to specific pages in your business website.
-
These are long-tail keyword domains. Yes, I would allow them to expire and allow my competitors use them in a strategy that is ineffective.
-
Let the domain names expire? Why? So the competition can pick them up and use them against you? You might not agree with my methods, but to let the domain names expire would be a mistake given the current weight google gives to exact match domains.
-
Agreed. And focus on best practices for local or regional optimization. If your business is only really focused in Charlotte, for instance, there are many other things you can do to help with this geo optimization.
-
I would let those domains expire and buy beer with the money savings. Then spend the time savings improving my primary website.
-
You are very welcome. If I could also suggest checking out the article "The Beginner's Checklist for Learning SEO"
It is under the "Learn SEO" tab. This might help you organize your to-do's and set up goals for your efforts!
-
Laurie,
I agree with Inhouseninja and would add this: When you buy the domain, try to purchase it so that it is under a different name, on a different server. Minimally, have it on a different C-block. I am not sure how much from a percentage point of view it can effect link evaluation, but we know that it does.
So, if both of the new domains are on the same server, owned by the same entity, you will not get near the weight from the search engines (if any).I do this in a couple of verticals but we the sites are actually fully related, have contact forms and other mechanisms for customer contact, etc. These sites are about 5 pages (not sure that any more would improve our lot) and we are able to use them for linking to the main site. If our main site did not exist, these would be real functioning sites that could be affiliate sites, etc.
Best,
-
The Whiteboard Friday video was perfect to help me start at the very beginning - thank you for suggesting that (I can't believe I missed it on my own!). There are a million things to do and consider and being overwhelmed and trying to piece it all together was the biggest problem. After the video, I'm starting at square one so I really appreciate your answer!
-
I can't tell you what the best approach is for you. For me, I look for domination of a niche when it comes to local search. The above posting is how I do it, but it might not be the best method for you. I haven't had success with simply redirecting a domain name. I have had great success with the method I've mentioned above - linking from the keyword domain to a page on my main site with the exact keyword phrase after the keyword domain has been established in Google. In fact, what I often see is the #1 ranking for the keyword domain (exact match keyword) and a #2 or #3 ranking for the page I link to from the keyword domain on my main site.
Hope that makes sense. lol.
-
I think you would be better off optimizing those pages for your target keywords instead and optimizing your current URL's to include your keywords.
For example: www.compnayname.com/cat-veterinarian
You should watch the most recent Whiteboard Friday. Rand does a great job of showing how to optimize website content based on the keywords you are trying to rank for.
-
Gotcha - so redirecting the keyword domain to a site on the main website with related content is probably not the best approach?
-
I have had extensive success with this method. The catch is that you need to make the long-tailed keyword URL a site that is actually useful to the world. Don't just put up a 2 page website and link like crazy to your site. You need to make it useful with good content. I'd say 10 pages minimum of quality content. You can do this in about 3-4 days with a wordpress. Also, don't link to your MAIN site for a few months so that google trusts your other domain.
Some will argue with this, but it has worked very well for me in some niche markets. Also, you hold a domain name so that a competitor can't get it. Considering the weight google puts on domain names its worth the extra effort to hold and use any domain names you can find.
Again, be careful not to turn the site into a doorway site. Make the site useful with new articles and fresh content.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Finding less competitive keywords
Hello, How Moz can help me in finding less competitive keywords for a site based on omega masticating juicer. I had tried other tools but i am not satisfied with it. Kindly tell me the process to find it. Thanks.
Keyword Research | | romanjames0 -
Which keywords are sending traffic to my site?
I want to know Which keywords are sending traffic to my site? What type of strategies behind this ?
Keyword Research | | surabhi60 -
Keywords with and without diacritics
Hi, I am trying to make my site to appear in the search results even the searched term have or have not been wrote with diacritics for example: "șarpe" or "sarpe". The language is Romanian. If I seach for "Românul cu maşină, marea victimă" or "Romanul cu masina, marea victima" the first result for both searches is the same. I don't see anything special on their html code and I am wondering how do they did it. Regards, Bogdan
Keyword Research | | RIAdig0 -
How do you optimize for compound keywords
What is the best way to handle keywords like "switchplate covers"? The key word may be seen as either a 2 or 3 word phrase, depending how you handle the compound term: "switch plate" or "switchplate" In google KW it shows different results for switch plate vs switchplate as well as using cover vs covers. I've tried using all the variations in my descriptions, titles and H2s but I think this is diluting them all. Can anyone show me best practice guidelenes or examples of good solutions to these kinds of compound key words? Thanks Handcrafter
Keyword Research | | stephenfishman0 -
Keywords for multi service business?
New to this so bear with, I am a TV aerial, satellite, CCTV, Door entry, Access Control, Telephone repair engineer. I have one seperate page for each of the installations I carry out as well as the basic home, about, areas, faqs and so on. My question is do i have one key phrase for each of the services i cover or do i just relate all the keywords from that service into the keywords tag ie, META name=keywords content="Digial aerials Stockport,digital aerials Manchester,aerials Stockport,aerials Manchester,aerial repairs Stockport,aerial repairs Manchester,digital,aerial,tv,tv aerials Manchester,tv aerials Stockport,arials,arial,aerial installer,aerial installations,aeril installation,Stockport,Manchester ,"> That is what i have fro Tv aerial installation, Should i make landing pages for each phrase for each service or stick to one page? www.redvalecommunications.co.uk is the site if you want to take a look thanks in advance
Keyword Research | | redvalecomms0 -
How can i track keywords history
i need to keep a record for all keywords history , is there any way that we can track keywords history so we can compare each week with the previous weeks ?
Keyword Research | | omarfk0 -
How do you limit the number of keywords that will be researched
I'm working with a client who has a website, but doesn't really have a clearly defined idea of who their key audience is nor do they know what keyword phrases they would like to rank for. I know that I can generate a starting list by reviewing their site, but I want to set some parameters on it so I can provide an accurate estimate. I'm looking for suggestions on how to do this.
Keyword Research | | EricVallee340 -
Is the all in title technique helpful?
I watched a tutorial on lynda.com about keyword research. And they said to use the All In Tittle trick to see how many pages on google are optimized for that keyword - do you reccommend using that method as well? In google, you type allintitle:"key word phrase" and the results show how many page titles are optimized for that phrase. Should I use this technique as well when choosing keywords?
Keyword Research | | aircyclemegan1