More than one web domain
-
Hi
What is best when considering using more than one domain on a website, what the best policy ?
it's a question I get asked a lot, usually because prior to any seo efforts the main domain name purchased is not keyword rich or an abbreviated company name etc.
what impact do new domains have on SEO compared to older existing domains- is it worth changing a generic company named domain for a keyword rich domain?
if having multiple domains pointing to the site is beneficial how best is it to configure?
How do i inform Google?
How do both domains get index when there is only one physical site?
How should i monitor it, Analytic s, SEO moz?
Will the domain compete against each other and effect SEO rank?
Are they best used for marketing purposes on external sites, adverts driving traffic to the main site.
I'm aware there are lots of questions above, any answers/ opinions , links to further info would be greatly appreciated.
cheers
-
_Ok the thing is – you cannot decide between a keyword rich domain and a general company name. After the EDM update, I think you should not be going for keywords rich domain. Moreover, you find it really tough to make your brand presence stand out. For say, if you have a domain like this – seo-company-UK.com, how on earth you are going to boost its brand image. If this is not enough, you will struggle while building brand based links for the website. Hop you understand. _
-
thanks for the reply i have read your links, but i am not talking about having two sites mainly two domain pointing to the same site.
but i guess due to the issues i originally noted in my initial question it would be difficult to gain traffic to apart from direct marketing.
-
-
Changing the domain name to a keyword rich domain has a lot of pros and cons associated with it. I've listed some below:
Pros
- the obvious - you get the benefit of a keyword rich domain name and over time it can rank well for that keyword
- Easier to optimize for that key phrase
Downside
- Google has gotten very tough on over optimization and exact match domain names
- Slight over usage of the keyword on a page can result in a penalty
- You will lose all the traction that you site has gained with the generic brand name over the years especially the direct traffic that comes to the site
- You will have to 301 all the links to the new domain name and will lose rankings temporarily before google reindexes all the links.
As you can see , there are more disadvantages on changing up the domain . I would not change it up for a keyword rich domain. As opposed to that, try and get the generic domain ranked for that keyword by following all the best practices for SEO ( strong on site, off site, PR )
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
-
Moving Shopify from a Sub Domain to the Full Domain
Apologies if this has been asked before. Currently we have a Shopify shop on a subdomain shop.lucybee.com a blog on subdomain blog.lucybee.com and the full domain of course. We'd now like to move everything onto Shopify on the full domain. Therefore the blog rolls into Shopify. We'll manually move pages into Shopify. Any advice or links to resources on how to manage would be gratefully received. Thank you , Jim
Technical SEO | | LucyBee0 -
Several personal websites moving to one domain - 301 or 302?
I feel like I've thought about this so much that now I'm thinking in circles and can't figure this out, so I hope someone can help! We have a group of physicians who currently practice privately, but are going to become one entity with one website. However, they are going to look like sub-entities, if this makes sense - instead of every practice being "One Practice Medical Group" they'll be "Lakeside Primary Care - A One Practice Medical Group Company," and then the other guy will be "Red Mountain Primary Care - A One Practice Medical Group Company" and so on for about a half dozen practices. They all have personal sites already, and many are concerned that they will lose any history for their personal sites and will not rank as well in Google as they do right now. One doctor really wants to keep his own site, and then just have a link on his profile page of the new entity's website. Isn't this counterproductive? Also, if we do redirect all the personal websites to the new entity's domain, it will pass any page rank they already have, correct? Should these be 301 redirects, or 302 redirects? None of the current sites really have a lot of "link juice" but we're working with several strong personalities who want the benefits of the big entity but the autonomy of a private practice.
Technical SEO | | RachelEm0 -
One server, two domains - robots.txt allow for one domain but not other?
Hello, I would like to create a single server with two domains pointing to it. Ex: domain1.com -> myserver.com/ domain2.com -> myserver.com/subfolder. The goal is to create two separate sites on one server. I would like the second domain ( /subfolder) to be fully indexed / SEO friendly and have the robots txt file allow search bots to crawl. However, the first domain (server root) I would like to keep non-indexed, and the robots.txt file disallowing any bots / indexing. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way to tackle this one? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Dave1000 -
Specific Domain Migration Question
My company will be taking over an ecommerce site that is built to get local city/state traffic where the competition is slim to none for the given keyword. This site gets 2500+ visits per day, and we're looking to maintain and eventually grow that traffic. We would like to move that site onto our ecommerce platform which will force URL change and of every 'keyword' city/state page on the site. We're undecided whether to keep it on an unfamiliar platform that already gets traffic or to move it and possibly face the 404's or weeks of redirecting a single keyword-city/state page to another. Any advice or insight would be great!
Technical SEO | | BMac540 -
Domain Switch - With lost control of original domain.
Hey all, A client finally sold a domain name after being harassed to sell for many years, without talking to us about it first. They moved the site to a new domain, and the purchasing company took over the original domain. Then they called me, wondering why the site is no longer showing up in Google. I've done some initial research, and everything I find for advice assumes that you have control over the original domain. We don't. I'm hoping someone here has some creative advice, so we don't have to start from the beginning, and/or painfully update links we've acquired. My only thought was that the new company may be kind enough to post 301's for us if we provided them.... Any thoughts / advice / life rings will be greatly appreciated! 🙂
Technical SEO | | KBK0 -
Keyword in Domain or not?
My on page optimization grade is an "A" with the following factors; Factor Overview <dl class="scoreboard clearfix"> <dt>Critical Factors</dt> <dd>4 / 4</dd> <dt>High Importance Factors</dt> <dd>7 / 7</dd> <dt>Moderate Importance Factors</dt> <dd>8 / 9</dd> <dt>Low Importance Factors</dt> <dd>11 / 11</dd> <dt>Optional Factors</dt> <dd>5 / 5</dd> </dl> The main thing I appear to be missing is keywords in my URL. How truly important is that in today's SEO world and how much time or ranking would be lost if I do not have control to change the external links to my website if I decided to migrate to a keyword relevant url?
Technical SEO | | classa0 -
Migrating to a subdirectory in the same domain
Hi! I have a new version of my website, running with a different CMS (joomla). In order to install the new CMS while not loosing my all content and links I was forced to install the new site in a subdirectory. So the old website was http://www.mydomain.com And the new one is http://www.mydomain.com/subdirectory I had redirected http://www.mydomain.com to http://www.mydomain.com/subdirectory but I am not sure if that is correct, or if it will generate SEO problems. I named the subdirectory with a keyword, at least to have any advantage of something that to my short knowledge looks bad... What do you think? Another question... I understand that it is a good SEO rule to optimize each page for a different keyword. Is it a problem if http://www.mydomain.com is not optimized for anything? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | ociosu0 -
Domain Relocation
My client is running a online news website, which is running for 4 years. He's now looking to change the site into a new domain. I would like to know what are the factors to look out for when changing the site into new domain (In SEO point of view)
Technical SEO | | augmoz110