Keyword vs Brand Domain Name

[Tman3]

Hi guys,

I'm about to launch a new site for a friend who is an accountant in a specialist field. He's already bought 2 domains:

**www.[keyword]-accountants.net  **

**www.[brand]accountants.com **

We have made the decision to use the brand domain to host the site but what can we do with the keyword domain as exact match domains still seem to be ranking well in the serps?

e.g. build keyword links to the keyword domain (heavily seo'd content) and build brand links to the brand domain (conversion-optimised content) then after while 301 the keyword domain?

Any new suggestions will be gratefully received!

[PaulRogers]

I wouldn't spend too much time on the second (hyphenated keyword) domain, you'd be much better off focusing on building great links to your primary domain.

Also, domains with hyphens are signifcantly less effective than the exact match variation, I have conducted a number of experiments and the non-hyphenated versions of the website are much, much better! So I would just redirect it as it is and focus on the one main website URL.

Paul

[JacobFunnell]

If your keyword website ends up getting to an appreciable size, you will have to try and buy the unhyphenated version of www.keyword-accountants.net

Whoever owns that, assuming it's parked, may hold you to ransom for a very high price. My company is in just that situation now (the thread I recently started on this may be of use to you: http://www.seomoz.org/q/close-url-owned-by-competitors). So just keep in mind that if you want optimal SEO, the need to get the unhyphenated version will become more, not less, pressing over time.

Keep in mind that if you're sending a bunch of links to your keyword domain, those are going to be worth a lot less than if you send them all to your branded domain. Generally speaking, splitting your SEO efforts between two sites for the same company is a bad idea.

Daniel's suggestion would be the best, in my opinion, if you're dead set on using the keyword site to host content. Really, though, you'd be a lot better off putting that content in a subfolder of your the branded site and 301 the keyword domain (again as Daniel suggests).

[heatherrobinson]

Building up the keyword domain looks like the way to go as Google seems to favour these.

There's a good answer about a similar situation here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-to-use-good-keyword-url-to-help-main-site

[DanSpeicher]

You could 301 the keyword domain.

Another option is to build up the keyword domain as a popular informational site. Then send referrals and link to your brand site.