Brand Name URL Redirecting to Actual URL
-
So we have already built a site under a parent company's URL: parentcompany.com
And now we have their branded product lines in directories: parentcompany.com/brand-name1, and parentcompany.com/brand-name2
We also own the actual URL Brand Name 1 (which is also the exact description of the product): brandname1.com
We do not yet own the URL for Brand Name 2 (which is also the exact description of the product): brandname2.com. This is because a squatter is sitting on it and is asking $10,000+ for it.
What we are trying to determine is how valuable these brand name URLs are since they will be redirecting and not the actual site's primary domain name. Anybody know how much of an effect owning those and redirecting has on ranking for those brand names that are also very descriptive of the products?
Would we be smarter to spend $10,000 on adwords or 10,000 on the domain?
Thanks!
-
I agree that redirecting would be of no interest.
In such a case I would probably go for another strategy. I actually see this as an opportunity.
- register brandname2.pro or .net or similar, host it on another server
- do the same brandname1.com, different server
- Create a Wordpress blog or a very simple CMS on each server
- Create quality content for each of those blogs. Brand history, processes, whatever as long as it is interesting for someone who is really into that brand. I believe for $10K you can have some good quality content.
- Point links to relevant pages under parentcompany.com/brand-name1 and parentcompany.com/brand-name2
The results :
- more backlinks
- 3 different points of entry to your e-commerce website (I am thinking long trail here, and search engines evolutions)
- a better differenciation between the ecommerce website and the brands sites, because their short-term goals are different (buying vs. getting information), allowing you for instance to post content on brandname1.com which would appear strange on parentcompany.com, because the latter should be more streamlined with a very good UI and sales funnel. You can be more creative on the brand sites and you dont need to do A/B tests not worry too much about analytics etc.
Of course it is more work, but you would be getting a higher granularity for your brand.
Regards
Gil
-
Simon is correct, there is no ranking value in what you are doing, dont pay the 10,000. the squatter knows that you are probably the only person to want this domain, if you dont take it he will probably never sell it, you hold the cards not him, Offer him $100 take it or leave it. The only good the domain will do for you, is stop others using it.
-
If I owned the brand I would acquire the domain. If it is a good brand the $10,000 would not be a deterrent.
-
Thanks Yannick, glad you agree
-
Totally agree with Simon. If you just want to have the domain, to "have". Don't bother.
-
Hi There
A good question. I can most confidently tell you that purchasing a domain name and redirecting it to another domain/website will have Zero SEO benefit. It's not even a good idea to market the domain that's being redirected as the links that will inevitably be acquired will be redirected also, loosing some of the link strength through the rediirect.
Plus for User Experience, it's usually not particularly good as visitors expect to land on the expected site rather than being redirected to another.
It's also the general consensus now that exact match domains do not have as much SEO weight as they used to, especially with Google. So exact match domains are not worth what they used to be.
- If you're purchasing a live website on the domain, that's different as you may be able to take advantage of that site's strength if it's a relevant website in a similar category.
If it's purely purchasing and redirecting it, then don't spend any more than the typical registration cost of a few $. Spend that $10,000 investing in Content and distributing it well, which will lead to some relevant links too, or indeed on PPC as you suggest (though that's not an investment).
If the branded domain has some other value to the business, then paying a fair price is typical as you'd be buying an assett.
I hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
-
(Search volume (exact/phrase match)cpcX) + competitiveness in that market + what the mad man wants to pay for it
Where X would be the earning back period. How long does your client want to pay for the domain before earning it back?
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
-
Placement of key words in URL
I notice that the MOZ Page Grader considers "/keyword1/keyword2-keyword3" in a URL string to be less effective than "/keyword1-keyword2-keyword3". Is this correct from Google's perspective? If I am trying to maximise my SEO for the page title "Business building tips", for example, does Google think my URL is more relevant if it's in the form: 1. www.website.com/business-building-tips
On-Page Optimization | | Gavin.Atkinson
2. www.website.com/business/building-tips or
3. www.website.com/business/business-building-tips My instinct tells me 3 is more powerful, but logic tells me if I have a whole section devoted to "business" and one of those pages is "business building tips" then 2 should work just as well, possibly better?0 -
Apache .htaccess query string redirects
With regular redirect(s) the following URLs did not work, any ideas for the .htaccess code to make this work? http://www.domain.com/?view=featured redirect to http://www.domain.com/ http://www.domain.com/contact-us.html?view=message&layout=message&pf=1&redirect_on_success= to http://www.domain.com/contact-us.html and http://www.domain.com/login.html?return=aW5kZXgucGhwP29wdGlvbj1jb21fcGhvY2Fkb3dubG9hZCZ2aWV3PWNhdGVnb3J5JmlkPTEyOmNvbWJpbmUtZXZhbHVhdGlvbiZJdGVtaWQ9NzM4 to http://www.domain.com/login.htm Thanks guys! 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | vmialik0 -
Client is not ranking on Google For Brand Name Search but is on Yahoo and Bing
We have a mobile app development client that recently 6 months ago changed their domain name to www.FSStudio.com. So they are concerned that they don’t rank on the first page for the brandname phrase “FS Studio” On Google. They do rank on the first page for this phrase in Yahoo or Bing. But why is Google returning search results for stuff like Free Studio? I know this fairly obvious question which the answers may be that they need more authority or backlinks because their name happens to be a fairly competitive search for stuff that is unrelated. Any suggestions? We are going to be optimizing and creating a lot more content. Is this just that they need to mention their name FS Studio more frequently throughout their website? Here is a screenshot from Moz’s Keyword difficulty and SERP Analysis tool. agwlY9i.png
On-Page Optimization | | vabmediaseo0 -
Removing old URLs from Google
Hello, I am sure that this question has been asked many times, but I am still not sure what to do about the following: Our site's URL structure has changed a few times in the past few months. Recenty, we have changed our URLs to become more SEO friendly. However, Google has indexed the old URLs as well. To give an example: The following page in our website shows the following URLs in Google Webmaster Tools: Confúcio e Seus Ensinamentos
On-Page Optimization | | Tev/artigo/68_38/2/as_religioes_iv_confucio_e_seus_ensinamentos/
/aula/14_6132/vestibular/confucio_e_seus_ensinamentos/
/aula/1_14_6132/vestibular/confucio_e_seus_ensinamentos/
/aula/_14_6132/Vestibular/confucio_e_seus_ensinamentos/
/aula/ensino/confucio_e_seus_ensinamentos/ The correct URL is the last one. What should I do about the other ones? Almost all the pages in our website have this problem. We have redirected the old URLs to the new ones, but is there anything else we should do? We were asking Google to remove them, but Google has informed us that it has reached the limit. Please advise us on waht we should do. We have removed the old sitemap with the old URLs. What else must we do? Thank you very much.
0 -
Canonical URL problem
On page analysis wanted me to add a canonical url tag. However I added then re ran the on page analysis and it came up with an error. What is the proper way to add a canonical url tag in the head of an index page? ie. add a canonical tag to www.hompeage.com/index.html would it be ? Or should I ignore this for a home page? Because I add it then run the analysis again and get this? Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical Moderate fix <dl> <dt>Canonical URL</dt> <dd>"http://www.ensoplastics.com/index.html"</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>If the canonical tag is pointing to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. Make sure you're targeting the right page (if this isn't it, you can reset the target above) and then change the canonical tag to reference that URL.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>We check to make sure that IF you use canonical URL tags, it points to the right page. If the canonical tag points to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. If you've not made this page the rel=canonical target, change the reference to this URL. NOTE: For pages not employing canonical URL tags, this factor does not apply.</dd> <dd>So do I add it or not? If I don't I get a lower page rating if I take it off I get a higher page rating with room for improvement. </dd> </dl>
On-Page Optimization | | ENSO0 -
How do I do a 301 Redirect in IIS 7 from http://www.freightmonster.com/index.html to http://freightmonster.com/index.html when I don't have a physical page to redirect?
I'm trying to get rid of my Rel Canonical links and use the 301 Redirect instead.
On-Page Optimization | | FreightBoy0 -
Generic domain for SEO versus Brand name
I am currently building a retail e-commerce site in a highly competitive area. We have a generic brand name; e.g. kitchen-knives.com and we also have another brand name, e.g. 'slycers.com' We have 3 options that I can see and I would like to know which is better for SEO. Build generic.com as a blog site. Link to brand.com 301 redirect from generic.com to brand.com. Use generic.com as anchor text in all links 301 redirect from brand.com to generic.com . Use generic.com as anchor text in all links Also, if there are other better options, then I would appreciate the input! thanks
On-Page Optimization | | cestor0 -
Keyword vs Brand Domain Name
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!
On-Page Optimization | | Tman30