Is purchasing domain names still relevant?

[DonaldRussell]

Our MD is requesting that we continue to renew a long list of domains that we purchased many years ago.  Is this practice still relevant or is there more to be gained from SEO and keyword strategy on our own site?  All of the domains are redirected to our main site, but the main reason for purchasing was to stop others using them.

Can someone please advise?  Don't want to be spending money on this if it is of no benefit to us at all.

[Jinx14678]

LOL,

I like the last line

"Good luck convincing the good doctor to change his/her opinion."

I can relate!!!!!!!

[TampaSEO]

Hi Donald,

From an SEO standpoint, if you're just buying exact-match domains and redirecting them to your main website, there is absolutely no benefit. You'd need to build up each website with unique and high-quality content to get an SEO boost.

Here is an article from Matt McGee, Executive News Editor at SearchEngineLand.com & MarketingLand.com, with some more insight on the matter:

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/sbs-mailbag-should-i-buy-multiple-domains-for-seo/3165/

That said, if the concern that your competitors might snatch up the domains and actually start using them as their primary website (rather than just as redirects) is real, that may be enough of a reason to keep renewing the domains.

[RobertFisher]

Donald,

As a former RN, I feel you

Today, with any client we have, they either already have a bunch of domain names or they want us to purchase a bunch for them. The issue becomes one of proportion. If, you are in a very narrowly defined area of medicine like a cardiologist who only does caths, you might be able to buy up 20 to 40 domains around a given location and make it more difficult on someone to use that as an exact match domain. Given that exact match still matters on some level, but probably a lot less than we think, you could justify it at some level.

But where do you stop with that worry? For me, and for our clients I believe you have to stop at the point where you are protecting a specific domain name: Houston Heart Cath Specialist.com, .net, .org, etc. And then do the same with hyphenated version: Houston-Heart-Cath-Specialist.com, .etc.

To then want to own and redirect: Best Houston Heart Doc, Houston Special Heart doc, etc. is just a waste of money IMO. It is great for the registrars like the one with G and D in the name, but it really does not benefit your MD.

If you give most of those who frequent the Q and A your doctor's domain and five minutes, they will come up with at least 20 domains they could use to easily compete with you if that were the only measure to be used.

I would suggest to the doc that they allow you to focus on more important SEO matters like how to include Google +, the need for Schema going forward, maximizing keywords in site architecture, (let me know if you need more.)

Good luck convincing the good doctor to change his/her opinion.

[Olaf]

It won't work when you just redirect a lot different domains to your website from a seo point-of-view. So for that reason you can skipp them.

But when the domain are strong (short, older, relevant keywords without "-") you can use them for nice sites and (later on) link to you main website. That sort of domains shouldn't expire or become available for you compititors. (Or when they bring you a lot type-in traffic, you also shoud keep them of course..)