Buying mutliple keyword rich domain names and directing them to one site

[Ron10]

I've noticed some folks buying keyword rich domain names and pointing them to one site to try to rank for those keywords.  An example of this is a  plumbing business that buys domains like austinplumber.com, localaustinplumbingservice.com, bestplumberinaustin.com and then pointing these domains to their main website.  Does this help the site rank for these key phrases?  How does google see this?

Thanks mozzers!

Ron

[EGOL]

Not only did the doorway page lose it's ranking for its keyword, but so did the main site.

This sounds like cloaking.

About those doorway domains and microsites.   I used to run a lot of hotdog stand websites.  I thought that was the way to go.  Then I learned that a big kickass site was a lot easier to run, a lot easier to rank and performed better with visitors.  So, now the company that I own works actively on just three websites - each in a different niche.

If I had a company like you describe.  I would start putting all future work into a single site in each topic area.   And work on that site until it defeats all of the doorways.  Stop competing with yourself and diluting your brand.

[Ron10]

Could you set up these microsites on the same server as your main website?  Like, having a separate folder in your public html folder with its own index.htm and pages? This way, you wouldn't have to pay for a new hosting company.

[CaseyKluver]

Instead of building a site around that specific keyword on a domain like that. Just develop a piece of great content on your website around your keyword string. Its going to help in the longevity of things.

[EGOL]

They might search like that but if you don't have a website on that domain you will not get the traffic.  It is highly unlikely that significant numbers of people are typing in for word domain names for websites that do not exist.

[rosiewrose]

What is the different way you're recommending? Thanks...

[rosiewrose]

The average search on google is over 4 words long, so people actually search like that. Question is, if you redirect it, is there even a benefit, meaning, does Google associate the initial domain with the target page?

[Dekoda_Jones]

That's excactly right, for a domain name to be useful in ranking, it needs to be attached to a unique website with unique content.

It has been a sales trick of many internet companies to sell these high value domains to customers 'in case someone types that into Google'.  It's nothing more than a sales trick.

That said, if you are looking to capture a localised search traffic like 'Plumbers Windsor', then maybe a set of microsites would be good for you, although it is usually cheaper to optimise your main site than setup micros.

[EGOL]

Redirecting these names will bring you nothing more than the type-in traffic for those exact domains.

I am willing to bet a month's pay that very few people type localaustinplumbingservice.com or someotherridiculouslylonglocaldomain.com

[CaseyKluver]

For some reason on the local level, these domains are powerful. I am not sure about just buying a brand new domain and forwarding them, they will be next to useless. But developing microsites with these domains works quite well, I could see if you build one up and then redirected it, then it would help ranking for one site.

I would recommend doing it a different way as this method is currently on its way out. Its been a declining trend for the last couple of years.