Landing pages vs internal pages.
-
Hey everyone I have run into a problem and would greatly appreciate anyone that could weigh in on it.
I have a web client that went to an outside vendor for marketing. The client asked me to help them target some keywords and since I am new to the SEO world I have proceeded by researching the best keywords for the client. I found 6 that see excellent monthly searches. I then registered the .com and or .net domain names that match these words. I then started building landing pages that make reference to the keyword and then have links to his site to get more info.
My customer sent the first of these sites to the marketer and he says I am doing things all wrong. He says rather then having landing pages like this I should just point the domain names at internal pages to the website. He also says that I should not have different looks for the landing pages from the main site and that I should have the full site menu on each landing page.
I wanted to here what everyone here has to say about the pros and cons of the way to do this cause the guy giving the advice to me has a lower ranking site then I do and I have only started working on getting my site ranked this year. He has atleast according to him been doing this forever.
Thanks, Ron
-
I am in the US (North Carolina), my name is Dutch though...
Always good discussion, and I don't think either one is right or wrong here.
-
Put simply, the marketer sounds right. But the purchase of exact match domains is not a total loss.
What should have been done:
1. Keyword research done, but not for the keywords that just have the most traffic, but rather those that are relevant and have the most traffic. The relevance is key there.
2. Identified the content on the site that should rank for those terms.
3. If no content exists, creating it on the site so that the content answers the query of the searcher and gives a call to action.
4. Worked with the marketer to influence the links to the pages for each keyword.
What can be done now:
1. 301 redirect the domains to the pages that make sense.
2. Only use those domains for sites if there is a reason for another site to be made on the topic. If your site can do it, leave it to one site, it's less work and less link building.
3. Work with the marketer to get GOOD, relevant links to the page on the clients current site. It's not about him being better than you, it's about you guys working together.
-
I agree.. The marketer's methods are ineffective... and the OP's methods are ineffective. And, they are at odds with one another.
However, he says that he prefers the school of hard knocks.
In my opinion they are wasting client money until they come to an agreement and develop a genuine plan for marketing and SEO..
-
In my opinion, neither of these strategies is very good.
Redirecting domains like the marketer suggests will offer no benefit, SEO or otherwise.
Building content on an exact-match domain could work, but why not just try to rank for those exact match terms on the main site? Getting the new domains to rank may still take a good amount of work. If searchers do click through to those sites, they're still going to have to click again to get to the main site. This could be simplified by just doing a good job to bring searchers to the main site directly.
-
If you are already on the first page of Google with your new domain, whats the problem? Sounds like you were already headed in the right direction....
-
If you redirect it to another site with 301 the domain will disappear from google. If you like to keep it then use a 302 redirect. I hope that this helps.
-
I read the post of Rand. Is totally out of my point of view. This kind of subdoamins I know that they don't pass anything to your site. http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#predictions. Read this post and you see what I mean. I mean to build subdomains of your site which include the keywords in and my main domain to be with your brand. Like this you avoid the devaluated old trick from the exact match domain, you build your brand and you have also the keyword inside the domain and not in a subdirectories as a subdomain is much powerful like a subdirectory. Me like this I am working and is going pretty well. Also the content on the subdomain must be related to the main site and to be connected between them. I think Egol can tell us if me or you is correct. Maybe we are both wrong but me I don't think so .... Anyway cheers and be happy. From where are you? Me I am from a small island called Cyprus, in Mediterranean sea, down from turkey.
-
You say that you are a beginner at SEO. That's honest.
However, you are jumping in with keyword research, registering domains, building landing pages, giving sites a diverse appearance.
I don't agree with a lot of your strategy.
In my opinion, it would be a good idea to put on the brakes.
Before you sink more of your time into things that are probably not going to work well it would be a good idea to increase your knowledge or hire someone who can get you moving with a solid plan. Your team might also need a referee.
-
I actually prefer subdirectories over subdomains.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
There is a good resource on the topic... there were a couple of good instances to use a subdomain, but it also said you wouldn't necessarily get the authority of the root (which you will with a subdirectory).
-
Here the marketer is wrong. Dont have any effect if the domains dont have authority.
-
Anyway I think you did wrong that you purchased them , you shouldnt, this what you should do was to create subdomains including the desired keyword like
http://keyword.yourdomain.com as this method will give a faster ranking for the subdomain if your main site have an authority. Now you will have to build for all domains the authority. I think you should throw them and build the subdomains. Also I have to agree with the marketer which said that should look like the main site.
yoursite.com/keyword-phrase this method Keith also got devaluated from this what I know and what I saw in action on my own domains.
Another minus of your tactic is the extra money for the domain names and hosting etc...
My method is absolutely free if your hosting provider allows you to host multiple or unlimited subdomains. For example hostgator allows me to have unlimited subdomains at no charge.
-
They have zero benefits if they dont have backlinks from niche directories or whatever related to the keyword. I have to agree with you.
-
Hi there Ron
First of all the exact match domains get devaluated from Google. You mean subdomain by the term internal pages? What you mean by the term "point domain names at internal pages" ? To redirect them to internal pages? Or to create internal pages from the keywords? Example:
or
ot to redirect the exact match domain to this one ?
please tell me some more details so I can help you...If I can !
-
Are they getting any traffic? Redirecting url's has zero SEO benefit (as far as I know), especially new domains.
If you are getting traffic, yes, redirect. If not, does it really matter? I guess if you already built links it wouldn't hurt to redirect with a 301.
-
Ok, but I have already purchased the domain names. What would be the best way to incorporate those into this scheme of things? Just redirect them to the internal pages?
-
Ok, but I have already purchased the domain names. What would be the best way to incorporate those into this scheme of things? Just redirect them to the internal pages?
-
I wouldn't consider myself an expert on this one, but I would have most likely created internal pages that have yoursite.com/keyword-phrase and optimize them, especially if the site already has some authority on the topic.
Pointing the new domains to internal pages won't do anything as they don't have any rankings yet, and you can't get any if they don't have any content (I don't think).
Just my .02
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
-
On Page Local SEO
What do you believe is the best approach when it comes to Local SEO for businesses in 2013?
Web Design | | BlueRockDigital0 -
New more "helpful" internal linking causing SERP & traffic drop?
Still dealing with the weird traffic drop on my website. I have removed a bunch of old links from a defunct blog, 301 thin pages, added text to remaining pages. I'm still stumped. So awhile ago I freshened up my website and thought I was "helping people" by making sure they could CONTACT the studio more easily... I added more links to the "contact page" I thought this would help conversions...This changed the number of links to my entire site....Would this be the problem with my ranking/traffic drop? http://bayareaboudoir.com/babinternal1.pdf
Web Design | | Squee1 -
What seo benefit does setting up a photo gallery where each photo is a separate web page?
what seo benefit does setting up a photo gallery where each photo is a separate web page? My old SEO guy set up my photo gallery like that claiming that because each photo was a separate page, it added a big seo benefit and i never understood what he was talking about. Maybe alt text on the photo with key phrases in it pointing to my other pages to give my site a theme for google? I'm not really sure. He has since moved away and i am considering redoing the photo gallery to multiple images on one page to be more user friendly to my users. This photo gallery is 3 years old and the photos might have some page rank to them helping my site so i don't want to remove this gallery if there really is a benefit to it and it will hurt my site. I once removed four static page rank 3 pages from my site that weren't used for my site anymore and my rankings dropped 5 positions. Thoughts anyone? Thanks! Ron
Web Design | | Ron100 -
How to do a non-spammy "doorway page"?
Hi there, ISSUE: I have a client who wishes to use a "doorway" page, but not in a spammy way. He would like to have a nice crisp URL for use in ads/brochures. The page is strictly a landing page (just with a separate URL). DOORWAY/LANDING PAGE WILL BE: Non-spammy -- There will be no attempt to optimize the landing page/no attempt to get the page to rank. Strictly a vanity URL -- he likes the way a separate website looks in ads as opposed to a landing page on the existing website (i.e., www.websitename.com/landing page) WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO: I'm basically trying to figure out what the best things to do to protect his other sites (which are very high quality valuable sites which rank well) from getting punished. STEPS I'M CONSIDERING: Robots no follow Separate hosting server Different person's name on a private domain registration Adding additional pages, so it's not a 1-page "doorway" Many thanks in advance to anyone who would share their experience and help me protect my client in the best way possible. I've told him there are risks, but he still wants to go ahead. MC
Web Design | | marketingcupcake1 -
Pages vs. Posts for SEO
Hi, I would like your thoughts about pages vs. posts for SEO. I understand the difference in terms of WP structure and have read the SEOmoz blog post about setting up your site for SEO success (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success). However, if you're trying to rank for a particular keyword, it seems that either one could work, from an on-page SEO perspective, as far as title tag, URL, meta description, etc. So how do you decide whether to set up a page vs. a post? What are the pros and cons, from an SEO perspective, about using one vs. the other? Thanks in advance! Carolina
Web Design | | csmm0 -
One big page vs. multi-step pages
Hi mozers! Brand new to SEO and LOVING it! Having several key questions that I don't see answered yet, but I'll start with one we've been very curious about. Consider this guide we have for Forming a Delaware Corp.
Web Design | | Mase
https://www.upcounsel.com/Free-Legal/Guide/17/Form-A-Delaware-Corporation This is our overview page, giving you a breakdown of what this process involves. We love this page, but (Question1:) does it lack better real "content" rather than lots of links to the guide process itself? Then, you can start to walk through the guide beginning with step one, where each step has crowd sourced answers to it. But as you see, the step pages are all very similar, except for the answers and step info. (Question 2) Would it be better to put all our answers into the one overview page and skip having separate pages for each step? We like the process and simplicity of seeing one step at a time, but then these pages don't seem to have enough unique content on them. Related, at what point (if any) is a page too big with too much content and considered bad for SEO? We're recovering from a big hit from Google, and slowly recovering by nailing down various SEO mistakes. We DO have great, unique and valueable content - now we just need it to rank!0 -
How serious is duplicate page content?
We just launched our site on a new platform - Magento Enterprise. We have a wholesale catalog and and retail catalog. We have up to 3 domains pointing to each product. We are getting tons of duplicate content errors. What are the best practices for dealing with this? Here is an example: mysite.com/product.html mysite.com/category/product.html mysite.com/dynamic-url
Web Design | | devonkrusich0 -
How not to get penalized by having a Single Page Interface (SPI) ?
Guys, I run a real estate website where my clients pay me to advertise their properties. The thing is, from the beginning, I had this idea about a user interface that would remain entirely on the same page. On my site the user can filter the properties on the left panel, and the listings (4 properties at each time) are refreshed on the right side, where there is pagination. So when the user clicks on one property ad, the ad is loaded by ajax below the search panel in the same page .. there's a "back up" button that the user clicks to go back to the search panel and click on another property. People are loving our implementation and the user experience, so I simply can't let go of this UI "inovation" just for SEO, because it really is something that makes us stand out from our competitors. My question, then, is: how not to get penalized in SEO by having this Single Page Interface, because in the eyes of Google users might not be browsing my site deep enough ?
Web Design | | pqdbr0