Exact URL Match For Ranking
-
Has anyone else run into this issue? I have a competitor that purchases domain names for popular inner pages we are trying to rank for. We are trying to build a brand, our competitors have a lower domain authority but rank higher for inner pages in the serps with VERY little content, backlinks/seo work, they host a single page and do a re-direct to their main site. Would this be a good long term strategy?
EX. We sell golf clubs our brand name is golfcity (Ex only) and we carry callaway clubs, our competitor is also building a brand but they purchased callawayclubs.net and do a re-direct. They rank on page one for keywords callaway clubs. If I do try to do this does one have an advantage over another? .com. net .org. because Ive seem them all used and rank on page 1.
Thank you!!!
-
It's certainly true that EMDs can still have an impact (it's declining, but they still matter), but it's rare for a brand new domain that's redirected to rank well, because there's nothing to redirect. You can't redirect the name itself, just the strength of the link profile. I suspect they may be doing something a bit more elaborate behind the scenes. They could be redirecting older, more powerful sites, or they could have a link network set up, as Matthew said.
Long-term, though, it will eventually burn out. It's frustrating, because these tactics can work for a while, but Google is definitely taking a dimmer view of them over time, and it's a risky play.
-
Hello,
This is a tactic that has long been used by many SEO experts around the world. This is known as a network. There are many ways to use the network, however not all of them are ethical. I think that you should sit back and think about how ethical it is and if you still want to do it.
If you still want to do it, I don't recommend redirecting the site to yours. I recommend hosting the site on a different host, different ip, and different who is info. After that, make a site that looks good, put 5 or so articles/pages on it and then on the front page somewhere near the bottom place your anchor text with your keyword in it, but not the footer, because it will go on every page.
Make sure that all domains have high authority and stats according to the SEOMOZ siteexplorer. There are other stats you can look at, but this is a great start for you. I personally buy pr3 + domains with 40 + domain authority if I do something like this. There are tools on the market to help you buy domains like this on the godaddy auctions for about $20 per domain. If your keyword is competitive you should build about 2 - 10 per week pending on how competitive your keywords are per week to make it look natural until your keyword is ranked up. Make sure that you are also using other SEO tactics so all of your backlinks aren't just a network. Use anchor text diversity, platform diversity, and ip diversity and you will be good. Don't use the same templates btw or platforms.
Your site will probably get caught eventually and will last about 3 - 9 months. So the question is, is it worth it to you? Will you make a profit by using these tactics for a short period of time you will be ranked on top?
Also, yes the exact match domains can help to a certain extent. Matt Cutts has announced though that they have decreased how much. However, I can still verify that they do help more than a normal domain for the exact terms.
As for using your network as sniper sites, sure that can work to and you can redirect people to your site. I have found though that using the small sites for both ranking purposes of ranking your site and sending traffic through some type of form is the best method.
Have a great night and if you have any questions at all please ask.
MB
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
-
SEO - New URL structure
Hi, Currently we have the following url structure for all pages, regardless of the hierarchy: domain.co.uk/page, such as domain/blog name. Can you, please confirm the following: 1. What is the benefit of organising the pages as a hierarchy, i.e. domain/features/feature-name or domain/industries/industry-name or domain/blog/blog name etc. 2. This will create too many 301s - what is Google's tolerance of redirects? Is it worth for us changing the url structure or would you only recommend to add breadcrumbs? Many thanks Katarina
Technical SEO | | Katarina-Borovska1 -
WP URL issue - Concatenated URLs (LOTS of them)
WP is doing this somehow, and creating URLs for hundreds of pages that don't exist. HOW is this happening, and how do I stop It? I have many, many URLS like this: https://www.atouchofrust.com/terms-of-use/atouchofrust.com/vendor-news. Of note, atouchofrust.com/terms-of-use, and atouchofrust.com/vendor-news are both legit pages on the site. Why they are being concatenated is beyond my limited understanding of WP. Please, somebody, help. Cori
Technical SEO | | FlyingC0 -
Unknown Subdomains Ranking
In spot checking some pages that I recently launched, I found subdomains ranking in place of the domain. The strange thing is, we never set up these sub-domains and they don't exist on our server. The pages, though they're indexed with the proper title and meta-description, time out when clicked. We're operating on Drupal 7, pages launched at the beginning of the month. The other pages within the series of content are ranking properly. Any thoughts or tips to resolve this?
Technical SEO | | JordanNCU1 -
Redirect_to in URLs?
I've never seen this before. I'm assuming that it's not SEO friendly and that these should be 301s or 302s instead? http://ksa-beta.motory.com/ar/login/?redirect_to=http://ksa-beta.motory.com/ar/cars-for-sale-search/results/central/riyadh/ford/explorer/2010/ford-explorer-2010-1038353 http://ksa-beta.motory.com/ar/login/?redirect_to=http://ksa-beta.motory.com/ar/account/my-saved-searches/
Technical SEO | | KatherineWatierOng0 -
Then why my site is not ranking
My website's DA and PAs are good compare with my competitors. Then why my site is not ranking.
Technical SEO | | Somanathan0 -
Should I change or redirect this URL?
Happy Friday everyone! I just noticed that one of our Attorney Profile's url's is wrong. We used to have someone named "Dana Fortugno" as our Family Law attorney, but when he left, (over two years ago) we hired "Scott Finelli." The person who setup the site, just changed the information on the page not url. So instead of it saying "http://www.kempruge.com/scott-finelli-jd-llm/;" it says "http://www.kempruge.com/dana-fortugno-jd-llm/." I'm considering taking all the content on the page with the wrong url, copying it to a new page with the correct URL and 301 redirecting (what would now be a blank page) to the new page with the correct URL. Is this the best way to handle this? Also, I don't believe there are many SEO concerns regarding the pages specifically. The profile pages aren't what we rank for in any of our Family Law related keywords. I am worried about having a completely blank page that just 301 redirects as looking bad to google, but not sure if it would? As always, thank you for your time and any assistance you can provide. Ruben
Technical SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Webmaster tools...URL Errors
Hi mozzers, Quick question. Whats the best thing to do about URL errors in webmaster tools. They are all 404s that point from external sites. Many of them are junk spam sites. Should I mark them as "fixed" or just leave them. I'm hoping google is aware it's out of my control if spam sites want to link to 404s on my site. Peter
Technical SEO | | PeterM220 -
Re-write of url
Hi, I would like your input on the following dilemma I am wanting to target the keyword "download xml". at the moment Google indexes us on page 2 and indexes the page www.ourdomain.com/download.aspx I would like to rewrite the url to be /download-xml-editor.aspx The current page is a pr5 and is our most trafficked and externally inked to page. My thoughts are quite mixed on how to do this. approach 1: re-write url of "download.aspx" and setup permanent 301 redirect of download.aspx to download-xml-editor.aspx approach 2: create a new page called download-xml-editor and 301 redirect that to the current stronger page which is download.aspx approach 3: create new page called download-xml-editor with unique content and try and get that page to rank over time, allowing it to build up links and not compromise the current page, then later 301 redirect How would you deal with this and what are your recommendations
Technical SEO | | LiquidTech0