Is pointing multiple domains to a single website beneficial for SEO or not?

[thinkcreativegroup]

A client has purchased many domains with keywords in each. They want to have us point each domain to their site for better SEO.  Is this a good or bad thing to do?

[emiliofcastillo]

The information provided here has been helpful.

What is the best use for NEW DOMAIN EXTENSIONS? I have built a website around "####.online" and have now purchased many more domains with new extensions. Examples = "####.taxi", "####.services", "####.tours", "####.community", "####.restaurant", "####.villas", "####.business", "####.cafe", "####.energy", "####.solar", "####.cruises", "####.events", "####.fish", "####.news", etc etc etc...I have several more.

The "####" is a specific place, a touristic destination.

What is the best way to bring these domains together in a whitelist approach in order to improve ranking around searches related to "####"???

[lundzern]

I also have a question regarding the practice of multiple domains pointed towards one site.

I have a relatively new domain (www.goodies.no) but the services provided through that site will be very varied (think web design, app development, marketing and SEO services etc)

So my theory was that in addition to creating www.goodies.no/webdesign folders for the webdesign service, I should also set up a www.goodies-webdesign.no domain pointing towards that same folder.

Does that make any sense at all, I though maybe having a vital keyword in the domain name would be beneficial to my SEO as long as the contents of the www.goodies.no/webdesign site it links to is highly relevant to the domain name

[ICTADVIS]

As you will have read in this thread, their is advice here that no benefit will come from purchasing a domain for sale which indicates it has (as in your case) a DA of 30 an ranking for many keywords.

This suggests to me that the domain you are looking to purchase is currently live and if that is the case then what you are considering is a feasible plan. But which way to go?

Do you make use of this domain you purchase and turn this site into becoming your primary site? Or, do you carefully redirect this newly purchased domain and all its related to pages to the website you have?

Certainly the 18 year old domain sounds like it has a lot of good back history and it is ranking for ( I am assuming) keywords in your niche. Longevity and being in possession of a live domain and it doing as well as you say it is - then I might be inclined to take your Old domain and redirect it and its associated pages to the 18 year old website.

If your 18 year old website has an ABOUT US Page then massage the content carefully here to say you company has inherited this website. 301 redirect your own current domain and have it point to this ABOUT US page, so that people who know you right now will identify that your business has taken over this other site.

In addition to this I would take the INSIDE URL pages of your own current site and redirect them also to any relevant pages in your acquired 18 year old site.

What not to do if you can avoid it, is for now make too many changes to the content on the HOME PAGE of this 18 year old site. Just carefully massage that for now, maybe just be adding where appropriate some content that again reflects you have inherited this site.

But my plan here is for two sites that are currently live. If you said the domain you have purchased is laying dormant somewhere and no pages having been attached to it for a long time and your decision is just going on some sales blurb telling you what the domain used to achieve - then you are not going to gain any real benefit from the domain then.

However, if it is per the scenario I think you are telling us all about then having a live site to inherit that is relevant to your business and with a DA30 which is higher than what you possess - well - this exercise could be worthwhile for you.

[VinJGirl]

I have a question related to this and I hope it's ok to keep this conversation going with it.

I have a 5 year old site with DA of 25 (I only really started developing it a year ago). Today, an opportunity opened up to buy an old domain in my subject area with a DA of only 30 but ranking for many keywords. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to buy this old (18 years) domain and use it in some way to benefit my site. Either building it with content and monetizing it while adding a few links to my site on it.

Thanks for you input.

Jo-Ann

[ICTADVIS]

Issuetrak, I guess you may have found the answer to your question by now since this is now March 2016.

But I ended up here today just to seek reassurance in my thinking about pointing a domain name at an already established website. What I am looking at doing is using a domain that my client has purchased and simply had parked for a while and going to point that domain into the website. And the decision taken is to 301 redirect that domain so it points at a specific landing deeper page inside the website. Why do I want to do this. Well my client has currently quite a LONG domain name.

Currently when I am doing ADWORDS for this client I can just get his current site .co.uk domain to fit into the fixed URL box but only bvy chopping off the WWW DOT on the front of the domain, but I cannot add anything else onto the fixed domain which I know marketers tend to use (including myself) - for example I might want to use a fixed URL that is www.clientdomain.co.uk/treesurgeon should my Ad be focused around that topic.

But, Issuetrak, you talked about buying domains with a history and I was intrigued by that. My understanding is if the domain you were purchasing was already operating with a website attached to it right now, and through some acquisition you had taken over the company but absorbing everything into your business and so this purchased domain already very much in the face of the search engines who sees it has lots of pages associated with it, and there is some relevance towards you having it being redirected to further support, your already established brand site you are growing, then I am of the opinion this exercise might (and has been suggested by some authority voices in the industry) give a 'little' lift/boost to your current site.

However, if that domain you are purchasing was ONCE a well developed domain, but let's say it has been PARKED for some time and NOT ACTIVE for some time, no current flurry of activity around it. I would imagine that the domain then is already would be DYING or DEAD with no power behind it because it had been neglected for so long.

Your point 2 if I have interpreted your statement correctly is what my intention is for my clients new SHORT domain so I can use it more effectively purely for ADWORDS. So I create an AD, use this domain to help drive traffic to the main website by setting up a very specific campaign. I am taking guidance from this Google Article https://support.google.com/a/answer/4352075

For point 3 where would you stop? In the UK this is like having an obsession for private number plates and trying to own all that you think is relevant to you. But if you keep snapping up domains will you ever use them all? Highly unlikely. You could end up spending a small fortune in just trying to buy all the variations and for a small business this is just not practical. I remember a long time ago reading an article somewhere about HEWLETT PACKARD trying to manage all these different domains and in the end they simply got down to have just their PRIMARY and SECONDARY domains to support the brand from what I understand.

Domains and Domain management I find an interesting topic. Like, where should you host your domain. if I am in the UK targeting a UK audience, do I really want my domain to be hosted in Germany for example. I have sparked many a lively debate with this one, and everyone involved having very mixed views, especially when you bring into the equation Google's GEO Targeting tool. But I was once told this tool is fine if for example I am HOSTED in the UK and looking to take part of my website at www.mydomain.com/germany/ and using the GEO tool effectively that way, but not really to use it for the whole website being pointed from one country to the other. Appreciate anybody's view on that one.

Hope this helps keep this thread open.

[Nobody1596916721222]

I realize this an old post however a coworker who has a home-based business asked me about this practice. She heard about it at a recent workshop. The take, which is different than what I've read here, is that buying expired domains is a good strategy due to their age which is valued in search. I was intrigued which is what brought me here.

1. Is there value in buying domains with a history
2. Instead of redirecting, use the domain to generate traffic with fresh content and link back to your original domain
3. And how much value is there in keeping domains out of competitors' hands if there isn't any value in owning the domains

Thanks,

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi mszeer,

This resource might help: http://moz.com/blog/the-international-seo-checklist

[mszeer]

Hi there...

excuse me for getting into this discussion... we are from brazil and we currently have .com and .com.br (brazil) tLD's. We currently have only Portuguese version but have plans to soon have english language as well.... so, .com we would use  for english and .com.br for portuguese (brazil)... is this approach correct, then ? or would it be better to use only .com and forward the other variations to it ?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Some questions to ask:

Is there any reasonable expectation of traffic by redirecting the domains? i.e. do the domains receive traffic now? If so, a redirect may be in order.

Is there a chance you'll want to use the domains in the future, or do you want to keep the domains out of your competitor's hands? If so,  you may want to hold onto them.

Otherwise, if you're redirecting unused domains simply for link equity, there's likely very little value in that strategy.

[whitnote]

I just wanted to see if I could get an update on this tactic, post-Hummingbird. I'm assuming it's even less recommended to redirect URL traffic to another URL now? Do the exceptions Cyrus mentioned still hold?

If my client already owns other similar name domains, but never did anything with them (either building or 301 redirecting), should I recommend they continue to hold onto them, or just let the license expire?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Lots of good answers here.

Generally, there's not much benefit to doing this, especially if the domains are new as Streamline Metrics pointed out.

The risk however, is if the domains have a negative history associated with them. If bad links were pointed at the old domain, then those links will now point at your main site when you redirect them. If an algorithmic action like Penguin or an over-optimization filter was applied to the old site, your risk carrying that baggage to the new site.

Sometimes it makes sense to redirect domains.

• SEOmoz.com redirects to seomoz.org. Lots of folks type seomoz.com, so this makes sense.
• You migrate an old domain.

In general, however, there's virtually no SEO benefit to buying a previously unestablished keyword rich domain and redirecting it for traffic, rankings boost (unless on those rare occasions it's a very popular domain name to begin with)

[thinkcreativegroup]

I appreciate the response.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I might have said there would be no harm normally, but after a client came to me to find out why a .co.uk was appearing above the .com, which was his main site, I would say it can do harm. The .co.uk was simply being pointed to the .com. First time I have seen this happen so just tread carefully. Either way, it's a too grey hat for my liking - to try and get more search traffic by trying to mis-lead people from one domain to another is a no-no. Just tell them that with all of the algo changes going on, they are best scratching that idea and focusing their efforts on great content. If that got found out (and it can very easily if someone reports it) then all domains will be penalised.

[thinkcreativegroup]

Thank you for your response!

[thinkcreativegroup]

Thanks for your response!

[ske11]

There is no SEO benefit to doing this, there is also no harm

There can be other benefits, if there is a short URL that redirects that can be used on the phone to tell people to visit rather than the longer or hard to spell URL

I hope this helps

Sean

[StreamlineMetrics]

I get this question a lot from my clients. If the domains are brand new and they've never resolved to a site before, then there won't be any kind of impact for SEO, positive or negative. Just make sure the domain names 301 redirect to the primary URL instead of pointing them/setting them up as aliases.

The only time there could be a positive impact is if a domain name used to resolve to a website and that site ranked in the search engines and links were pointed to it. Then you could 301 redirect those domain names to a new URL to transfer at least some of the link juice.