Keyword Named Domains
-
First, I'm new to SEO so bear with me.
My company owns a list of domains with names that are keywords for us. Right now, all those domains are redirecting to our main site. None of the domains has ever had content; they were purchased recently and simple redirected. My questions are: 1) is there any value in having domains that are exact keywords on which we'd like to rank, (i.e. does this work to improve site traffic and ultimately rankings, or is this a black hat tactic)? and, 2) would there ever be any value in turning these sites into landing pages with content and outbound links that lead to our original site?
Thanks for your advice.
-
The case of exact match domains is a quirky one. As Allen stated above
_"Google will penalize your site if it has site links from sites that are not indexed by Google, and Google wont index a site with no content." _
I would launch those domains with good quality, relevant content that links back to your main site. Also exact match domains are frowned upon by Google anyway as many exact match domains have been penalized the past year. In the end take these domains and have them add value o your niche and you won't lose.
-
Exact match domains can give your site a lift in the search results, but the exact impact depends on a number of factors such as the authority of the competition in the SERPS.
While exact match domains can mean you rank higher, you may find that any advantage you might get is compromised by a reduced click through from the SERPS. Searchers can view them as somewhat spammy and treat exact match domains with suspicion.
The other weakness of course if that exact match domains can only boost the keyword they're a match for, and the effectiveness of exact match domains has, and continues to diminish.
Registering exact match domains (or any domain names) and redirecting them to your own site won't affect anything. If they are new domains they won't have any links pointing to them, and as a result will not have any link equity to pass onto your main domain. If they have no content, they won't be indexed by the search engines.
If you purchased an existing, established (and relevant) domain and 301 redirected the domain to your site then you'll pass the equity from the links to that domain onto your main site. Be aware that this boost is unlikely to last long term as links decay over time. This can happen when a company buy a competitor for instance.
I don't think registering a new domain and forwarding it onto you site will harm your website. It's a common approach to register a friendly campaign domain and forward it onto a landing page on your main domain - or, if you have a microsite on the campaign URL, to forward this onto your main domain (to a relevant page) once the campaign has run it's course.
So, is it worth building a microsite on an exact match domain. Well, it depends on what you're goals are and what resources you have.
Can you build a microsoft/landing page that has enough relevance and authority to rank and what is the cost in doing so. What is the opportunity cost of not spending that same time and effort on your main site (which by it's very nature is likely to be more authoritative than the microsite.
How likely is it that you can build a site around an exact match keyword that will be strong enough to out-rank your established competitors? How many microsites do you see achieving this in the results for keywords in your niche?
What's the best experience for your customers? There's no point ranking for a keyword if ultimately it doesn't attract the right visitors, who ultimately reach your conversion goals.
You'd probably be better off, concentrating your efforts on your main site, developing your content there and promoting it to your audience.
Hope this helps.
-
About your question #1: It will give you some benefits, if you have a domain name containing keywords and it is more preferable if you use domain without dashes i.e. your-keyword.com
-
Theresa,
Not sure if I would call it a "Black hat tactic" but it will definitely hurt your google ranking. Google will penalize your site if it has site links from sites that are not indexed by Google, and Google wont index a site with no content. You could protect yourself by disavowing these links, but if you already own them just stop redirecting from them.
A better way to do what you want is to have your domain name, then under it, pages with good content that use your keywords as part of the page name.
Owning the domain names of the products may help by keeping them out of general circulation (Squatting), so a compeditor cant purchase the domaine name of a product you want to sell
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
-
Keyword in alt text or keyword in the body?
lets say i have 2 percent keyword density in the whole page and another 2 percent are coming from alt texts from images? is that 4 percent, am i exceeding the limit or its fine?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Sam09schulz0 -
Massive rank drop on one particular keyword
As all other marketeers do I follow closely my keywords, one particular keyword has ranked continually at #2 and has suddenly dropped to +#60, but all others remain the same. We are a fairly large site in terms of numbers 9m views annually, could it be possible that someone has black hatted that particular keyword, and if so how do I find out how and more importantly who?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | sususu0 -
IT want to do a name server redirect
Hi, I am in a little bit of a pickle, and hope that you clever people can help me... A little background: In April this year we relaunched one of our brands as a standalone business. I set up page to page 301 redirects from the old website to the new branded domain. From an SEO perspective this relaunch went amazingly smoothly - we only lost around 10% of traffic and that was just for a couple of months. We now get more traffic than ever before. Basically it's all going swimmingly. I noticed yesterday that the SSL certificate on the old domain has expired, so I asked IT to repurchase one for us to maintain the 301 redirects. IT are saying that they would prefer to do a name server redirect instead, which would remove all the page to page 301s. They are saying that this would maintain the SEO. As far as I am aware this wouldn't. Please can someone help me put together a polite but firm response to basically say no? Thanks, I really welcome and appreciate your help on this! Amelia
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CommT0 -
Subdomain and root domain effects on SEO
I have a domain lets say it's mydomain.com, which has my web app already hosted on this domain. I wanted to create a sub-product from my company, the concept is a bit different than my original web app that is on mydomain.com and I am planning to host this on mynewapp.mydomain.com. I am having doubts that using a sub-domain will have an impact on my existing or new web app. Can anyone give me any pointers on this? As much as I wanted to use a directory mydomain.com/mynewapp, this is not possible because it will just confuse existing users of the new product/web app. I've heard that subdomains are essentially treated as a new site, is this true? If it is then I am fine with this, but is it also true that subdomains are harder to reach the top rank rather than a root domain?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | herlamba0 -
Best method to target similar keywords??
Hi Guys, We have client that wants to target 3 similar terms (used, secondhand and pre-owned) variations. We have been having a discussion about the different methods to try but can't make a decision on the best route. The target page has a list of pre-owned products so whichever route was take these products still need to be visible without creating duplicate content issues.... 1 - Go all in on one page do our best at optimising a single page for all 3. - i don't like this route.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Kal-SEO
2 - Stick with the current pre-owned url and create a url for used and secondhand with a 301 redirect back to the pre-owned url.
3 - Create three individual pages aimed at a keyword individually, keep the pre-owned as the original and add canonical links to used and secondhand I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks in advanced0 -
Adding Domain Names
Hi all, I am pretty new to SEO but i wanted to check out an idea with you guys, I have a business that is called Totaldriveways and the URL is www.totaldrivewaysne.co.uk Although Driveways is a big part of what we do, we are also heavily involved in other services to do with landscaping. The idea ive got is to brand each service with the "Total" for eample Total Driveways is a reconisgened name in my area and i would like to expand that into Total Patios Total Artificial Grass Total Driveway cleaning so each page and service come under a similar brand, my question is is it worth buying these domains also and directing them at the specific pages that they are relevant to, these domains are obviously keyword rich and am guessing will create extra traffic, but will i be penalised at all by google etc. I know this is probably simple stuff to alot of you's but i have no idea Thanks John
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | totaldriveways0 -
How Google deal with a Domain Buy
Hello folks, How is google dealing with those clever peoples who decide to buy a famous place on internet( domain ), to be their domain name. For example if someone buy a very well ranked domain name for some keywords in their niche, is there any punishment? Whats the bad things about buy a domain? Thanks.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | augustos0 -
A domain is ranking for a plural key word in SERPs on page 1 but for the singular not at all?
What could the reasons that a domain is ranking for the plural version of a key word on SERPs page 1 and for the singular version not at all? Google knows that both key words belong together, as in the SERPs for one version also the other version of the key word is being highlighted. If I search for the domain with the plural keyword it shows up on the first page in SERPs, but If I search for the same keyword as singular (in German it is just removing an “s”) I see the plural version highlighted many times but I cannot find my domain. What could be the reason for this behavior? penalties?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SimCaffe0