Should a company worry about how many domains it maps to the same home page?
-
I seem to be at logger heads with developers regarding domain mapping.
The scenario: I have a company with one site on a primary domain name, but all the other domains they own are mapped using a tool provided by their hosting vendor. But. what I see is a keyword loaded domain that shows it has been 'mapped' to the primary domain, but you can type into the browser this keyword loaded domain and it will serve up in your browser that same home page you see on the PRIMARY DOMAIN. So, picture this - you are looking at the home page on wwww.keyworddomain.com and see the same home page as www.primarycompanydomain.com - but if you select anything from the menu at www.keyworddomain.com you will be taken immediately to www.primarycompanydomain.com/page-you-selected
I just get a feeling this is not right as I can search Google for www.keyworddomain.com and Google lists the site home page on that domain. But when I click through from the listed result, I am taken to www.primarycompanydomain.com which is ideally where I want to be and I would want Google to focus on this domain, and I have told it to do so within the feature included within Google Webmaster Tools.
The developers say there is nothing wrong. There argument - why would a hosting company provide this domain mapping feature if it was not best practice. My argument - but Google is listing that domain URL (www.keyworddomain.com) despite the fact it takes me through to www.primarycompanydomain.com - will Google not think this strange despite me telling it via GWMT that www.primarycompanydomain.com is the one and only domain I am working on.
Tell me if I am going mad or not, and who is right and who is wrong. Appreciate all your answers.
-
Many thanks to both Hans and Moosa I have written again to the web developer that has its hosting account with their preferred vendor to look at this issue again, taking into account your valued responses. Really appreciate the input from both of you.
-
Hi Brian,
This seems to be the same problem I am facing with one of my clients. Maybe the answer to my question helps a little: http://moz.com/community/q/cname-vs-301-redirect
Your situation most likely will lead to duplicate content too. A 301-redirect seems to be the best solution here. Hopefully your hoster is willing to cooperate (and if not, maybe you should look for another one).
Hans
-
In my personal opinion redirecting keyword rich domain to the main domain is not a bad idea but if you are going to flood it on home page and all the targeted pages then you will be in the sure trouble because Google does not like the idea of using this for ranking boost!
This might end up getting a penalty from Google!
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
-
Keywords in site maps. Can there be too many? Can they be considered to be stuffed?
Hi everyone,
On-Page Optimization | | TheJewelleryEd
I'd appreciate some insight on a keyword stuffed site map I've seen on a site similar to ours (we don't have this kind of menu ourselves).
https://www.1stdibs.com/sitemap/jewelry/stone/pink-diamond/
This is accessed from a site map. Do you think it's too blatant / keyword stuffed? I haven't done this with our site, but am interested to see a big reputable site doing something so clearly just for SEO.
Would it work? Or would search engines dislike it? I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you.0 -
Duplicate Content, Same Company?
Hello Moz Community, I am doing work for a company and they have multiple locations. For example, examplenewyork.com, examplesanfrancisco.com, etc. They also have the same content on certain pages within each website. For example, examplenewyork.com/page-a has the same content as examplesanfrancisco.com/page-a Does this duplicate content negatively impact us? Or could we rank for each page within each location parameter (for example, people in new york search page-a would see our web page and people in san fran search page-a would see our web page)? I hope this is clear. Thanks, Cole
On-Page Optimization | | ColeLusby0 -
Category listing page coming above product pages
A new SEO client we have taken on seem to be hitting most of the points right on with their site and SEO. However one thing that is bugging me is that their category pages i.e. "Footwear" which title tag includes the brands they stock. Is almost always coming up above (if they are ever even found) the product individual pages. Anyone seen this sort of things happening? Very frustrating.
On-Page Optimization | | iboxsecurityltd0 -
Does the title tag on the home page affect sub-pages?
Hello. I am thinking of changing our home page title tag to include our two most valuable keywords from two of our sub-pages. Would this help the rankings of those two sub-pages? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | nyc-seo0 -
Dupelicate content home page and custom page question
I am working on a website that got hit by the penguin update. Didn't get hit terribly bad, but dropped from number one to number 9. As I'm going through the pages, the theme and content is a mess. To give an example, say the site is about custom colored marbles. The main page content covers custom colored marbles, custom promotional marbles, custom glass marbles, etc. Custom colored marbles is mentioned and covered on all pages, which I am going back and trying to make each page theme specific. There is also a custom page, so I am at a cross roads on how best to employ the focus of the custom page and the home page. I am thinking the home page should emphasize colored marbles, and the custom page should emphasize custom colored marbles. My fear is that making such a drastic change will bounce the site completely off front page and that it will take time for the custom page to come up in rankings. AS it stands now I am confused as to how it even ranks on first page as there's two pages with custom colored marbles emphasis. Id like to clean this up as much as possible so there are no big hits with future google updates, but I don't want the site to drop off either as that would be hard to explain to the owner. Yeah, we are cleaning up your site and making it google compliant and in so doing you no longer rank on first page. That won't put food on the table. Thanks for any advise on this.
On-Page Optimization | | anthonytjm0 -
No Content on home page + rankings
If a home page has no content will it hurt the sites ability to rank? The interior pages will have content but not the home page. (See attached image) My client does not want content on the home page as he feels it will take away from the look and feel he wants to achieve. This website is actually 10 sites or locations in one as we intend to market each location (a total of 10) separately. In reality the home page is a doorway page to each separate location. I'd like feedback if possible as to the necessity or not, of content on the Home Page of this or any website. Will the lack of content hurt on the Homer Page hurt with SEO? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | fun52dig
Gary Downey bobby-vans.jpg0 -
Page Rank Drop
Just trying to get more feedback - so we recently edited title and meta descriptions for existing website SEO and we've noticed in the past several weeks, our client's website has dropped out of the top 50 in a variety of terms we were targeting that they used to show up for (note: when updating SEO, we DID NOT remove any relevant terms we were targeting). When the website does come up in searches, it is the old meta description and title. So far, the feedback we've gotten is that first, it takes Google a few weeks to recrawl and index - however, we are now on week 3 after the changes and still no rebound in rankings. We were also told to check with the SEO Moz page grader to be sure the keywords were being optimized correctly - got As and Bs for the test terms I tried. We also submitted an XML site map to speed up the crawl process as another user suggested. We've tested the site with various tools to make sure there are redirect errors, etc. and everything looks fine. Again, it's now been 3+ weeks and no ranking rebound. Any other suggestions on what could be happening?
On-Page Optimization | | laidlawseo0
