SEO - Use pages on main site or set up outside keyword rich domains and websites
-
I have a client who is wanting to target searches for competitors products. His idea was to purchase domains related to the searches he's targeting (for example, people looking for another company's app) and to build out one page websites addressing the search query and why a customer would choose his app solution over a competitor.
I know he'd have to build a handful of links to each site for any chance of success but I wanted to ask the following..
-
Would doing this be better than just building pages addressing the searches on his main website domain?
-
Is there an SEO risk to doing this? Potential for a penalty? Anything we need to do to structure these in a way that won't violate Google's SEO guidelines?
-
Any other thoughts on pros and cons of each strategy?
Thank you!
Ricky
-
-
Hi Ricky,
Rand did a great Whiteboard Friday on 'How to Optimize for Competitors' Branded Keywords' in February this year that I think you'll find helpful
Both options you suggested could be successful.
I think it really comes down to two things:
- How much your client is willing to spend.
- If they want their company site openly targeting competitor terms.
If they have no issue with openly targeting competitor brand names, I'd say do it on the current site. This will also be the cheaper option.
If they want it to appear as an anonymous product comparison, obviously, you will have to build a separate site - which will require more budget.
You don't need to worry about a Google penalty with either of these options.
Cheers,
David
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
-
New site migration (multiple sites into one + new domain)
Hi, I have read so many very helpful guides and experiences from you guys that will greatly help me but I have a few questions please. Our company has 3 sites, the main site and 2 sites for different product ranges: BrandProductName.com (main site - DA = 22 raking well for product name) Productname2.com (DA = 10 ranking very well for product name and little competition) BrandProductName3.com (DA = 10 poor ranking) We wish to bring all the sites into one with categories for the 3 different product. The main site is an e-commerece site whereas the other 2 are not (currently). On top of this as the main domain has one of the product names in it they wish to change the domain to be just Brandname.com. So the plan is to combine site 2 and 3 into site 1 and change that domain name. As you can imagine this is going to be quite a job. I am fairly happy with the steps required (having read all the guides and migrated many sites in the past) but with the added domain name change this is a little daunting. So my questions are: Should I merge the 3 sites into 1 and then changed the domain at a later point? Should I change the domain of the main site first and then merge site 2 and 3 in later? Should I just do it all together? Or based on the data i have provided do you disagree with the plan, what would you recommend? We are not in a massive rush to complete all of this so we have the time to plan and execute this when we are fully ready. Any help / advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | csimmo0 -
Ranking without use of keywords on page & without use of matching anchor text??
Howdy folks. So, here is a dilemma. One of competitors of ours is somehow ranking for a keyphrase "houston chronicle obituaries" without any usage of these keywords on the page, without any full or partial anchor text match ("chronicle" is not used anywhere). The rest of competitiors' rankings make sense. Any ideas?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DmitriiK0 -
Website Does not index in any page?
I created a website www.astrologersktantrik.com 4 days ago and fetch it with google but still my website does not index on google as the keywords I use is with low competition but still my website does not appear on any keywords?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ramansaab0 -
How to seo websites on another server
We have partners that want us to build and manage a co-branded white label for them. We will have unique content on the white label, however the white label will be located on our server. I was planning to put it on a subdomain and mask the URL, however was told that google will see through that and not give any credit to the white label. Our partners all have high PR and we are a new company with low PR. We want the white labels to get the credit from the partner websites. Should we do it through url masking or by changing the A Record in the other website to point to our server?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TravelerVIP0 -
Site structure from an SEO standpoint
I am fortunate enough to be working with a client who is still building their website. From a site structure standpoint, what can I look for with my SEO hat as they build their wire frames and storyboard their site? I want to make sure I don't miss any components that might be helpful short and long term
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Can I rank for 3 keyword phrases using one long tial Keyword Phrase?
I am new to seo and still getting my head around long tail searches. If i use a phrase such as "luxury towels uk", Can i also rank on the same page for "luxury towels" and "towels uk"? Tui means ranking for 3 phrases using 1 long tail
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Towelsrus0 -
Hyphen domain effect SEO?
Hi Guys, I am looking to buy some domain that have the keyword I want in - but my question is; Does using hypehns in a domain effect your SEO? Thanks Gareth
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GAZ090 -
Is there a way to redirect pages from an old site?
I have no access to an old wordpress site of a client's, but have parked the domain on their new site, gone into webmaster central and requested a change of address and wait... the old domain still shows in the search listings in place of the new site domain and the log files show 404 errors from links to the old site which go nowhere - can anyone suggest a way of managing this on the new site - is there a workaround to what should have been done - 301 redirects on the old site before it was taken down. many thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Highlandgael0