Keyword Rich Domain
-
We purchased a keyword rich domain name to use with an existing website.
What is the best way to use this domain?
Below are some thoughts, I welcome any input.
- Use this domain as an add-on to the main domain, but only have it load one page off the main domain? Would that cause duplicate content issues?
- Create a single static page of content for the domain (separate from main domain)
- Redirect domain to page on master domain, would we loose any benefits of the keyword rich domain?
Thank you!
-
Hi Jacob,
Experts have been writing about the declining importance of exact match domains for many years (those two articles are both from 2012).
In general, if you already had a setup like the one you are proposing, there's a good chance we would be recommending consolidating the domains.
You might also be interested in this whiteboard Friday.
Good luck - hope something there helps.
-
Hi Sally, thank you for taking time to reply to my questions.
In short, having targeting keywords in a domain name has no SEO benefit?
-
Hi Jacob,
What did you hope to achieve with this domain? Was it meant to be different content to your current site?
To be honest there isn't a lot of use for this domain as you would be better off putting time into your current domain. Unfortunately, people buy other keyword rich domains that aren't going to help your site in the long run. Google isn't going to associate this domain with your current one unless you plan to make it the priority and of huge value that differs to your current site. You could, of course, migrate your current website to that website but I wouldn't recommend this as it could lead to a whole lot of other issues if done incorrectly. And you could be spending this time doing other digital marketing tasks for your current site.
For your suggestions:
1. I don't really understand what you mean having an add-on to the main domain. If this is duplicate content you'd have to have it canonicalised and then it wouldn't have much benefit for your current site anyway. You'd be better off putting this content on your current domain.
2. Having a single static page wouldn't be of much worth cause wouldn't this page perform better on your current website? Adding this content to your current site would also bring your overall content quality up (assuming it is good content).
3. Redirecting this domain to your current domain wouldn't help that much, unless it's got an amazing backlink profile to bring traffic through.
Cheers
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
-
Move domain to new domain, for how much time should I keep forwarding?
I'm not sure but my website looks like is not getting it's juice as supposed to be. As we already know, google preferred https sites and this is what happened to mine, it was been crawling as https but when the time came to move my domain to new domain, I used 301 or domain forwarding service, unfortunately they didn't have a way to forward from https to new https, they only had regular http to https, when users clicked to my old domain from google search my site was returned to "site does not exist", I used hreflang at least that google would detect my new domain been forwarding and yes it worked but now I'm wondering, for how much time should I keep the forwarding the old domain to the new one, my site looks like is not going up, I have changed all the external links, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Fulanito1 -
Purchasing an existing domain + redirecting to company's domain
Let's pretend that competitor.com ranks well for certain search terms and generates some traffic from organic search. If a company were to acquire the competitor (or their domain), what's the smartest way to redirect that SEO value to the acquiring company's website? Does a 301 redirect work between different root domains? Even if it does work, is that the smartest approach? Thanks for your help!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Raleigh0 -
Domain Forwarding
I have a client who previously registered 20 unique domain names that tied to their company name and services. They use all of these domains to forward to their main website to try and capture additional traffic. Would you suggest that we remove all of the domains by 301 redirecting them all the the main website? I am trying to find a good article that shows the implications on SEO by using many domains that forward to a main website. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Prager0 -
Redirect old .net domain to new .com domain
I have a quick question that I think I know the answer to but I wanted to get some feedback to make sure or see if there's additional feedback. The long and short of it is that I'm working with a site that currently has a .net domain that they've been running for 6 years. They've recently bought a .com of the same name as well. So the question is: I think it's obviously preferable to keep the .net and just direct the .com to it. However, if they would prefer to have the .com domain, is 301'ing the .net to the .com going to lose a lot of the equity they've built up in the site over the past years? And are there any steps that would make such a move easier? Also, if you have any tips or insight just into a general transition of this nature it would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BrandLabs0 -
What would be the best domain choice?
Hello I got a website www.keywordCA.com and I'm ranking #1 spot on "keyword" but what I notice if you have the exact match you get more site links and etc. Like this keyword that match with my domain name "keyword CA" The ideal name will be www.keyword.com but is taken and the owner don't want to sell the domain (at least he is not using it, is just parked) and I also got the domain www.keyword.net Do you think www.keyword.net will be much better than KeywordCA.com in order to get more exposure and google will generate more site links?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jpgprinting0 -
Keyword Targeting Best Practices??
What is the best way to target a specific keyword? I rank well for several of my keywords but want to do better on others. How do I go about doing this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bronxpad0 -
How important are domain names?
Hi All, Question: How important are domain names when trying to rank for a competitive keyword? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wazza19850 -
Buying a banned domain
Hello all, I've found a exact match keyword domain that I'm able to buy. Problem is that I'm under the impression it might have been banned by google, currently it is only showing adsense without content. The site can't be found using the cache: or site: parameters in Google and the PR is 0. What are your experiences on buying a banned domain and how can I double check if the domain is banned? This blogpost suggests I should not buy it, any other opinions? Thanks. Hellemans
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hellemans0