Keywords In Domain Names - What Is The Best Way To Manage The Page?

[Tigglet]

Hi all,

I have touched on this topic in a previous thread but would like to investigate in more detail if I may.

E.g Someone has a site which sells a range of beauty products called www.mycompanyname.com (which is obviously the name of the company without any keywords in it). This is their main site and they redirect the .co.uk version of the domain to the .com site.


They then purchase some more domain names each containing keywords appropriate to their product range - e.g. www.lusciouslipbalm.co.uk or www.antiageingcream.co.uk.


They then have two options with the new keyword domain names. They can either automatically redirect each domain name to their main site www.mycompanyname.com

or

create a landing page for each domain name which contains keyword rich text with appropriate links back to the products on the main site - www.mycompanyname.com

I am expecting that the second option is far better in terms of SEO due to the additional keywords and new inbound links to the main site. What do the SEO experts think about this? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Dotwhack]

Hi - you are correct - option 2 is the way forward.

The reason they have multiple sites is to ensure the pages linking though to their company page are super-relevant - they contain all the keywords etc that the search engines are looking for. This is a very good strategy for building relevant inbound links.

The reason option 1 (all directing straight to company page) isn't worth doing is because they hold no search engine page rank individually.

One important thing to note here is that you don't mention mirrored sites - i.e. the same site duplicated on several domains. This is a hugh 'no no' in terms of search engines. They hate mirrored sites and I think they actually penalise for having them.

Hope that helps

[RayB]

I agree option 2 is the way forward for reasons stated above.

But I wouldn't put up a holding page - I'd install Wordpress and blog about the products and related stuff

[Tigglet]

Thanks for clarifying this for me Danielle.

They hate mirrored sites and I think they actually penalise for having them.

Are you saying that option 1 is effectively treated as a mirrored site?

Ray, thanks for your input. However, if you already have a blog on your main domain you wouldn't want to have separate blogs on each additional domain. Therefore, it would probably be better to stick with a holding page linking back to the main site.

[Dotwhack]

Nope - the mirrored site is effectively an option 3. Just thought I'd point it out incase you came across it while researching.

Instead of having a holding page - why don't you produce it like a lifestyle magazine - have articles relating to the products i.e.
article one - how to choose a good product
article two - the different uses for the product
article 3 - protecting the environment -i.e is the the product recyclable etc

Give the sites lots of content and then to purchase, point people across to main site.

Would that work for you?

[Tigglet]

Good idea Danielle. Thanks for your help.

[willneu]

What I would recommend is to go down the route of option 2, however if you go down this route ensure the websites are hosted on different class C IP address blocks and you register them in different names (for the whois). This way Google will allow the two websites to compete for the same keywords and also allow link weight to flow from site->site far greater than previously.

Also worth noting, that exact match keyword domains (without hyphens) often are treated very well in the SERPs initially (and sometimes longterm) which is another reason to go with the seperate domain names.

Please do ensure that the websites you setup separate from your company website are kept to a high quality with good quality content and ensure you do not make the website look like a "thin affiliate" (ie a website that's sole purpose is to generate revenue for another website, and reap commission benefit) if a manual review is done for the website. Basically ensure the website has value added content, and isn't just a doorway to your shop landing page.

[Tigglet]

Thanks Willneu,

Some food for thought there.

however if you go down this route ensure the websites are hosted on different class C IP address blocks and you register them in different names (for the whois).

How would you check if they are hosted on different class C IP address blocks?

Also, how can you register them on the WHOIS database with different names when you have to register them in the name of the company?

[willneu]

Some unfortunate problems that do often occur, there is ways (register it in your wifes name? (or husbands)).

A simple "ping www.domain.com" will show you what IP Address is used. What you want is the third sequence of digits to be different ie: 192.168.1 and 192.168.2 have the class C address block of "1" and "2" for the 192.168 subnet.

[Tigglet]

The names are already registered. I'm not sure how easy it is to change the registered name of domains on the WHOIS, or even if this can be done.

A simple "ping www.domain.com" will show you what IP Address is used. What you want is the third sequence of digits to be different ie: 192.168.1 and 192.168.2 have the class C address block of "1" and "2" for the 192.168 subnet.

This sounds quite technical and is beyond my knowledge. I wouldn't know where to start with this to be honest!