Brand Name URL Redirecting to Actual URL
-
So we have already built a site under a parent company's URL: parentcompany.com
And now we have their branded product lines in directories: parentcompany.com/brand-name1, and parentcompany.com/brand-name2
We also own the actual URL Brand Name 1 (which is also the exact description of the product): brandname1.com
We do not yet own the URL for Brand Name 2 (which is also the exact description of the product): brandname2.com. This is because a squatter is sitting on it and is asking $10,000+ for it.
What we are trying to determine is how valuable these brand name URLs are since they will be redirecting and not the actual site's primary domain name. Anybody know how much of an effect owning those and redirecting has on ranking for those brand names that are also very descriptive of the products?
Would we be smarter to spend $10,000 on adwords or 10,000 on the domain?
Thanks!
-
I agree that redirecting would be of no interest.
In such a case I would probably go for another strategy. I actually see this as an opportunity.
- register brandname2.pro or .net or similar, host it on another server
- do the same brandname1.com, different server
- Create a Wordpress blog or a very simple CMS on each server
- Create quality content for each of those blogs. Brand history, processes, whatever as long as it is interesting for someone who is really into that brand. I believe for $10K you can have some good quality content.
- Point links to relevant pages under parentcompany.com/brand-name1 and parentcompany.com/brand-name2
The results :
- more backlinks
- 3 different points of entry to your e-commerce website (I am thinking long trail here, and search engines evolutions)
- a better differenciation between the ecommerce website and the brands sites, because their short-term goals are different (buying vs. getting information), allowing you for instance to post content on brandname1.com which would appear strange on parentcompany.com, because the latter should be more streamlined with a very good UI and sales funnel. You can be more creative on the brand sites and you dont need to do A/B tests not worry too much about analytics etc.
Of course it is more work, but you would be getting a higher granularity for your brand.
Regards
Gil
-
Simon is correct, there is no ranking value in what you are doing, dont pay the 10,000. the squatter knows that you are probably the only person to want this domain, if you dont take it he will probably never sell it, you hold the cards not him, Offer him $100 take it or leave it. The only good the domain will do for you, is stop others using it.
-
If I owned the brand I would acquire the domain. If it is a good brand the $10,000 would not be a deterrent.
-
Thanks Yannick, glad you agree
-
Totally agree with Simon. If you just want to have the domain, to "have". Don't bother.
-
Hi There
A good question. I can most confidently tell you that purchasing a domain name and redirecting it to another domain/website will have Zero SEO benefit. It's not even a good idea to market the domain that's being redirected as the links that will inevitably be acquired will be redirected also, loosing some of the link strength through the rediirect.
Plus for User Experience, it's usually not particularly good as visitors expect to land on the expected site rather than being redirected to another.
It's also the general consensus now that exact match domains do not have as much SEO weight as they used to, especially with Google. So exact match domains are not worth what they used to be.
- If you're purchasing a live website on the domain, that's different as you may be able to take advantage of that site's strength if it's a relevant website in a similar category.
If it's purely purchasing and redirecting it, then don't spend any more than the typical registration cost of a few $. Spend that $10,000 investing in Content and distributing it well, which will lead to some relevant links too, or indeed on PPC as you suggest (though that's not an investment).
If the branded domain has some other value to the business, then paying a fair price is typical as you'd be buying an assett.
I hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
-
(Search volume (exact/phrase match)cpcX) + competitiveness in that market + what the mad man wants to pay for it
Where X would be the earning back period. How long does your client want to pay for the domain before earning it back?
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
-
Brand name in title?
Hi all, I have noticed that a lot of companies put there brand/company name at the end of their page title. To me, that seems like a huge sacrifice of your limited 60 characters. Wouldn't it be better to use characters for words that people might actually be searching for?
On-Page Optimization | | RaoulWB0 -
Should I add canonical links to pages that are redirected?
Hello! I am a little confused concerning canonical links. I have several URLs that all access my page, but I redirect them all. A lot of places I am told to redirect them or use canonicals. Other places, I read that I should always use canonicals. What is the right way for me? If I should use canonicals as well as redirects, which links should I do this on? I redirect my pages like this: http to https:
On-Page Optimization | | hermanok
http://example.com -> https://example.com www to non-www:
https://www.example.com -> https://example.com Remove trailing slashes
https://example.com/ -> https://example.com Would-be 404-requests to index.php?p=$1
https://example.com/home -> https://example.com/index.php?p=home ( show as https://example.com/home ) Example:
http://www.example.com/home/ -> http://www.example.com/home/ -> https://example.com/home/ -> https://example.com/home -> https://example.com/index.php?p=home ( shows as https://example.com/home ) Thank you!0 -
301 Redirect to external site
Hi guys, We have a client who is getting their website redesigned through us. They are discontinuing couple of their services which will not get featured in the new site. They are fairly well ranked for these services and my client wishes to 301 redirect these pages to an external site owned by his friend so that they benefit out of the ranking. The question is: Will my client's website's general ranking get affected due to 301 redirecting to an external site? The external site is not spammy or red-flagged by Google (at the moment, at least). Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | RameshNair
Ramesh Nair0 -
Url lenght/depth - Short or specific?
Hi, I'm trying to decide the best structure for a directory my site offers (containing all the businesses working in the field) and I'm not sure whether to choose something shorter or being more specific. So, I have 3 variables: Type of business (I mean, specific sector) Region City And I'd like to give some strength to every one of it. So, the complete URL (the one I'd like to use) could be: www.mysite.com/sector/region/city/business-name What I was not sure about is...is that too deep? I mean, even thought I'd like to perfectly categorize them and give some strength to every sublevel, I'm not sure about having the business-name so "far" and so "deep". Thank you for your ideas!
On-Page Optimization | | Daniele_Carollo0 -
URL contain special character
Hello, I am using URLs which contain special character such as ', ". I found in the Google Webmaster Tool report errors related URL contain ' character. Google have indexed partial URL from beginning to ' character and cut off the rest of URL. For example: I submitted URL www.example.com/vietnam-visa-corp'-test-page.html, then google report error NOT FOUND for URL www.example.com/vietnam-visa-corp I don't know why and how to fix it? Please help! Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | JohnHuynh1 -
Redirecting to homepage ok?
I deleted a bunch of category pages (renamed mostly actually and thought they'd be auto redirected like my blog posts are but they weren't) so I used a plugin that reroutes any 404 page to the homepage. Is that the best thing to do in this situation? Google Webmasters says there are about 84 404-errors and this should get rid of those right? Is there anything SEO BAD about doing it this way?
On-Page Optimization | | dealblogger0 -
Optimize URL
Hello, My website have been running over five years. I have just reviewed and seen some URLs had not good. It is http://www.vietnamvisacorp.com/faqs/who-need-visa-to-vietnam---1.html, containing characters "---1". Should I remove unnecessary characters "---"?. Thanks for any advice!
On-Page Optimization | | JohnHuynh0 -
How do I get this program to see url with www. and with out www the same
The program is showing pages with www. as a differant page from a page with out the www. first, this is showing up as duplicate pages when they are the same page, how do I filter this?
On-Page Optimization | | masterplumbertom0