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
-
Site name in page title - leave it or remove it?
Hi all, Recently came across some authority blog (quicksprout to be precise) which stated that apart from main page, contact page, about us and some other generic pages, site name should be removed as it might produce duplicate content. example "How to blog | Example Site name" This mostly is the issue with tags and categories pages as it shows on Moz issues. Is that really a problem and site name should be taken off them? Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | Optimal_Strategies1 -
Complete redesign of website and 301 redirects
I did a complete redesign and content change for my website. I have my new webpages indexed but they still haven't replaced the old ones after 1 month. In search results I see both the old ones and the news ones. How long of a delay should I expect (approximately) for the old pages to be replaced by the new ones knowing the entire website was changed. Thank you,
On-Page Optimization | | seoanalytics0 -
Change of URL + SEO Impact
We recently changed the URLs from our site http://www.website.com (old)
On-Page Optimization | | ederdesign
https://website.com/us/en/ (new) Our ranking is plummeting every since and I wonder if the new URL had something to do with it. Do you know if that change, could have impacted the ranking?0 -
Mobile - incorrect brand capitalisation
Hi there, Has anyone experienced incorrect capitalisation of their brand on mobile - we've tried lots of different things to correct it, but so far none have worked. Any ideas (issue is only on mobile)? Thanks Vic
On-Page Optimization | | Vict810 -
Tips on URL structure for a site re-design
Wanted to know what you would do with regards to urls – in an ideal world how would you structure them? Keen to know as me and dave are soon to have a meeting about this and were wondering about changing them from the current – http://www.looking4parking.com/airport/gatwick to something like - www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-parking We will soon have pages for the specific parking types that will be a lot more engaging to users with some really useful content on benefits, features, how a certain type of parking works, images, video etc. Currently going to a type of parking, such as meet and greet just brings up a dropdown modal – I was thinking of having the url structure looking like this – www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-meet-and-greet-parking www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-on-site-parking www.looking4parking.com/gatwick-airport-park-and-ride We will then have specific pages for each parking product – in which this product will have unique content built around it – each will have an overview of the product, benefits, features, reviews, images, directions to the car park, find your route and eventually a video on each product So for example we currently have the product “Jet Parks 2” at Manchester airport – the current url is - http://www.looking4parking.com/airport/manchester/park-and-ride/jetparks-2 I would like to change this now we have the opportunity to refresh the whole system, to something along the lines of **domain/location/product title - **www.looking4parking.com/manchester-airport-parking/jetparks-2 or as we have some similar products at certain airports (mainly where the airport has multiple terminals) we would just change it to the following - www.looking4parking.com/manchester-airport-parking/jetparks-3 What are peoples thoughts/opinions on the above?
On-Page Optimization | | RyanCrawf19840 -
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 -
Keyword in URL?
I have a website that has been live for about 8yrs. I do not have any significant rankings for my main keywords but am now starting SEO on my site. I am contemplating changing the url to contain the main keyword prefixed by my brand name. Any views on the ranking benefits and or CTR benefits.
On-Page Optimization | | Johnnyh
Example:
Main Volume keyword - 'car leasing'
current url - www.bobleasing.co.uk (made up name) thinking of changing to - www.bobcarleasing.co.uk (made up name) Any advice would be much appreciated. John0