Should a company's online tool be hosted on their own domain?
-
Our company is developing a web-based tool that will provide good value for its users and generate leads for us. The tool is large enough in scope and different enough than the main service that we provide that we're considering putting it on its own domain.
I have two questions:
1. Does it behoove a company to put their online tool on a separate domain if the tool is large enough in scope and different enough from their website's core function / business's core service? (Examples of this would be Hubspot's Marketing Grader or Open Site Explorer before Moz rolled it back into its domain.)
2. If yes, should the domain name a) describe the function of the tool or b) build a brand for the tool itself?
Thanks for your help!
-
I guess I would have to see the site and the tool to understand your point as it does not make sense if you would make a tool that is unrelated to your core business as that would take away from your core business structure.
I would do some testing with some of your users / audience to see what they think. It may or may not be jarring to them and could help you with your answer in what direction on where to go.
-
Thanks, CleverPhD. Very well thought out response.
Our concern is that having a tool that is unrelated to our business's core service and our website's core function will be confusing for people who land on the tool, and therefore make them less likely to use it than if it were on its own domain. From a user experience standpoint, we are concerned that some visitors wouldn't want to use a tool that does X on a website that revolves around Y. It's possible that some of the visitors who find this difference jarring will be unlikely to remember our brand/domain name and visit our website again in the future. Anecdotally, I've bounced off tools on sites I gauged to be unrelated to the topic I was researching.
But, as you pointed out, the SEO, branding, PR and cognitive load benefits of keeping the tool on our domain are quite strong. It seems you could easily argue these benefits would outweigh the negative impact of the possible user confusion I described in the above paragraph.
Again, thanks for your help.
-
CleverPhD, you nailed it in detail.
-
This is similar to the question, blog on a different subdomain vs a folder. Most SEOs would agree that putting a blog in a folder is better as any links to the blog builds the domain authority of the entire domain. Rising tides raises all ships.
Likewise, I think it is telling that Moz rolled OSE under the main moz.com domain. Why? I would guess (Disclaimer: this is just my guess as I do not speak for Moz) for the same reason of consolidating domain authority, but also I think it makes sense from a branding perspective. Why would you want to spend all this time creating a tool and getting people to remember another domain name when you could be piggybacking off the fact that they already know your domain name to start with and so with any press around the new tool your main domain name is being talked about (let alone linked to).
I think in most cases a separate domain or subdomain is at the suggestion of developers to make it easier to develop on a separate server etc. That is technical hurdle that should not drive the answer of what is best for your users and for branding.
One domain name is hard enough to remember, why make people remember another one? Keep it simple. Reduce cognitive load. Plus, if the new tool goes viral and is on your main domain, your main domain is going viral as well.
Unless you are trying to build a separate company with a separate brand, then you might go the separate domain route.
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
-
The brand drop down doesn't seem to be appearing for any brands in google.com.hk. Is it something which needs to be set up and registered, or automatically rolled out by Google?
In google.com.hk SERPs the brand drop down doesn't seem to be appearing for any brands. Is it something which needs to be set up and registered, or automatically rolled out by Google? And if so is Google just slow rolling out in this part of the world? Thanks
Branding | | seanfhutchinson0 -
Help me decide between 2 domains! Please!
I want to build an authoritive site on the keyword: "baby hazel games" since I want it to be authoritive and easy to brand and to remember. I dont plan to use EMD-s. I like these 2 domains: 1. PlayHazel.com 2. HazelBox.com Help me decide between them. what sounds better, and have greater chance in ur opinion. Feel free to ad domain names ideas, if u have them. Thank you!
Branding | | Catinas970 -
Examples of Domain Change for Big Brands
Hi I am trying to put together a case study with big brands that have changed their domain names over the last 2 years. So far I have: t-mobile.co.uk -> ee.co.uk guardian.co.uk -> theguardian.com Are there any others you could think of? It'd be much appreciated! Thanks, C
Branding | | Carlos-R0 -
Ecommerce specialized portals subdomains or different domains
Hi, I am trying to decide between two different options that can affect branding and seo, I would like to hear opinions about the different options I have. Suppose that I want to open an ecommerce site for sports goods, but I want to have an specialized store for running goods. My example company name is MAZ and the country I am targetting is UK, for my general sports store I will use mazsports.co.uk, the question I have is what should I do for my "running" specialized store, every store will have a diffferent design, its own blog, its own items and its own link build campaigns. These are really different sites, but the ecommerce platform will be the same, the shopping cart could be shared and the same people working on the same warehouse will send the shipments. With this example data I see two options: Use different domains, for example for the running one, mazrunning.co.uk, using maz like the shared brand part on the domain and use a site like maz.co.uk listing the different specializations. Use subdomains for the different specializations, running.mazsports.co.uk. We will work hard to position every site, we will manage every store in its own google webmaster and analytics site, after the two initial sites (one general and one specialization) we will create a few more, maybe 5 or 6 specialized sites. In my sector people search for the specific specializations more than in general so I would not like that Google sees the running.mazsports.co.uk of the example like part of the ecommerce store mazsports.co.uk, I would like that if someone is searching for running material the site that will be shown to them is the specialized one. What should i do in this case? Thanks!
Branding | | tcruces0 -
Local SEO - Review's Strategy
I'm trying to brainstorm some ideas for obtaining positive reviews for a my client who's a local business on Yelp and Google+. I think it's best to capture a customer in the "happy moment" after a successful transaction with that business. I'm thinking integrating the option for customers to leave a review on Yelp or Google+ during the transaction process would be best. Do you have any suggestions or experiences on the best way to integrate this into a transaction process where a customer physically walks into their business to make the transaction? (it's an Auto Body Shop BTW) Also any other strategies for getting customers to give reviews? Much appreciated!
Branding | | reidsteven750 -
Do Dashes in Domain names hurt SEO ranking?
I have found conflicting reports online whether or not dashes in domain names hurt/help ranking. Example yourbrandonline.com vs your-brand-online.com? I found Rand's write up on how to select a domain and he suggests staying away from hyphens but mainly because its hard to remember or people my enter it in wrong. Here's his comment. "Reject Hyphens and Numbers
Branding | | JoshKimber
Both hyphens and numbers make it hard to give your domain name verbally and falls down on being easy to remember or type. I'd suggest not using spelled-out or roman numerals in domains, as both can be confusing and mistaken for the other." Aside from people possibly struggling to get there directly because of the domain name, are they OK to use? Or, are domains with hyphens considered spammy? Thanks in advance.1 -
Video Hosting Question - host on website via wistia type solution or upload to youtube and embed?
I have a client that owns a Video production company. They have a lot of video examples of all their different types of services i.e. commercial production, TV broadcast production, business videos, training videos, etc. Where should I host their portfolio of videos, should I: A: Use a paid video hosting solution like wistia B. Upload to youtube or vimeo and embed to my own site The only videos titles with keywords that I could see bringing any type of conversions for their business would be their demo reels, for example: "Atlanta Corporate Video Production Demo Reel." The other videos would be the name of the video "Court TV: Cop On Trial For Killing Wife" and therefore wouldn't bring the kind of visitors that are searching for a video production service. This is why I'm curious about what the best hosting option is. Any advice would be a great help.
Branding | | RonMedlin0 -
About domain names
Hello all. I am a new member of SEOmoz and liking it so far. This is my first post to you all (my new family). I have a client who is starting a new company. We know for sure that he needs a new domain name. The question is two part: Part One Should he buy (is it worth the money) a parked domain that has some age to it. For example, a 9 or 10 year old domain that is getting "0" traffic and has no PR? Or Should he just put that same say $1000 price tag back in his wallet and spend the money on a link building campaign to his new $9.95 domain name? Part Two We found a domain he really likes but only the ".co" ".net" and ".biz" are available. The .com belongs to a big company that has made a simple landing page from the .com domain name (that we really want) and will probably never let it go to us. So we will always be stuck without the .com portion of the domain registrations for this domain name if we go for it. Question: a. Will we have difficulty competing for our own name recognition since the "big company" owns the landing page (even though it is a "0" PR page? b. Can we live on only the .co extension or would we live to regret not getting all the extensions related to our domain name? thanks everyone! I look forward to contributing here as well.
Branding | | webindustry0