What do i do with multiple cheap domain names I want to use for SEO?
-
My domain registrar was having a sale for 1$ per year .com domain names (just for the first year). So I went all out and bought 16 domain names. They pretty much all are two or more keywords that i'd like to rank high on put together. We do dedicated server monitoring, so for instance I bought apachemonitoring.com and haproxymoniotring.com.
Can anyone tell me what the best way would be to put these to good use technically? Options:
-
Each domain just 301's to a specific landing page on my main company website
-
Each domain is a site on a drupal multisite with just one page that has links to just my company website
-
Other ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Walter
-
-
One of the best responses I've read on MOZ - great job!
-
this is a phenomenal answer. thanks ryan
-
Crystal clear, guess I'll park most of the domains then
-
Thanks for the response. I've seen people who hire some cheap content writer through odesk or some such and then add a twitter feed on the page that displays results of a search. I'm not saying i necessarily like that approach, but it is interesting. In the end, all I really want is high quality visitors on my site
thanks for the advice,
Walter
-
Walter,
I understand what you are trying to do, and why you are trying to do it. It's a form of Doorway page for your site. You wish to capture traffic searches for "apache monitoring" and other key phrases. You have purchased some domains which are an exact match for the phrases and wish to understand how you can best use these domains to drive traffic to your site.
The answer you are looking for is as follows:
- Most people who take this approach wish to use the site to improve their main site's PR or DA. It doesn't work because Google would recognize the same owner as the site it links to and discount the links.
How does Google make the connection? Well one way is to check the domain registration information. Google is a domain registrar so they have direct access to all the information. Other simple steps are to check the IP of the domain (c-block), the code structure, the content and more. In short, most people who attempt this approach either are not successful or enjoy success only for a short time before having the links devalued. Many do not even realize when they are penalized.
- Some people who use this approach are more focused on the actual traffic and don't care about the links so much. If you had a domain name such as "car insurance" which offers millions of searches each month and is highly competitive, then this approach has value. "Apache monitoring" only has 6600 searches per month and is considering a low competition phrase.
If you optimized a page on your own site for "apache monitoring" and had the benefit of your site's DA, you may be able to rank #1 for the search term anyway. If you spent any time and focus on quality SEO, you should be able to if it is an important term for your site.
The site "apache-monitor.com" presently ranks as #3 for the search. Their page is optimized for the phase with "apache monitoring" in the title, H1 tag and text. Their DA is 37 and PA 46. Your one-page site wont have the benefit of DA/PA so it wont rank as well. If you are going to the trouble of an EMD for a very low traffic phrase, at the very least you want to capture the #1 rank for the term. You wont even be #3 without tremendous resources and effort.
The practice of what you are doing is called Doorway Pages. It's a black hat SEO tactic. You are attempting to drive traffic to your site by creating fake micro websites. The problem is this tactic does not improve the user experience nor search quality. It is designed to manipulate search results and is therefore a violation of search quality. You can read more about it here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66355
Doorway pages were more popular in the past when the practice wasn't as clearly understood and defined. Feel free to correct me if I am mistaken. Your question is very common, but it is based on historical information and times have changed.
-
If you are just 301'ing them they won't rank because it's not a site and not indexed. If you are doing this for type thru direct traffic that could work if you have really good perfectly targeted keyword domain names like dogdoors.com not online-dog-doors.com but since all good domains are already owned i doubt that is the case.
If making one or 2 page landing page/sites make sure those two pages have a LOT of content, like 2000+ words on each page so they don't seem flimsy to Google.
I agree with Ryan, if looking to create different domains you're better off making pages on your main site that are targeted for those keywords.
"What you are saying is that having domains that exist out of those keywords is pointless? I read that domains with keywords will rank high for those keywords?"
This is true, domain name is extremely important for ranking, but putting them all on the same server is obvious to Google and unless you plan on really investing in setting up all of these domains with unique content on different servers, you're better off putting the keywords in the file name and optimizing it on your existing site. EX. www.bestpetstore.com/dog-doors
-
Hi Ryan,
many thanks for your response!
My reasoning is a bit different though: our monitoring service monitors a lot of different things, but I thought we'd use these domains as a funnel to catch people that are looking to monitor specific applications.
What you are saying is that having domains that exist out of those keywords is pointless? I read that domains with keywords will rank high for those keywords?
cheers,
Walter
-
There is not any intrinsic value to those domains at all. If those were my domains, I would park them and offer them for sale and hope someone is interested.
The solid SEO approach to take when you own a site is to place all your content on your site. You don't see quality sites buying up other domains. It's a poor tactic. In order for it to pay off you need to add quality content to the domain. At best, you can write a very solid 1-page site. You then need to obtain separate hosting for this one page site. The content needs to be good and then you link it to your site. In the end, you would likely be far better off if the quality content was on your main site, and you didn't spend the time and effort on this manipulation tactic.
If you want to buy a bunch of domains, try buying the ones which are similar to your own brand. This is done as a means of protection. If you are Google.com, buy Gogle.com, Google.net, along with any variations you can think of and 301 them all to your site.
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
-
Subfolder marketing issue - buying a new domain and 301 to subfolder on existing domain
Hello, I have a specific question and I'll try to be as precise as possible. I have a well ranked domain with good PA. When we were starting our new service I found out that for SEO purposes it would be best to put it under subfolder instead of subdomain or new domain all together because of PA that our domain has. Now, that went pretty well and our new service started appearing in SERPs and is improving rapidly since our link builing strategies were quite sucessful. But there is a problem - we can't advertise our service with a link like this - www.domain.com/subfolder. It's just really messy. And I was wondering if we buy a new domain and 301 redirect it to our subfolder what impacts will that have? If people start linking us as www.newdomain.com will it pass all the juice to www.domain.com/subfolder? Marketing wise I see a lot of benefits using newdomain but I'm afraid it can have SEO downsides and I'm asking for your help to clarify these. Thank you in advance, Best regards, Ivan
Branding | | mintmediadu0 -
Linking new domain to existing domain or....
We have a client's domain that has been live for 8 years. truthbook.com. With the new changes to Google, no matter what we do, we cannot get the words Urantia Book to connect with the website and lift it's search engine returns to the first page where it was for the past 4 years.. It is clear, that no matter what Google may say, the most important factor is having the actual words urantiabook in the domain is imperative. We know it was that way before Google changes (they were always on the first page) but now the client cannot get back on the front page. The mission and theme of the site is Jesus in The Urantia Book. So it is not a stretch to acquire urantiabookandjesus.com and forward it to truthbook.com The question is, "will they get any bang for the change? If they considered changing the actual main domain to urantiabookandjesus.com or .org and forward truthbook.com to it, will they be hurt by that strategy? " Thanks, Jim
Branding | | jimmyzig0 -
I want to forward/redirect users from domain.us to domain.com.us (preferred domain)
Let me know where should I start. I heard this is something you can do in your domain name or hosting service. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | esiow20130 -
What tools do you use to submit a site to local yellowpages?
Hey all, two part question for you. Do you use any tools to automatically submit websites to local yellowpages (example: http://business.intuit.com/directory/marketing/100_syndication_sites.jsp)? and if so, what one and why? Are there any dangers to doing it this way? It seems that this might save a lot of time and be incredibly helpful to manage your brand profile pages in a centralized location. Also some tools that I am seeing incorporate brand monitoring (which you can do through a variety of tools I know). Anyways, thoughts? comments? tips?
Branding | | prima-2535090 -
Do you buy keyword strong domains around your brand?
Do you buy keyword domains around your brand? If so do you do this for future use or for redirecting to a sub domain off your core site or for other reasons?
Branding | | charlesgrimm0 -
Google Displays Domain / URL Above Description?
I am seeing a new SERP format from Google. (new for me at least) In the past the title tag would display as the first line of a listing, followed by description and domain / URL. Today I see the domain / URL as the second line. This is placing an emphasis on "Who". If you have a big brand or a great URL this might be helpful to your CTR. Are you seeing this? What do you think of it?
Branding | | EGOL0 -
.us domain extension for US locales
I have a large US travel site and am looking to make targeted pages for specific locations, attractions etc around the United States. With many of the TLD's already purchased for these niches, I thought about using the .us extension as it seemed relevant to the topics. Does this hurt seo possibilities or does the .us extension come across as spammy?
Branding | | Millibit2 -
I need to get my hands on some already registered domains?!?
Hi Guys & Gals, There are a couple of already registered domains i'd like to get my hands on, but i'm coming up against a brick wall. I have already tried contacting the domain owners directly if there contact info is available through whois and tried using a domain brokerage service from the likes of SEDO to try and acquire the domain on my behalf...but they seem to only work they have solid whois contact info to use. My problem is that where do I turn now after the above routes failing? Are there any good domain brokerage services you are aware off or any other approach I could try to aquire such domains?? Thanks James
Branding | | cewe0