Gateway Pages
-
I have read that gateway pages are frowned upon by the search engines?
If you have multiple domain names that are related to your main website what is the best way to get the greatest use from those related domain names?
Thank-you.
-
Hi John,
You can certainly redirect these to the main site, but they're not likely to add value beyond capturing type in traffic unless the domains have links pointing to them. I think it's a good idea to buy these for competitive reasons. If I were you, I'd likely 301 redirect them to the main site and then ignore them.
-
Hi Marie,
Thanks very much for your response. The main reason why I purchased domain names that are similar is to protect my brand and prevent others from copying my business at least using the same name.
I understand that creating microsites is misleading to the search engines and they don't like that so I don't want to do that. But do I want to do a redirect of some kind?
Or just park them and forget about them? And as you say focus on developing my main sight.
Thanks
-
It's pretty common for a business to want to buy up all sorts of keyword rich domain names when starting out. I remember when my husband first started his business we got duped by a GoDaddy salesman who told us we should buy a whack of domain names that combined keywords and our city. And you know what we did with them? Nothing.
These domains might be useful for type in traffic. For example, if you are a plumber, people in your city might type "CityPlumber.com" into the url bar and you can have that redirect to your main site.
The obvious thing that people want to do when they have these domains is build microsites on them and then link to the main site. I have seen this work well for SEO. And then I have seen sites get disastrous manual penalties when this is overdone. In theory, if you had a keyword rich domain that you could truly build up and create a fantastic site on this domain, it might be helpful. But, I'd prefer to put that fantastic content on your main 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
-
Page optimised and SEO ranking
Hi SEO is new to myself and I'm still trying to get my head round it. My friend and myself run a DJ company in our spare time but we are desperately trying to rank higher to increase our visibility. we have worked hard on our page optimisation and scoring high 90's, we'd love to invest in someone to do it, but simply dont have that kinda cash at the moment. I'm aware that some pages need meta description and alt image text, which is what I'm now working on, but even other sites with lower percentage are ranking higher. is this due to recent changes and google not ranking our pages? Will our ranking improve over time and how long should it be before we see any changes.
Branding | | Bluice0 -
Reducing Amount of Text on Web Pages-Risk of Killing Ranking?
We are a commercial real estate brokerage firm in Manhattan. Our site (w w w . m e t r o - m a n h a t t a n . com) is text heavy and somewhat uninviting. Ranking is fair. Conversions awful. Our niche is very competitive. We plan on reducing the amount of text and making the site more visual. Among the planned changes: -Reduce amount of text in home page and text heavy pages. More emphasis on product (listings)
Branding | | Kingalan1
-Much larger photos for listings
-Lighter cleaner design with more open white areas
-Use of more visible fonts
-Better forms New design will be like: http://www.dernieretage-paris.com/ Theme and graphics based on Manhattan. More visuals. Better photos. Less text. But are we shooting ourselves in the foot by reducing text? Is there a risk that Google will reduce our ranking? Can we compensate for reduced text that is visible to visitors by completing meta tags more fully? Any thoughts??? Thanks,
Alan0 -
Effects of a long-term holding page/503 http code whilst site is being rebranded?
We have a client who is adamant that during the rebranding of their company and website, a holding page is put in place from August 5<sup>th</sup> till go-live date on August 21<sup>st</sup>. They don’t look like budging on the matter, therefore we are looking to set up a 503 HTTP code on the holding page to tell Google the site is down for maintenance and redirect all pages back to the holding page. The general consensus is that implementing this for such a long period of time will see Google de-index all pages and the site will lose masses of traffic as a result for a substantial time afterwards. It would be great to get some insight on best practice for this situation, how Google will determine the situation and the consequences of such actions. If you have any case studies of similar situations or have firm knowledge of how this scenario would affect the site, I would be delighted to hear from you!
Branding | | AndrewAkesson0 -
Social Media Icons for trust - have link land them on a social media page or have them stay on the page with like, tweet, +,etc?
An interesting question arises out of a conversation with one of my team. We were talking about FB pages in particular regarding a client and I am for icons that allow for trust without leaving the client's site page (I am from a direct marketing background originally and am against sending them somewhere else). She was pointing out that we had a client who has a FB page and we were not sending them to that page. I explained how I do not like to gain a bit of trust by sending them off site because it is the opportunity to lose a conversion by them becoming distracted. I also thought of a client who has over 100,000 likes, shares, etc. and who still is in the direct sales business at the end of the day; were they better off with a prospective client/customer to send them to their FB page/Twitter page, etc. or should they stay on the commercial site? I still believe that in the bricks and mortar world, I would not have a customer who came in to buy/look at a TV first go down the street to a social club for people who liked my company and then hope they come back and buy. Also, is there an opportunity to close a sale that would not have been closed by virtue of sending them away or to increase the size of the sale (remember, this must be such a sale increase or probability of sale increase as to outweigh the risk of loss of a client who would have bought)? I look forward to your assistance.
Branding | | RobertFisher0 -
Do you have to have a Google+ profile page for a person before you can build a Google+ brand page?
There was some debate at MozCon 2012 about this issue. I have my personal Google+ page which I didn't want attached to the brand of one of the sites I manage. I saw no other way to create a new Google+ page for this brand except to create a new profile under a different gmail account. The problem is, I had to put in my personal name to create the profile (you can't put in a business name, Google won't accept it), so now I have two "Dana Tan" author pages in Google+, the second one is where I built the page for this separate business "Celebrate Communion." Unfortunately, this has muddied the waters because people are following me in both places (it's fragmented my circles). I would like to add customers who are already on Google+ to my business pages circles, but the business page won't do it. Is it possible to build a Google+ business page without all of this brand confusion? If so, can you send me directions? I have found nothing online that says you don't need a profile to do a brand page. Also, once the page is built, what is the best way for me to reach out to customers with google accounts? I don't see a good way to do that on businesses pages either. On my profile page I can load all the emails into my contacts list, but then those contacts can only be added to my profile page and not the brand page. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Dana
Branding | | danatanseo0 -
Has anyone had problems with thier google maps page after the google plus intergration?
About a month ago Google contacted one of my clients to inform them that the Google places is discontinued and their Google plus page will be the new Google places. They gave my client an $100 adwards credit for adwords express so their location will still show up for their business name during the change from Google places to Google plus.. When you type in the business in a local area or on a GPS now.. It is no where to be found. You have to know the address to get directions or go there on a mobile devices. The Google plus page for all of these locations is not currently showing up either. I have contacted Google and Once again something has been released without implementing it correctly. No one seems to know what is going on... after talking to three people. Does anybody know what is going on ???? This is a huge deal when being a local company.
Branding | | JohnParker27920 -
Missing Title Pages
So, one of the campaigns I am running has 90 pages with missing titles. Normally I would consider this a very bad thing, BUT, the pages are product description pages. The referring pages are product listings, and the pages without titles, are small pop-ups. For example on a bigger stage: Nike has a product page, when you click on a shoe, a small window pops up with price, description, etc. How important/ vital/ relevant is it to have titles for these pop-ups, if it is even possible. Thank you in advance!
Branding | | Hartz0 -
Ranking Videos on First Page of Google
Hey Guys, My videos are doing well on YouTube with lots of views and comments (about 1.5 million views). Nevertheless, I can’t manage to get them to appear on Google’s first SERP for my branded keywords. What am I doing wrong? What in your opinion are the major ranking factors for YouTube videos? Thanks!
Branding | | ShivaS0