Link from or 301 Domains?
-
I have 3 domains that are in the same niche as my main site and not connected in any way. Now my question is should I just link to my main site from each of them on a page that is relevant to my main Keywords or should I 301 them to the site?
I am thinking that building a link to my main site would have more effect than 301's. Thanks in advance!
-
Make the decision based on the business case, not which might have the most SEO benefit. If they are are their own businesses, with their own customers then those should be the first concerns not how to push PR around.
Presumably they were acquired for a purpose. That purpose should guide what happens.
-
If you include a message first then you can't do a 301.
Once you output to the browser you cannot send new header information. The 301 response has to go in the header, so it is too late at that point.
-
It would provide the best user experience to do a 301 redirect but include a message before (ex. Custom "You are now being redirected" page) or after (ex. pop up screen) the redirect to clarify the acquisition. That way you get the juice from these sites and you don't have a high bounce rate from users clicking off your site because they thought they typed in wrong URL.
-
Thanks for all of the responses! I should have been more clear. Let's say my company acquired these other companies not just the domains. Should I leave the sites up and say they are now a part of my company and then link to my company, 301 the domains, or none of the above?
-
Making a blind call - without seeing the sites I would say 301.
-
Google generally do not recommend to run multiple websites for same purpose and on top of that interlink sites to each other (kind of grey hat technique). However, if all of your websites have some value/authority in the eyes of Google, you may want run all the websites separately, if not you can simply 301 the other domains to your main website.
IMO, there is no point in maintaining multiple domains for single purpose, as it needs lot of efforts and investment to maintain and market websites. Rather you should concentrate on single website and put all your efforts and investment in one website only. it will give you more benefit.
-
Matt - Thanks for the response. The sites no longer serve a purpose as they were acquired by the main site. The old sites would no longer be promoted, but I was thinking that letting them with live with a single link may be more beneficial in terms of SEO than a 301.
-
Do the sites have value in their own right? If they are serving a purpose then why would you effectively close the site? If not then why keep it?
If a site had no purpose in it's own right (and no future to have one) wouldn't bother keeping it myself. I'd go with the 301 and focus on a website with a purpose. Otherwise you are maintaining/promoting a whole site just for the benefit of 1 link. I can't see that bringing much return.
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
-
If your website is mentioned on an external site does it matter the amount of people who click on the link to your site to improve your domain authority
I want to know about link building strategy and does it matter the amount of times someone clicks on link on to your site from the external site to affect your domain authority
Link Building | | SimplifyValetStorage0 -
Optimum level of link building per month for a new domain
looking to launch a new site, how mnay links can we affectively create per month? is 80 links per month ok?
Link Building | | Direct_Ram0 -
Link building - unique root domains
Hi there, I was wondering when asking for a link, does where on this page it is? For example will someone's high traffic website (e.g. example.com ) provide more page authority than another link on this site ( e.g. example.com/blog ). If this is the case, is it best to get links from multiple pages if possible or will this not effect SEO? Thanks
Link Building | | charliedavi0 -
When buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? OSE not showing links
when buying used domains, how do i see the links pointing to that domain? Sometimes the open site explorer doesn't show any links to the domain, especially if the domain is parked. Obviously a domain for sale with 1000 domains linking to it has lots of SEO Value right? Thanks mozzers!
Link Building | | Ron100 -
Footer Links And Link Juice
I'm starting to learn about link juice and notice in GWMT > Traffic > Internal Links, that the list is in this order by the links counted on each page. Some are in the footer and some are in the header, with some being more important than others commercially i.e. /register /privacy /terms /search /sitemap /disclaimer /blog /register So I am wondering if I should add a 'no-follow' attribute to the footer links i.e. privacy, terms, disclaimer and leave the others as they are? Does this help retain link juice on each page where the links appear? Or am I missing the point all together? This is my website: http://goo.gl/CN0e5
Link Building | | Ubique0 -
Too many external links vs linking root domains - good or bad?
Hi guys, After the latest Linkscape update, we noticed that our website have 424,671 external links with 4,395 linking root domains, so roughly 100 links/domain. Does Google consider this to be a negative thing or we do not need to worry about it. Many thanks. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
Forum links
If you are building links in forums how can you decide which forums to post to? Of course you can have a look at averall traffic in Alexa or mozrank but is there anything else you can look at?
Link Building | | sesertin0 -
Linking to root domain or specific sub-site
Hello, When optimizing for multiple keywords, should I try to get links back to the root domain of the company I work with, or would it be better to link back to sub-sites specific to the keyword I am optimizing for? Does 'getting the root up' help all keywords I work with? Cheers, Mike
Link Building | | Malarowski0