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
-
Any benefits to having Wikipedia links now they are 'no-followed' (apart from traffic and natural link prof.)
I see that Wikipedia outbound links are all no-followed, is there any benefit (aside from the traffic) for having links here now ? For example is their co-citation and co-occurance benefits. I know there is without the links since from seeing previous Moz content about this saying Google getting good at connecting brand/s and topic mentions on a page (without any links) so appreciate Wikipedia is still good for that sort of thing. And a no-followed link is obviously good for the potential traffic. But is there any additional SEO benefit to having a no followed link on a wikipedia entry/stub too ? (aside from its contribution to your no-followed links which in turn contribute to a natural looking link profile) Cheers Dan
Link Building | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
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 -
What are inbound links worth after Panda and Penguin, since a site ranks for the NATIONAL keyword "outdoor furniture" with ONLY 7 INBOUND LINKS!?!?
ARE INBOUND LINKS TODAY ALMOST WORTHLESS??!!? After having been the KING of SEO, down to the toilet? Today I got a great sample from a fellow SEO professional showing a site, rockymountainfurniture.com rank for "outdoor furniture" with ONLY 7 INBOUND LINKS FROM 3 DOMAINS and a domain trust of 14!!!! ON A NATIONAL, VALUABLE, HIGH QUERY VOLUME KEYWORD!! I was stunned, but is this the "NEW SEO WORLD" we live in, so we should skip spending hundreds of hours on link building? There are over 32 different types of inbound links but this is much MORE than a radical change, this is turning SEO as it was up-side-down. Any input, thoughts, ideas?
Link Building | | yvonneq0 -
Does a hashtag link pass the same amount of link juice as a link without a hashtag?
Example 1: link to: http://www.domain.com/#something-inside-the-page Example 2: link to: http://www.domain.com/
Link Building | | adriandg0 -
Why does my website have 2,000+ links, but only 16 linking root domains?
Why does my website have 2,000+ links, but only 16 linking root domains?
Link Building | | thestudio40 -
How many nofollow links should we build to have a natural link profile
Hi guys, As with many link builders we have been building lots of dofollow links for our site, so many that mainly our incoming links are dofollow. Some pages have 99.5% dofollow external links which I know is not very natural. In your experience in terms of percentage how much should you have in terms of nofollow external links in your link profile. I noticed SEOMoz has about 12-13% nofollow external links, shall I go with this figure? Thanks guys. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
Inbound links vs. internal links
Which scenario does more to help SEO - A) An inbound link from a low traffic/low page rank site to my site B) An internal link where one page of my site links to another page on my site
Link Building | | DVanSchepen0 -
New ways to get links (excluding on site link bait)?
Fellow SEOs, I’m looking for a new way to reach out to bloggers and site owners for links. There are quite a few link bait techniques to lure bloggers thanks to = amazing content, infographics,...but there are not so many articles on ways to contact bloggers/webmasters and ask for links... We all know that contacting site owners directly and politely asking then to place a link on their home page is as useful as a comb in Bruce willis’s hand. Link exchange is as dead as the Dodo and business partner links are usefull and easier to get but opportunities are often limited. I have been organizing contests for bloggers recently and it has been quite successful up to now, but I always like to have a spare trick up my sleeve. So if any of you have a decent method to reach out to bloggers/webmaster and get decent links please let me know, I will be forever thankful ; ) Cheers
Link Building | | ref.price0