Building a product clients will integrate into their sites: What is the best way to utilize my clients' unique domain names?
-
I'm designing a hosted product my clients will integrate into their websites, their end users would access it via my clients' customer-facing websites. It is a product my clients pay for which provides a service to their end users, who would have to login to my product via a link provided by my clients.
Most clients would choose to incorporate this link prominently on their home page and site nav.
All clients will be in the same vertical market, so their sites will be keyword rich and related to my site.
Many may even be .org and ,edusThe way I see it, there are three main ways I could set this up within the product.
I want to know which is most beneficial, or if I'm missing anything.1: They set up a subdomain at their domain that serves content from my domain product.theirdomain.com would render content from mydomain.com's database.
product.theirdomain.com could have footer and/or other no-follow links to mydomain.com with target keywordsThe risk I see here is having hundreds of sites with the same target keyword linking back to my domain.
This may be the worst option, as I'm not sure about if the nofollow will help, because I know Google considers this kind of link to be a link scheme: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en2: They link to a subdomain on mydomain.com from their nav/site
Their nav would include an actual link to product.mydomain.com/theircompanyname
Each client would have a different "theircompanyname" link.
They would decide and/or create their link method (graphic, presence of alt tag, text, what text, etc).
I would have no control aside from requiring them to link to that url on my server.3: They link to a subdirectory on mydomain.com from their nav/site
Their nav would include an actual link to mydomain.com/product/theircompanyname
Each client would have a different "theircompanyname" link.
They would decide and/or create their link method (graphic, presence of alt tag, text, what text, etc).
I would have no control aside from requiring them to link to that url on my server.In all scenarios, my marketing content would be set up around mydomain.com both as static content and a blog directory, all with SEO attractive url slugs.
I'm leaning towards option 3, but would like input!
-
The fact that the links are all related to what you do doesn't change that they would all be coming into the same structure in about the same way from every site. Editorial links are those placed once on a site by the owners without provocation to inform their readers about something they find interesting or useful outside of a planned relationship. Editorial links are chaotic in nature, meaning there is no pattern to them. Google has been working to find and count these links higher than crafted links which typically have a pattern.
I'm not saying this is definitely going to be the case for you, but the more links are designed to appear, the more they have a pattern. You're trying to negate that, but lets just say there has a tendency to still be a pattern. That's why I mentioned not to count on these links. They might do you some good, they might not. I hope that answers your question!
-
This is excellent input. Thanks!
Option 1 is actually the most complicated from a development standpoint and relies on the clients being able to configure a subdomain and cname correctly. It is likely the most attractive from a client's point of view (being able to direct people to product.theirdomain.com) and the least attractive from an SEO point of view.
Options 2 and 3 are more or less equal in terms of development and are much easier than option 1.
It is not ideal for clients to point visitors to ourdomain.com/product/theircompanyname, but plenty of third party products do this and our marketplace isn't the most tech-savvy.One last question. when you say that the links wouldn't be editorial in nature, they would still be heavily contextual. What exactly do you mean by editorial and how does that differ from contextual.
This isn't like a wordpress template that could be used by any kind of business - 100% of clients would be in the same sector and their keywords would all align around the same general themes.
It is possible that some clients will link to the product from within blog posts or somewhere other than navigation also.
-
It sounds like you intend on using this scheme for link development purposes, but I'd warn not to rely on any links created this way. They would not be editorial in nature and therefore you can't count on them in the long term.
That being said, there are two ways to look at this: from your perspective and your client's perspective. The best route in each case in my opinion is:
Yours: #3 by far
Theirs: #1 to keep things on their domain. If I were them, I'd want people staying on my domain.
If you are looking at this from just an SEO perspective, do #3, but if it were me, I'd ask your first set of clients what they prefer and work with them from there.
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
-
Google Rank 0 - Best way?
We are trying to create tables or bullet points on each of our pages summarising the content of the page and get it to rank on position 0 on Google. This technique worked for some searches but not all so we were wondering: Is it beneficial to add links or not ? Is there a keyword limit? We are on Magento 2 if that helps. Thanks James
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JamesDavison0 -
Site migration/ CMS/domain site structure change-no access to search console
Hi everyone, We are migrating an old site under a bigger umbrella (our main domain). As mentioned in the title, We'll perform CMS migration, domain change, and site structure change. Now, the major problem is that we can't get into google search console for the old site. The site still has old GA code, so google search console verification using this method is not possible, also there is no way developers will be able to add GTM or edit DNS setting (not to bother you with the reason why). Now, my dilemma is : 1. Do we need access to old search console to notify Google about the domain name change or this could be done from our main site (old site will become a part of) search console 2. We are setting up 301 redirects from old to the new domain (not perfect 1:1 redirect ). Once migration is done does anything else needs to be done with the old domain (it will become obsolete)? 3.The main site, Site-map... Should I create a new sitemap with newly added pages or update the current one. 4. if you have anything else please add:) Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bgvsiteadmin0 -
I have an authority site with 90K visits per month. Now I have to change from non www to www. Will incur in any SEO issues while doing that? Could you please advice me on the best steps to follow to do this? Thank you very much!
Because I want to increase site speed, Siteground (my hosting) suggested I use Cloudflare Plus which needs my site to have www in order to work. I'm also using a cloud hosting. Im a bit scared of doing this, and thus decided to come to the community. I used MOZ for over 6 months now and love the tool. Please help me make the best possible decisions and what steps to follow. It would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Andrew_IT0 -
Best practices for structuring an ecommerce site
I'm revamping my wife's ecommerce site. It is currently a very low traffic website that is not indexed very well in Google. So, my plan is to restructure it based upon the best practices that helps me avoid duplicate content penalties, and easier to index strategies. The store has about 7 types of products. Each product has approximately 30 different size variations that are sometimes specifically searched for. For example: 20x10x1 air filters, 20x10x2 air filters, 20x10x1 allergy reducing air filters, etc So, is it best for me to create 7 different products with 30 different size variations (size selector at the product level that changes the price) or is it better to create 210 different product pages, one for each style/size?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pherbio0 -
How To Detect Primary Site With Duplicate Domains?
I'm working with some backlink data, and I've run into different domains that host the same exact content on the same IP. They're not redirecting to each other, just looks like they're hosting the same content on differnet virtual hostnames. One example is: borealcanada.ca borealcanada.com borealcanada.org www.borealcanada.ca www.borealcanada.com www.borealcanada.org www.borealecanada.ca I'm trying to consolidate this data and choose which is the primary domain. In this example, it appears www.borealcanada.ca has a high number of indexed pages and also ranks first for "boreal canada". However, I'm trying to think of a metric I can use to definitively/systematically handle this (using SEO Tools or something like it). Anyone have ideas on which metric might help me determine this for a large number of sites?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | brettgus0 -
City or country name get the exact domain name devauation ?
Will using a city or country name be devalued with the exact domain name update. I want to make a new website about my favourite vacation spot. I was thinking www.specificislandactivities.com or www.bestincityname.com The site will focus on all the best things to do in that vacation spot, best dining, beaches, watersports ect. I will be writing all the content based on my experience of travelling there for over 20 years... If the site is going to be all about things to do in that city or island, how else could i name the site. www.islandtravelactivities.com Wouldn't that be using the keywords island + travel + activities in the domain ? I am so confused right now, what would be devalued in the exact domain match and what would not. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlane90 -
Best way to view Global Navigation bar from GoogleBot's perspective
Hi, Links in the global navigation bar of our website do not show up when we look at Google cache --> text only version of the page. These links use "style="<a class="attribute-value">display:none;</a>" when we looked at HTML source. But if I use "user agent switcher" add-on in Firefox and set it to Googlebot, the links in global nav are displayed. I am wondering what is the best way to find out if Google can/can not see the links. Thanks for the help! Supriya.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SShiyekar0 -
How to deal with competition with a similar domain name as my client website?
How can I deal with other websites that have a keyword domain name similar to my client website? I get a few domains similar to my client domain name just to avoid the same issue, but there are a few others ranking for the same keywords and I don't want posible customers get confused with a similar domain name. I have social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and etc), but they are not ranking on the first page. This is the situation: www.domain.com that would be my client's domain. And the competition: www.bestdomain.com www.thedomain.com www.domaincomapany.com And a few more. At this time my client is ranking #1 position, but all the others ar 1 or 2 positions bellow.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jpgprinting0