Keyword Rich Domain
-
We purchased a keyword rich domain name to use with an existing website.
What is the best way to use this domain?
Below are some thoughts, I welcome any input.
- Use this domain as an add-on to the main domain, but only have it load one page off the main domain? Would that cause duplicate content issues?
- Create a single static page of content for the domain (separate from main domain)
- Redirect domain to page on master domain, would we loose any benefits of the keyword rich domain?
Thank you!
-
Hi Jacob,
Experts have been writing about the declining importance of exact match domains for many years (those two articles are both from 2012).
In general, if you already had a setup like the one you are proposing, there's a good chance we would be recommending consolidating the domains.
You might also be interested in this whiteboard Friday.
Good luck - hope something there helps.
-
Hi Sally, thank you for taking time to reply to my questions.
In short, having targeting keywords in a domain name has no SEO benefit?
-
Hi Jacob,
What did you hope to achieve with this domain? Was it meant to be different content to your current site?
To be honest there isn't a lot of use for this domain as you would be better off putting time into your current domain. Unfortunately, people buy other keyword rich domains that aren't going to help your site in the long run. Google isn't going to associate this domain with your current one unless you plan to make it the priority and of huge value that differs to your current site. You could, of course, migrate your current website to that website but I wouldn't recommend this as it could lead to a whole lot of other issues if done incorrectly. And you could be spending this time doing other digital marketing tasks for your current site.
For your suggestions:
1. I don't really understand what you mean having an add-on to the main domain. If this is duplicate content you'd have to have it canonicalised and then it wouldn't have much benefit for your current site anyway. You'd be better off putting this content on your current domain.
2. Having a single static page wouldn't be of much worth cause wouldn't this page perform better on your current website? Adding this content to your current site would also bring your overall content quality up (assuming it is good content).
3. Redirecting this domain to your current domain wouldn't help that much, unless it's got an amazing backlink profile to bring traffic through.
Cheers
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
-
Backlinks from old domain
Hi, We have gone through a change of company brand name including a new domain name.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Agguk
We followed google recommendations at: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en and it seems to have worked really well, the new domain has replaced the old in the google search results. My question: Still most of our backlinks, both anchor text and links use the old brand name and domain and it´s a slow process trying to update all references. Although they get redirected fine to the new domain (also following google recommendations), I wonder if the current scenario is doing any harm, SEO wise (other than the missed visual exposure of the new brand name) ? ...since the old brand name is not present at the new site I´m thinking of including "New brand name - previously old brand name" somewhere just to provide some sort of connection to all old backlinks, would that be unnecessary? I should mention that the old brand name actually includes our most important keyword but the new brand name does not. Thanks!0 -
Potential keyword cannibalization?
Hi, I'm doing an audit of a site for a very competitive term (project management software). The site ranks for its root domain on the second page. They have a lot of other non-blog pages that are geared towards longer tail versions that include that term (project management software pricing, project management tool comparison, etc). My question is: are those pages cannibalizing potential search traffic? Should they just stick to the one page (root domain) and include those longtail keywords on the page instead of creating various pages that seem to possibly be cannibalizing traffic? Is this a fair conclusion that these other pages is causing them to rank lower for the main head term?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jim_shook0 -
Keyword targeting
Hi guys, Are there any restrictions around targeting for keywords? For eg: a competitors name can we target for that keyword? Would appreciate some advice around this Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | edward-may1 -
Other domains hosted on same server showing up in SERP for 1st site's keywords
For the website in question, the first domain alphabetically on the shared hosting space, strange search results are appearing on the SERP for keywords associated with the site. Here is an example: A search for "unique company name" shows the results: www.uniquecompanyname.com as the top result. But on pages 2 and 3, we are getting results for the same content but for domains hosted on the same server. Here are some examples with the domain name replaced: UNIQUE DOMAIN NAME PAGE TITLE
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Motava
ftp.DOMAIN2.com/?action=news&id=63
META DESCRIPTION TEXT UNIQUE DOMAIN NAME PAGE TITLE 2
www.DOMAIN3.com/?action=news&id=120
META DESCRIPTION TEXT2 UNIQUE DOMAIN NAME PAGE TITLE 2
www.DOMAIN4.com/?action=news&id=120
META DESCRIPTION TEXT2 UNIQUE DOMAIN NAME PAGE TITLE 3
mail.DOMAIN5.com/?action=category&id=17
META DESCRIPTION TEXT3 ns5.DOMAIN6.com/?action=article&id=27 There are more but those are just some examples. These other domain names being listed are other customer domains on the same VPS shared server. When clicking the result the browser URL still shows the other customer domain name B but the content is usually the 404 page. The page title and meta description on that page is not displayed the same as on the SERP.As far as we can tell, this is the only domain this is occurring for.So far, no crawl errors detected in Webmaster Tools and moz crawl not completed yet.0 -
How fast to change keyword rich anchor text
Hello, A client of mine has a site with almost all keyword rich anchor text, The problem is on on a bunch of little blogs and some (mostly sitewide) paid links. We are working to move into 100% white hat SEO, but we're doing it slowly. My question is, how fast can we change the anchor text on all of these links? I'm worried that if I do it too fast that it will be a red flag. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Keyword Research: How best to target keywords without using a region as part of the search query.
When doing keyword research and trying to rank for a keyword. I am wondering if we need to localize the query by adding a city to it. For example Phoenix Web Design vs. just targeting web design since Google is localizing search results now. Then when creating content and optimizing the site do we just put the keyword in the title and page content or do we also add the region/city to the keyword phrase? Any insight would be appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hireawizseo0 -
How do you build domain trust and authority ?
I am doing some link building and was hoping to get some clear information about the quality of the links and what I need to build a higher domain trust and authority. My sites page I wish to build for has: DA 22 PA 33 MR 4.6 I am looking at back links with these figures Considering outbound links are equal, which pages can help build my page ? page1 DA 66 PA 48 MR 4.8 page2 DA 66 PA 35 MR 3.75 page 3 DA 66 PA 28 MR 3.5 page 4 DA 41 PA 18 MR 2.73 Page 4 DA 41 PA 18 MR 1.87 Do I need back links with a Domain Authority Higher than my own ? PA higher than my own ? or MR higher than my own ? or would any of these pages be able to improve my own ? Thank you in advance for helping with this as I do not want to spend 6 months building the wrong links.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlane90 -
Could Sub domains damage our SEO?
Hi there, We're currently looking into integrating a new internal search function to our site which will involve housing the search results on a sub domain of our site. We have no intention of these search result pages becoming landing pages for organic traffic but would the inclusion of a sub domain affect the optimization of the main domain? i.e. could it effect our authority? Nige
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | NigelJ0