Keyword vs Brand Domain Name
-
Hi guys,
I'm about to launch a new site for a friend who is an accountant in a specialist field. He's already bought 2 domains:
**www.[keyword]-accountants.net **
**www.[brand]accountants.com **
We have made the decision to use the brand domain to host the site but what can we do with the keyword domain as exact match domains still seem to be ranking well in the serps?
e.g. build keyword links to the keyword domain (heavily seo'd content) and build brand links to the brand domain (conversion-optimised content) then after while 301 the keyword domain?
Any new suggestions will be gratefully received!
-
I wouldn't spend too much time on the second (hyphenated keyword) domain, you'd be much better off focusing on building great links to your primary domain.
Also, domains with hyphens are signifcantly less effective than the exact match variation, I have conducted a number of experiments and the non-hyphenated versions of the website are much, much better! So I would just redirect it as it is and focus on the one main website URL.
Paul
-
If your keyword website ends up getting to an appreciable size, you will have to try and buy the unhyphenated version of www.keyword-accountants.net
Whoever owns that, assuming it's parked, may hold you to ransom for a very high price. My company is in just that situation now (the thread I recently started on this may be of use to you: http://www.seomoz.org/q/close-url-owned-by-competitors). So just keep in mind that if you want optimal SEO, the need to get the unhyphenated version will become more, not less, pressing over time.
Keep in mind that if you're sending a bunch of links to your keyword domain, those are going to be worth a lot less than if you send them all to your branded domain. Generally speaking, splitting your SEO efforts between two sites for the same company is a bad idea.
Daniel's suggestion would be the best, in my opinion, if you're dead set on using the keyword site to host content. Really, though, you'd be a lot better off putting that content in a subfolder of your the branded site and 301 the keyword domain (again as Daniel suggests).
-
Building up the keyword domain looks like the way to go as Google seems to favour these.
There's a good answer about a similar situation here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-to-use-good-keyword-url-to-help-main-site
-
You could 301 the keyword domain.
Another option is to build up the keyword domain as a popular informational site. Then send referrals and link to your brand site.
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
-
Using Bold text for keywords
Hello I am updating an old e-commerce website of mine and many keywords are in bold - shall I remove the bold tag or keep them there? This is for SEO.
On-Page Optimization | | xdunningx0 -
Keyword Stuffing - Image Alt
One of our category pages is keyword stuffed. But we are not able to change the image alt text. It is automatically generated as the title of each product. We would be able to get the keywords down if that was not the case, but now there is 30 alt image keywords along with 25 other elements of the keyword. I can only change 2 image alt texts. What can I do here?
On-Page Optimization | | Mike.Bean0 -
Business Name is Meta Description
I would like to know what your opinion would be regarding the business name displayed in the meta description. Would you write your business name as: Business Name or BusinessName™ (no space with Trademark) I used MOZ example from here (Meta Descriptions Best Practice) and inserted the different business names. Welcome to Business Name in San Diego, California - the nation's largest urban cultural park. Home of 15 major museums, renowned performing arts venues... Welcome to businessname™ in San Diego, California - the nation's largest urban cultural park. Home of 15 major museums, renowned performing arts venues... I'm not sure which would be best for Google and other search engines. Thanks for your help.
On-Page Optimization | | Kdruckenbrod0 -
Keyword stuffing when brand includes keyword
Hi If you have managed to combine brand name with primary target keyword do you still need pay attention to on page keyword stuffing ? since one would expect plenty of brand references in the body copy ? Or is it still best to reduce instances of the keyword aspect ? For example if site is called 'Franks Service Centres' and you have lots/too many instances of 'service centres' in the body copy a/c to MA on-page grader, should you reduce some instances of the kw ? All Best
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
Same UI, different domain
Hello there. I would like to ask for your opinions. I have DomainA.com/blog and want to move /blog to its own domain. As of now, the blog section has the exact same UI as the rest of the site, its just a section on our site. Will it have any negative impact with respect to SEO if DomainA.com and DomainB.com have the exact same UI and are interlinking each other? Thanks in advanced.
On-Page Optimization | | mike_sif0 -
Weighing costs & benefits for domain name change.
I've got a site that is under consideration for a domain change, however I have plenty of concerns about our particular situation. I'd love to explain my scenario and then get some feedback! The domain in question is beverlys.com and has been up and running since 1996 (almost 16 years), so it has advantages in that it's a long standing trusted domain. For the majority of that time however, the site was mostly a simple static informational site to accommodate a brick and mortar business. Then starting in 2009 the site underwent the change to become an e-commerce site. Since then we have been working to compete with other sites in the same industry and attempting to rank well in organic results. In particular our business sells fabric, so "fabric" is one keyword we measure in various way to get an idea where we stand with the competition. Over time we have had ups and downs while ranking for "fabric", specifically. At our peak we ranked 16th in Google in September 2011, and 18th as recent as January 2012. However since that time we have fallen off the map in Google's results. Currently we are around the 100th result! Though in Yahoo! and Bing we continue to show strongly with organic rankings hovering between 15-20. I can only theorize that something in the last few rounds of Google's algorithm updates has punished us and thus far have not been able to identity the issue or find any resolution. So, in response, one of the options on the table is to use a new domain name that specifically incorporates the keyword that is important to us. Unfortunately our current domain does not use "fabric" so we would use something like beverly-fabrics.com or what-have you. There is so much potential for disaster in switching domain names that I'm having a hard time considering this as a viable option. But at this point I don't want to close any doors. We want to have the best chance at long term success and if a domain name change would help in that we would do it. I'd love to hear anyone's opinions, recommendations or advice about our situation!
On-Page Optimization | | dickslee230 -
Existing good authority LP with multiple keywords, how to optimize for these keywords?
Hi Mozzers, Currently I am optimizing ONpage after I made a report for which keywords the website already ranks in the serps. I was surprised about the numbers of keywords the website ranks in Google. The website ranks for multiple keywords in 1 landing page. They get a lot of traffic, but has a position #5 or #7/#8, onpage grade is for most of the keywords a C or D and lots of them a F, so it's worth to optimize it. How should I do that when the landing page is domain.com/category and the 5 different keywords are partofcategoryname. Should I put all these keywords in the title and landing page body content as the onpage tool recommend me that? I was thinking about the option I described above OR to create a new landing page for the specific keyword each. However, the already ranked landing page has a PA of 38. When starting to build new landing pages is starting to build from PA 0. Anyway, it's definitely I chance to do onpage, I just don't know what I should do since there are 5 different keywords that already ranks for the landing page with good traffic. I want to let it rise in the serps to increase the traffic of course. Looking forward to recommendations! thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | Falcopa0 -
Domain.com and www.domain.com
I recently changed the settings in Google Webmaster Tools so that domain.com and www.domain.com are the same. Several quick questions. About how long will it take for Google to list www.domain.com and stop listing domain.com? The .htaccess file uses a 301 to redirect all domain.com paths.to www.domain.com paths. Now that Google has been informed these two are the same, are the 301 rules to add www necessary? The default page is index.php. so domain.com gets 301 to www.domain.com gets 301 to www.domain.com/index.php. Is this the correct way to do things? Are there SEO consultants who will help on small projects such assist on issues like this? Best,
On-Page Optimization | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0