13 replies to this topic

[BarbarasB&B]

hello to all,
Love this place, love this site.
I have been wondering about multiple urls for a site.
I run a B&B and wonder about getting mulitple urls to point to it. I'd only submit to directories and engines my main url but use the others to pull in searches using the keywords.
I personally believe I have a keyword problem.
My main keywords are Bed, Breakfast, "Town", "Massachusetts", ( I'm not naming the town). but other keywords are : Lodging, Hotel, Ma., Mass, Cape Cod, Boston.
So if I bought the urls "Town_ma.com, Lodging_Ma.com and so on and had them point (but not promote) would this help or hurt?
I do all my own promoting and am scared to death of me doing something to wind up the spam police.
In reading all of Jill's articles I follow all of her advice that I understand. there is still alot I don't comprehend and hope this forum will clear things up.
Seeing more than one person write in their own personal jargon gives me a better shot at understanding the Point!
Kevin

<split this topic off from the [url=http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showforum=21]Submitting to Directories[/url] thread -Scottie>

Edited by scottiecl, 03 August 2003 - 10:57 AM.

[Scottie]

Hi Kevin!

Welcome to the forum!

What you are describing are doorway domains and they are not looked upon kindly by the search engines. And really, there's no reason to have them!

Keywords in your URL play a very minor role in ranking, you are better off to build individual pages on your site that target these keywords. Remember, every page is ranked independantly- you don't need a separate site in order to rank for different keywords.

Think about this- in order to get those other URL's indexed and ranking well, you are going to need to get good incoming links to each one of them. That is a lot of work!

Simply build additional content pages that target the keywords you are aiming for and work on buillding link popularity for one site, not several.

If you want to buy other domains and point them to your main domain so that people who "guess" at a domain will find your site, that's fine. Refer to Jill's newsletter article for the proper way to do that.

[BarbarasB&B]

you are better off to build individual pages on your site that target these keywords.

W W
I knew it!
I belong to a B&B group and they wanted to do this multiple url thing.
I thought it was bad but when your not sure....?
I've worked hard at pumping my pages indvidually and Jill ( and now you) have helped imeasurably.
I've got a lot more work to do.
thanks.
Oh one other thing.
I put in a personal pic but it wouldn't load. it was 19k 250x250 .jpg
Should it be gif? Or what am I doing wrong.

[Jill]

Welcome, Kevin.

As Scottie has so aptly told you, what you're suggesting is definitely a bad, bad idea. Not only is it a waste of money, but it simply wouldn't work.

The directories would never add a doorway domain, even if you paid their fees.

It's really an old-fashioned method for spamming the search engines. There are complicated ways that some are still able to use that method with a bit of success, but in my opinion, it's definitely not worth the time, effort and expense to try it. Especially because if you did succeed, most likely, it would be short-lived.

We are very lucky that Google came along over the past few years, and have really tried to put a stop to that sort of thing. Many of the other engines did not seem to care enough about their results in the past, and they often allowed that sort of trickery to go on. Why do you think that Google quickly rose to the top of the search engines? Their results were so much better than the others because they put their virtual foot down when it came to doorway pages, gateway domains, cloaking, and whatever other forms of search engine spam was going on.

Now that the other engines have seen that it's possible to make money by having a spam-free database, they are trying to catch up and clean up their results. They're much closer to Google these days, but it's possible that it's too little too late.

Anyway, this info about Google and the other engines is really just my way of saying that yeah, you can do that sort of thing, but don't expect any of the search engines to allow it. Not for long at least.

The best thing is that it's actually very easy to optimize the actual pages of your site for high rankings without tricking the engines at all. Since they are actively removing the tricksters, it makes it easier than ever for the cream to rise to the top!



Jill

Oh, and P.S., your avatar pic has to be 100x100 or less in size. Resample/resize it and try again.

[tlpretender]

Good advice. Don't do it.

Speaking as a GoGuide, it could result in getting all associated urls removed as well. Always best to play nice and make your site as content driven as possible.

[darciusrex]

I'm new to the SEO scene and all, but I just wanted to add to the concensus that multiple URL's are BAD and if you ever look in any of the webmaster guidelines that most engines and directories post, they usually say not to do it as well. Sorry about the incredibly long sentence! Anyway, when I was submitting to DMOZ, they were especially emphatic about not submitting multiple URL for the same page, which led me to believe it's generally bad and rotten and horrible. And if you think about it as a searcher or potential customer, it really does wreck your trust in the site you're looking at if you see the same page listed under different URL's several times. Maybe if you used one of the URL's as resource page more than a marketing page, that might work. Would that be okay?

[tlpretender]

Generally, I'd have to say it's not worth doing. Focus on adding quality and content to your main site.

From the directory stand point, you may be able to sneak your way in. Notice I said 'sneak', as your intention apparently is to just get an extra listing. This will depend on the directory and their guidelines on a case by case basis. Most will prefer to list only one of the sites, especially if the sites are interlinked - some will remove both of the sites. Much of the determining factor(s) will be the amount of unique content available on each site, are each focused to a different audience, is there enough value in each to really add value to the directory. Most directories aren't looking for quantity of sites, but quality only.

The final answer I would venture to say is that it is up to you to decide if it is worth it. If done incorrectly, you could lose more than you hoped to gain.

Of course, all IMHO.

[mcanerin]

Here's a question. I have a site, mcanerin.com, that is international in that from the main page the first question asked is "do you want to go to the Canadian site or the US one?"

I also own mcanerin.ca (the Canadian TLD). Right now it's pointed at the main page and I don't do any promotion with it at all. What if I used URL forwarding so that anyone typing in mcanerin.ca actually ended up on the Canadian page? Would I get problems with that? I'd prefer not to divide the site into 2 totally separate sites, since they are identical with the exception of some content, keywords and pricing.

Any thoughts? This would also be an issue for people who have bought second or more domains for various products.

[tlpretender]

I wouldn't see any problem with that, at least from a directory standpoint. If there is an editor for the topic, you may wish to advise them upon submitting of why there may, or may not, appear to be a redirect so they can make note of it.

[maggieB]

Hi! What an enlightening forum! I am very new to the SEO scene as well as fairly new to web design.
I have a question that I think falls into this topic category; I was wondering if you could please help me on this:I have a site "aquaargentica.com" that I am discontinuing hosting for. I would like to double it up with another site called U-swift.com (both sites are heavily under construction . Would it be possible to keep the name "aquaargentica.com" instead of "u-swift.com/aquaargentica.htm" by means of cloaked url forwarding or would this damage my placement on google? I would like to start promoting the site but am not sure if that particular page would fall under the literal url or the "prettier" one as far as the search engine goes...
Thanks

[Jill]

Welcome, maggieB!

Have your server/host place a permanent 301 redirect on the old URL to the new and you'll be all set.

Jill

[Denyse]

Hi Ian,
I have the same kind of thing with a main page offering english and french. I presented that URL to DMOZ under a french category and was accepted. When I checked with an editor, he told me I could also present the same URL under an english category because the page clearly directs to different languages (same site). I was surprised since they specifically forbid presenting the same URL to different category.

Go figure.

Denyse

[paulbedford]

Denyse,

If a site's content is available in more than one language, the site may be listed in more than one language category. For example, if a site is in English, German, and French, the site may be listed in an English-only category, World/Deutsch, and World/Français. When listing a multi-lingual site, 

list the URL for the "doorway" page that provides links to all the language editions; OR

list the language-specific URL only if the doorway links to the individual language editions are not obvious.

taken from DMOZ Site Specific Guidelines. The same page also provides guidelines for the multiple listing of sites for example a listing in a topical category and a regional category.

[Greystar]

What if I used URL forwarding so that anyone typing in mcanerin.ca actually ended up on the Canadian page? Would I get problems with that? I'd prefer not  to divide the site into 2 totally separate sites, since they are identical with the exception of some content, keywords and pricing.

For directories in different languages, go for it.

Having domain.co.uk for English, and domain.fr for French, domain.de for German (even if they all end up at domain.com/country) will be fine, as long as these pages are in the right language for the particular directory.

I've done this for European clients that have to support anything up to a dozen languages but still want country specific listings (European Airlines, for example) in Looksmart (as we get proper Directory submissions in Europe), Lycos and Yahoo!

If they are all in the same language, then I'm not sure (sorry). I've not done anything where a client wants domain.co.uk, domain.com and domain.com.au (for example) where they'd all be in english.