11 replies to this topic

[gmac17]

I have a site that does very well in the rankings for it's term. (Let's call the term "hockey skates"). The domain it is on, is the best possible domain for that term - "hockeyskates.com" (this is just an example), so I get a lot of type in traffic which is great.

I'm trying to diversify into other "hockey" related terms, but I'm not sure if I should keep them on the same domain, or build new sites.

If I start selling hockey sticks on hockeyskates.com, will users still click through when they see the url in google? Would it be better to put all other hockey stuff on hockeysuperstore.com or something along those lines? Would it be better to brand a more generic term, or is it ok to brand my site using a fairly specific domain??

It would be easier to get into the engines by piggybacking on "hockeyskates.com as it already has a lot of incoming links etc.

Thanks in advance for your ideas.

[copywriter]

Hi gmac17,

I see your point about 1 site or more. As for a "branding" issue, I don't think there is one It would be difficult to "brand" (in the true sense of the word) a common household term such as your example of hockey skates. If you're just concerned with the being logical, I don't see a problem with adding other products that directly relate to hockey skates to the existing site.

People who buy hockey skates will most likely also need hockey sticks, kneepads and other stuff, too... right?

If you have the time/money/inclination to create a new site, that would be best IMO. However, if you don't, I think you'd do fine with the hockeyskates.com URL.

"Computer" Warehouse sells all sorts of office electronics, not just computers.
General Dollar sells items that cost more than $1.

There are lots of others, too.

If you want to split the difference... go for hockeyskatesandmore.com

Hope it helps!

[markymark]

My advice is also to put the hockey sticks and related stuff on the hockeyskates.com domain. You'll find that you will sell more product if you do so - rather than having several different domains that don't even mention that you also offer sticks, kneepads and so on.

[Jill]

I'd stick with the same domain that you have also. People don't care what your URL is. It's your content they'll be looking at. And if you title tag and description are relevant in the search engine results, they'll click through.

Jill

[Scottie]

Keyworded domain names are not effective for getting good rankings.

People don't typically consider the URL when deciding which listing to click on- they read the title and snippet to decide if the site may be relevant to what they want.

Remember that pages get ranked individually, not sites.

If you have multiple domains, you will have to work at getting good inbound links to all of them in order for them to rank well. Directories will not list multiple sites so you are on your own getting links from related sites and the like, many people have trouble with that for e-commerce sites.

You are much better off to expand your existing site, IMO.

[gmac17]

Thanks for the thoughts. For some reason I just think it is illogical to have hockey sticks content on a site called hockeyskates.com .... It is definitely my personal preference (wanting things to be logical) vs business logic (much easier to get the other terms ranked higher from an existing, high ranked site....)

[Debra]

For some reason I just think it is illogical to have hockey sticks content on a site called hockeyskates.com

If the domain name is the sticking point for you here, think about changing it to something not keyword related. Consider creating a name that will be memorable and easily branded in the future.

And < being dutiful here> - if you DO decide to create separate, unrelated sites be sure they are well linked with optimized HTML links!

[Mel]

By all means put it on one domain if it is at all related to what the site does. Many sites sell a variety of things on one domain.

One nice thing about having it all on one domain is being able at checkout to generate a line that says:

"Do you need hockey socks to go with those skates? We have them on special at $0.00"

[Scottie]

Very good point Mel!

Who wants to set up, configure, and maintain multiple shopping carts? Yuck! Not a good user experience either. Then you have shipping calculations, etc.

I'm with Debra- if you want to change, get something like everything4hockey.com or something that covers the range of what you want to sell. I tend to think that people are more likely to buy from site with a broad range of items than a narrow one, unless it is a really unique item.

[gmac17]

don't want to change the initial domain, it's already ranked and gets a ton of type in traffic.....

[Debra]

In my day to day shopping both online and off, I seldom - if ever - come across a website that only offers one particular thing. Most sites focus on a segment or niche item, but even then, there is diversity of product.

I think it would be safe to assume that if I were hunting for hockey skates, I'm going to want sticks, pads etc. To send me to another site to buy those things would not be customer friendly in my eyes.

If you're ranking well and getting traffic, adding additional pages of comp products shouldn't hurt you at all. To me, it just rounds out your line!

[incrediblehelp]

gmac17,

I think this is up to you and how much time you have to work on multiple sites versus one site. If I had the choice I would prefer to work off one domain for all "hockey" related products. It just makes more sense for the achieving rankings in the engines and a more user friendly experience.