13 replies to this topic

[prabhu]

Please solve this problem ?
If we have pointed website "a" to website "b"?
what are the seo tips that we should use for both a and b to rank thigh both the websites ?

[Randy]

what are the seo tips that we should use for both a and b to rank thigh both the websites ?

It doesn't work that way. Typically either one or the other will show up in the SERPs and the other will be filtered since they are exact duplicates of each other.

Your best move is to use a 301 redirect to point one domain to the other. After all, you only have one site. It just that if you park/alias/point one to the other they're on two different domain addresses.

[ogormask]

I have seen people brag about having dozens of domains pointing at the same site. Is there any point to this? Wouldnt it be easier to work on ranking for just one domain? Is it because they had many old domains before and are trying to centralize it all? Seems weird to me to purposely do this.

[phaithful]

Well, one of the primary goals of the search engines is to provide the end consumer with the best possible experience. Part of that is providing a wide variety of choices to the user. This way if the user doesn't like site #1 they might find the content they're looking for on #2 - #10.

I've scene niche cases similar to what your referring to, however they tend to be on very low trafficked keywords.

I would recommend you spend your time focusing on 1 domain name if it's the same content. If it makes sense to break up a large site into smaller niches then managing multiple sites with related content is feasible. You just need to determine if that's the proper business decision for you and your customers and not just to rank in multiple places on the SeRPs.

[torka]

I have seen people brag about having dozens of domains pointing at the same site. Is there any point to this?

Some people (IMO, mistakenly) believe the domain name is a major factor in rankings, and that if they simply park "keyword rich" domain names on their site they will somehow magically start to rank well for the keywords in the domain names.

While the experts love to debate the actual extent of the effect of a domain name, most of the good SEOs I know agree that simply pointing a bunch of "keyword rich" domain names at your existing site isn't going to do much good. It's certainly nothing to run around bragging about as if one has done something amazingly effective for optimization, and it's certainly not anything the regulars around here would advise doing.

IMO, it's a waste of time and money. It's a much better use of resources to spend the time optimizing the site with a single, easy-to-remember, easy-to-type, brandable domain.

--Torka

[ogormask]

I brought it up because I saw exactly that, someone bragging about having 20+ domains all pointed at one. I pointed out and asked if they sent backlinks to each one but I dont think they understood me. What a waste of time and energy and money etc.

[prabhu]

Well, one of the primary goals of the search engines is to provide the end consumer with the best possible experience. Part of that is providing a wide variety of choices to the user. This way if the user doesn't like site #1 they might find the content they're looking for on #2 - #10.

I've scene niche cases similar to what your referring to, however they tend to be on very low trafficked keywords.

I would recommend you spend your time focusing on 1 domain name if it's the same content. If it makes sense to break up a large site into smaller niches then managing multiple sites with related content is feasible. You just need to determine if that's the proper business decision for you and your customers and not just to rank in multiple places on the SeRPs.

Thanks,

First i was promoting website "b". it was on top rank.
Now if i want to promote site "a" that is pointed to "b", what is the solution other than 301 redirection.

can we block website b from caching in google.
as what i am noticing both website "a" and "b" showing the cache of website b in google cache.

Tell me the best possible solution to promote "a"

[Randy]

A proper 301 will (eventually) get site "b" removed from the index entirely. Do make sure there's a 301 Moved Permanently server response however, because if it's a 302 both will continue to be indexed.

[qwerty]

If you're having your host or registrar take care of parking or redirecting domains, check to make sure they're doing it properly. I very recently noticed that a certain very well-known registrar is still using 302s. That's only slightly better than having a bunch of identical sites out there without redirecting anything.

[Intrepid]

Hey, do you guys know of any sources where someone has tested the impact of redirects on SEO and provided statistical data. I've heard enough people recommend the 301 approach to believe, but I haven't found anyone to include numbers that support the position.

[BBCoach]

Stats? Well last year we completely launched a new version of an ecomm site that had 30,000+ pages. I developed a new page naming convention that eliminated duplicate content pages (due to multiple categorizations) which resulted in all of the product page names changing. We also developed a rather ingenious method of 301 redirecting for all of the old links pointing to the old page names. Not a single product page request using the old page name resulted in a 404 error. The first month our SE rankings tanked like one would think. However, by the third month all product pages were reindexed and ranking very nicely. Today (in this bad economy) we're making more than $2M/month from SE referrals with 52% of all traffic coming from SEs. So I reckon our stats would be 100% success rate of properly 301 redirecting our product pages. What's especially cool is we don't lose any link juice from sites outside of our control with the old page names. Ensuring this was a major consideration when building the new site.

Edited by BBCoach, 03 February 2009 - 11:39 AM.

[Webseeker]

I have seen people brag about having dozens of domains pointing at the same site. Is there any point to this? Wouldnt it be easier to work on ranking for just one domain? Is it because they had many old domains before and are trying to centralize it all? Seems weird to me to purposely do this.

The way I understood it, is that there are people who... instead of using a SE, would actually type in a related keyword in the address bar to see if it relates or goes to a site they might be interested in. The logic is that if you have multiple domains pointing to one website(or various pages on that site), it's not about SEO and gaining position in the SERP's, but to pick up the traffic from the people actually typing a keyword as a domain option... like widgets.com. Back when I first contemplated this, a major department store had many... and I mean MANY domains redirecting to related pages on their website in hopes of getting those eyeballs to the correlating webpage in hopes of making a sale.

I myself have related domains and instead of parking them or having them non-existent on the net, I forward them to the page I'd like the traffic to go if perhaps someone typed that into their browser. I've found and bought many things on the net by just typing in a keyword as a domain. I figure if I do it, others may too. This was earlier on in my net-surfing, now utilizing SE's mostly.

That's my .02 cents. You get what you pay for. LOL!

Webseeker

P.S. "I never bothered to check those redirects/forwarding to see the traffic and conversion."

[rdambrosio]

Hi All - My first real post to this forum. Been reading great info, but I'm looking for some specific help.

I have a client who is ranking very well for a specific key term that is driving sales for his most successful product. Let's say as an example the term is "diving watches". Currently, the client ranks number 1 in Google when searching for this term. This client has built his site almost entirely of images with no text to really index. In addition, the title tags, H1 tags and other content on the site have no mention of this term either (other than the meta description).

I was doing some research and noticed that "diving-watches.com" was an available domain. In fact, so were 3-5 of the top keyword-rich type of domains that reflect the terms that drive a significant amount of traffic and orders to his site - with varying degrees of success with regard to conversion rate.

I wanted to suggest that the client purchase the top available domain, as well as the 3-5 other keyword rich domains and create specific landing pages that were keyword rich with the appropriate title tags, H1, and descriptive content. I thought this would not only be a pretty cheap insurance policy from competition, but also potentially help drive search rankings for top products and terms in the long run.

QUESTION: Do you folks see this domain acquisition for landing pages a waste of time and effort? Should I just concentrate on optimizing title tags, H1 and other necessary content on current pages without going through the hassle of acquiring new domains and creating a "mini" site, so to speak? Or, should I just not bother with anything, because the client already ranks number 1 for the term and basically defying logic.

Thanks in advance...

Rick

[Randy]

Welcome Rick!

Do you folks see this domain acquisition for landing pages a waste of time and effort?

Yes, it's a waste of time and effort. Especially since the current is already ranking well. Keyworded domains set up to be micro sites is a time wasting bug that bites far too many people who don't know better. If it was a trademark or something along those lines you might want to buy the domain to protect the trademark, then 301 redirect it to the final location, but that doesn't sound like the situation.

As far as the clients current ranking, that's probably happening because of a combination of links pointing to the site with the phrase in the anchor text and the authority in the industry he's managed to build up over time. In the Web World one cannot rest on ones laurels, so it wouldn't hurt to start putting together a strategy to hold those rankings as competition gets more fierce. But honestly if they're getting the majority of their traffic and sales from 1 phrase or even a dozen phrases the first thing I'd want to do is expand the keyword phrases being targeted. There's bound to be at least 100 or more phrases that are relevant and would convert for them.