Multiple URLs

[gross26]

Sorry, I'm kind of a rookie here in regards to search engine optimization. But I have a question that I'm hoping someone in this forum can help with. When it comes to the SEs...your URL is an important part of getting indexed, correct? But how important? I know you have to have a good site design and setup that is both user friendly yet "search engine" friendly. But how important is the URL. With that being said. Would it be more beneficial for me to purchase multiple or even hundreds of URLs that would relate to my site...Or is this going to get me blacklisted by the SEs? I was just wondering because we keep throwing money at the SEs for paid positions, but I was wondering if buying more relevant domain names could boost the free indexing more and thus allow us to cut back on the paid programs we have running.

Any input would be greatly appreciated...

[adacprogramming]

The URL has some affect on the SE's but not that much. Your better off picking a URL that your potential client will be able to remember(and spell) then to choose one you think the SE's will like.

Keywords in the Title and in the content have far more affect. Fresh content will keep the search engines spidering your site often. And relevant links will boost the popularity of your site in the SE's.

I've worked with sites that Use the multiple URL trick. You have to be careful, you can't just point the domain name to the same address, Google will see two sites with the same content and call it duplicate content. You can do a 302 redirect but then you confuse your visitors when the domain name changes. Doesn't work out well, unless you are just trying to capture the .com , .net or other extensions.

My opinion, I'm sure there will be others.

[gross26]

Thanks for the reply.

[bhartzer]

When it comes to the SEs...your URL is an important part of getting indexed, correct?

Absolutely not. The URL doesn't matter whatsoever when it comes to rankings.

You can do a 302 redirect but then you confuse your visitors when the domain name changes.

I would never ever use a 302 redirect. It must always always always be a 301 Permanent Redirect if you're redirecting domains that you're not using to your main domain. If you want more information about it, look here.

[RAUS]

Originally Posted by gross26

Would it be more beneficial for me to purchase multiple or even hundreds of URLs that would relate to my site...Or is this going to get me blacklisted by the SEs?

If you have multiple services or products you could have multiple pages on your web site. One for each product or service.

For example: mydomain.com
mydomain.com/product1.html
mydomain.com/product2.html
mydomain.com/serviceA.html
mydomain.com/serviceB.html

You can have hundreds or even thousands of pages.

Each page should be optimized for each product or service. This way the search engines will index each page separately, for that product or service.

Each page should have a name that describes the product or service.

Each page is treated by the search engines as a separate URL.

Each page must have at least 10% unique content when compared to the home page and other pages to avoid duplicate content problems.

Purchasing multiple domains, and pointing them to your main page is only necessary to protect your domain name from competitors and to have the .net .org etc. versions of your domain name also point to your main site.

However, these extra domains will not show up in the search engines.

For the search engines to list multiple domains, you would need to host them somewhere and have unique content on each. This is not necessary and can be very expensive.

Harris

[ccera]

However, these extra domains will not show up in the search engines.

For the search engines to list multiple domains, you would need to host them somewhere and have unique content on each. This is not necessary and can be very expensive.

I found out accidentally that this is not true of all search engines all of the time. I use a half dozen or so redirected urls which point to pages of my site. (I use them for targeted print advertising, for example CentralVirginiaForeclosures.com goes to - duh - my foreclosure page, and it is the url I give in print ads about foreclosures.)
A couple of weeks ago, I put in some of my keywords and was shocked when they returned info for one of my pages, but the url was a one that was simply pointed at that page.
Unfortunately, I tried to find it again when I read this thread, but I have no clue which SE, keywords, or URL were involved, so you'll have to take my word (or not).
I can say it wasn't Google, since they won't admit that my site exists! (But that's another thread.)
CiCi

[RAUS]

Originally Posted by ccera

I found out accidentally that this is not true of all search engines all of the time.

It depends on how the domain is forwarded to the main domain. Many domain registrars have three ways of sending someone from one domain to another.

There is forwarding, aliasing, and masking.

First, there would have to be a link to the extra domain listed somewhere for a SE to follow.

With plain forwarding, the URL for the extra domain is simply replaced with the URL for the main domain and you wind up on the main site.

Spiders are stopped by this process. Since there is no information available to them, there is nothing for them to index. They never go to the main site.

However, if the extra domain is aliased as the way of going to the main domain, the URL of the extra domain replaces the URL of the main domain.

Visitors and the search engines are fooled into thinking the content of the main site is on another site with another domain name.

This can result is the SE thinking the extra domain and the main domain have duplicate content and not list the extra domain at all.

The third way of forwarding is to mask the URL

This is done by the registrar setting up a page with meta information on it, that loads the URL of the main site into a frame on this page.

This way of forwarding a domain is usually used to direct people to a sub-directory as if it is a separate domain.

Since the page the registrar sets up has meta information on it, the SE will index this information.

Since a SE will index individual pages as easily as as it indexes individual domains, and the title and content of each page can emphasize a different product or service, there is usually no need to purchase multiple domains to get listed in the search engines.

Harris

[gross26]

but to clear a few things up.

Say I'm running a used cars classifed site called:

hotrods.com

Now, would it help that I buy the following domains:

1967mustang.com
1970nova.com

Someone stated the following-
"Absolutely not. The URL doesn't matter whatsoever when it comes to rankings."

Are you saying that the domain name doesn't matter at all, and that how the URL is "structured" doesn't matter either.

I already have different pages setup for the different products:

hotrods.com/1967mustang
hotrods.com/1970nova

Does having the name of the product directly after the domain name help at all?

Do the SEs prefer static pages? Does the length of the url or it being dynamic/asp web page hurt?

[RAUS]

Originally Posted by gross26

Now, would it help that I buy the following domains:

1967mustang.com
1970nova.com

...

I already have different pages setup for the different products:

hotrods.com/1967mustang
hotrods.com/1970nova

Does having the name of the product directly after the domain name help at all?

Do the SEs prefer static pages? Does the length of the url or it being dynamic/asp web page hurt?

Assuming that the content of the page reached by going to 1967mustang.com is identical to the content of the page reached by going to hotrods.com/1967mustang.html the SE ranking would be identical!

The same is true for 1970nova.com and hotrods.com/1970nova.html

Your SE ranking depends upon the use of your key words and phrases in the name of the page, the title of the page, the content of the page, and to a lesser extent in the meta information and alt tags on the page.

While there is some discussion of what percentage is best, I have found that 10 to 12 percent works for me.

I suggest that you check what percentage of the content, your key words and phrases make up on the top ranked pages for those words and phrases, then duplicate it.

Check out: http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/kwda.cgi

for an excellent density tool.

Your key words or phrases should lead off the title of the page. For example, "1967 Mustang For Sale"

If you are selling more than one Mustang you might want to also have a "1967 Mustangs For Sale" page.

Or, a "1967 Mustangs; Hotrods Has Your Best Price!" page.

Just make sure that the at least 10% of each page consists of unique content. This can just be the use of the phrase from the title.

The search engines used to have a hard time following dynamic links. However, as I understand it, this has been pretty much fixed, at least by the major search engines.

On the other hand, I personally believe it is best to use static pages, or if this is impractical, to keep the URL as simple and short as possible.

This makes the page accessible to even the small search engines and to people with outdated browsers.

Harris

[jordanmcclements]

In theory the domain name should not make a huge difference - but in PRACTICE....

try searching for

belfast solicitors

on Google :-

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=1...G=Search&meta=

You will get (in third place):-

http://www.belfast-solicitors-association.org/

This is a site that has practically NO links to it whatsoever - and doesn't even have a proper 'title' tag... (Although, granted it does have lots of references to "Belfast Solicitors" in its index page - but surely this is not enough for it to rank 3rd in Google for the above search term??)

On this evidence - I think it may be worth buying domain names such as "belfast-solicitors.com" and putting some semi-relevant text and a link to www.cfs-law.com to boost our traffic...

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

[RAUS]

Originally Posted by jordanmcclements

In theory the domain name should not make a huge difference - but in PRACTICE....

try searching for

belfast solicitors

on Google :-

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=1...G=Search&meta=

You will get (in third place):-

http://www.belfast-solicitors-association.org/

This is a site that has practically NO links to it whatsoever - and doesn't even have a proper 'title' tag... (Although, granted it does have lots of references to "Belfast Solicitors" in its index page - but surely this is not enough for it to rank 3rd in Google for the above search term??)

On this evidence - I think it may be worth buying domain names such as "belfast-solicitors.com" and putting some semi-relevant text and a link to www.cfs-law.com to boost our traffic...

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

Yes, I do. ;-)

I did a search for belfast solicitors association on Google.

While at first glance it may seem that the first page in the listing should not be listed ahead of the second page, and that the difference is the domain name, that is not the whole story.

In the first listing, the density of the phrase "belfast solicitors association" is 6.34%

In the second listing, the density of the phrase is 11.64%

However, the first site has these individual words sprinkled throughout the text over and over again.

While they do not count as a phrase, they do count!

However, my point was not that someone shouldn't get relevant, easy to remember domain names.

My point was that two pages, with identical content, would rank at the same place in the SE.

This of course would have to mean that IBLinks would also have to be identical.

In addition, the keywords in the title of the domain, i.e.,: "Hotrods-Mustangs.com" would have to be matched with the keywords in the title of the page i.e., "Hotrods.com/Mustangs.html" for the comparison to be completely accurate.

While in some circumstances it may be practical and desirable to purchase a separate domain for each individual product, my experience is that SE ranking will not be changed by spending this money.

In fact, in my opinion, in the case of used car site, with gross26 talking about buying hundreds of domains, at a minimum of $6 each, it would be a complete waste of money.

If you then add an hosting package for each of these hundreds of domains, instead of just forwarding them, it goes from the ridiculous to the absurd.

Once again, in my experience, if all things are equal, including keywords in the URL, page name, page title, meta tags, and the content, the SE ranking will be identical for those two pages.

IBLs and keyword density will affect the ranking compared to other sites and pages, but not to an identical page.

Harris

[jordanmcclements]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply....

It seems that it is almost impossible to come up with hard and fast rules for Google....

I am now thinking about adding some extra waffle to the home page of www.cfs-law.com with some more search phrases sprinkled around.....

[RAUS]

Originally Posted by jordanmcclements

Thanks for the comprehensive reply....

It seems that it is almost impossible to come up with hard and fast rules for Google....

I am now thinking about adding some extra waffle to the home page of www.cfs-law.com with some more search phrases sprinkled around.....

Why not create pages specifically optimized for Belfast, Londonderry, and Northern Ireland.

For example: Belfast-Solicitors.html, Londonderry-Solicitors.html, and Northern-Ireland-Solicitors.html

I suggest having these phrases optimized at 10-12 percent of the text. (Use the link in my past post)

I looked at you site and it would not take much effort to create these pages. Doing this would probably increase your ranking for searches on these specific phrases.

Harris

[CreditFN]

It depends on your business and web presence structure. If you can create feeder sites about topics on your website then these will get you listed on topics relevant to your site. Hopefully getting you a greater percentage of frontpage exposure. If you have any question and would like to be more specific about your URL, please feel free to ask.