SEO for redirected domains

[saikatblogger]

This is the situation:

My friend wants to rank in local search engines. He has set up domain.com, domain.ie, domain.co.uk, domain.de, domain.in etc. But all the TLDs redirect to .com

How to proceed with such a project? Will it help to do SEO for domains that redirect to .com?

Or, he should maintain all domains, put unique content and then send the buyers to the .com domain on conversion page? What do you suggest?

Thanks,

[williamc]

I personally would put up a few pages on each, get a solid number of backlinks to each, then 301 them all to the .com site. This allows the links and anchors to pass both PR and rankings to the .com when the engines recognize the redirects.

[saikatblogger]

Thanks for your reply William.

My question is: will this help in the long run? If I upload some unique pages on each site and acquire some quality links in the first few months and then simply 301 all these domains to .com - how this going to help me rank in local search engines for the YEARS to come?

If .ie, .in, .co.uk and .de redirect to the .com domain, those domains won't keep getting new links in future. Will it be possible to sustain rank in all regional search engines? Thoughts?

[morestar]

i registered a few for my site, .ca, .co.uk etc...

I guess i could have added some keywords and keyword anchor text on each page and meta redirected it after a few seconds but all the big wigs don't do it.

[saikatblogger]

@morestar, I usually avoid this technique. But I don't see any harm in permanent redirection of a domain to another.

My friend already has multiple domains with various tlds. They are ranking in respective local searches. Will it be wise to maintain all the domains OR a 301 redirection to .com would be good.

Once I 301 redirect .ie, .co.in, .co.uk and.de to the .com I cannot get new links to those regional tld domains - won't it hurt local search rank?

[avera]

@saikatblogger,

My question to your friend (if I were you) would be why?... Why would you want to show each different locality the same site?

Should he not make each site bespoke for that said locality, this way not only does he have a better chance of ranking well, but the user experience will be much better enabling and encouraging return visits and backlinks.

[mjamrock]

I'd be careful (I am not 100% certain of this but you should look into it carefully). Google may consider a redirect a crossed DIFFERENT domains to be black hat SEO.

Typically, what you are talking about involves a 302 redirect, which can be viewed as a hijack attempt or a cloaking attempt.

Not certain of this but be careful not to get banned- then all SEO efforts are for naught.

We hold several similar domains which provide increased SEO landing page opportunities- and cross link them with absolute hyperlinks (not redirects).

Believe it or not by doing this it jumped our page ranks on every site and it is Google friendly white hat SEO.

Good Luck,
Britt

[saikatblogger]

@avera,

Those domains are localized for the target market already. That's why they are ranking well I guess. But, some people are of the opinion that redirecting these domains to the .com one would add more value to the .com domain.

[saikatblogger]

It seems maintaining multiple localized domains is MUCH BETTER than having them redirected to .com, right?

[williamc]

Originally Posted by mjamrock

I'd be careful (I am not 100% certain of this but you should look into it carefully). Google may consider a redirect a crossed DIFFERENT domains to be black hat SEO.

Typically, what you are talking about involves a 302 redirect, which can be viewed as a hijack attempt or a cloaking attempt.

Actually, I said above for him to specifically use a 301 redirect, which google says is the proper way of doing what he is asking about.

[iaccess]

If you are targeting the countries for which you have TLD's, then by far the best option is to create content for each country, in the local language if you can. That way you will do much better in each country-specific search engine (e.g., google.de). Make the content unique (similar content translated into each language is OK too).
It would be OK to cross-link the sites, but you would also want to get links to each domain as well.

If you are not marketing to one or more of these countries, then just 301 redirect the domain to the .com until you can. Not much benefit to that all in all, but maybe a little. A good way to save the domain for later when you might target each country.

One suggestion above was to launch each separately, build some links, then 301 redirect. I would not recommend this unless your strategy is to really create a separate site for each. You will be better off to just 301 the unused domains to the .com, and put your effort into links directly to the .com.

[mjamrock]

Yes- I saw you said 301 but I was replying to his post. Google recommends 301s for three reasons:

1. to combine all www vs non www indexed versions of pages on ONE domain (this removes duplicates from index for penalty purposes and ensures all back hyperlinks are counted for page rank)
2. to transfer an old domain to a new domain (assuming the old one is not being used)
3. if you rename the URL of a page inside ONE domain and want to transfer credit and index from the old URL page name

Google, as far as I know- according to the Matt Cutts blog and the webmaster forum does not suggest that people should 301 redirect different domains with the intention of them all being active. It is potentially regarded as black hat and resembles the old 302 trick

Cross linking multiple domains keyword rich for our business tripled our traffic in two weeks! Boosted our page ranks and got every page indexed in even our new domains in about three weeks.

If your friend has the domains- he has a lot of options and power for landing pages.

I only use 301s for reason number one above. But that's just me.

Britt

[williamc]

Originally Posted by mjamrock

Google, as far as I know- according to the Matt Cutts blog and the webmaster forum does not suggest that people should 301 redirect different domains with the intention of them all being active.

That is because Google is smart enough to know that a 301'd domain is NOT active anymore. A 301 redirect is a serverside redirect that happens BEFORE any pages are ever shown. Once a 301 is in place, for all intents and purposes, the site is never seen again in its old form.

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by williamc

That is because Google is smart enough to know that a 301'd domain is NOT active anymore. A 301 redirect is a serverside redirect that happens BEFORE any pages are ever shown. Once a 301 is in place, for all intents and purposes, the site is never seen again in its old form.

I have quite a few website names which I redirect to the main com site to avoid duplicate content.
these sites if 301 redirected will not appear in the search engines as separate returns for search query's, but if they do are many pages from the top on most search engines.
for example SS Richard Montgomery matter is directly 301 to the main SS Richard Montgomery matter site & appears as that site if entered as a url. But I have made a single page site with relevant text and links to internal pages in the main com site for USS Richard Montgomery - ussRichardmontgomery which many people think
that the ship wreck in the site is called. I have experimented with this name & others owned by me .org .net ect & found that they are picked up by the search engines as individual sites & much higher in the ranks then just a simple 301 redirect. so as long as the content is relevant to the site being redirected to this appears to be the best proven seo way to go without being black hat. (unless of course somebody who has actual practical experience of this, rather than theoretical knows better)

[gauravgr8]

Hello
I am too curious about this question and too trying to find some answer for that some says to have a domain name by keywords and if we got that domain now how to use that . that's a simple question for me and hope for the saikatblogger now the thing is do we have to host that domain individally or do we can re-direct that or divert to the any main domain and if doing so how will that (redirected domain) will get indexed in google ???

hope i am not confused just in short wanna ask that how to deal with this kind of keywords relevant domains wethere it's TLD's origin wise but target is the google ranking ......

Sorry if anywhere wrong but just a newbie .

[williamc]

Note: This users post was removed by a moderator after reading this post. I assume pintu is banned as well. Kudos ctabuk

Originally Posted by Pintu

The first SEO mythos I want to dispel is the theory that redirecting a bunch of keyword rich domains to your primary site that is possibly a vanity site {i.e. yourname.com} will improve the overall SEO value of your primary site.

#1: Bullshite

#2: You stole that entire post from somewhere I read once in a while, which was a major screw-up you silly spamming dolt.

Stolen directly from: NUTSHELL SEO: why redirecting keyword rich domains to your vanity domain doesn't do a lick for SEO - Real Estate Agent, Brokerage and Mortgage Blogs

The above article is incorrect in my opinion based on actual usage of 301 redirects many many times, but that is neither here nor there for the purpose of this post.
.
Let's look at some of your other advice here:

Originally Posted by Pintu

Keyword spamming occurs when members place brand names or other inappropriate keywords in a title or description for the purpose of gaining attention or diverting members to a listing.

Posted at: keyword spamming?

Stolen directly from Keyword Spam Policy (not even search engine related really, but ebay spamming for petes sakes)

Originally Posted by Pintu

Link farms were developed by search engine optimizers in 1999 to take advantage of the Inktomi search engine's dependence upon link popularity. Although link popularity is used by some search engines to help establish a ranking order for search results, the Inktomi engine at the time maintained two indexes.

Posted at: What are Link farms ?

Stolen directly from Link farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Pintu

You are totally missing the point of owning your website, you set up this website to get people to visit your site, you didnt set up ur site to get the highest pr rating you can did you ? so why buy high ranking links to get your site ranking higher ? it wont guarentee you a higher placing on the search engines !

Posted at: Page Rank?

Stolen Directly from Important of PR

Do I REALLY need to continue?? I have no doubt every single post you have made is stolen.

Mods/Admins: time to take out the trash.....

[williamc]

Originally Posted by ron angel

unless of course somebody who has actual practical experience of this, rather than theoretical knows better

That would be my 10 years plus I suppose.

[Toni Anicic]

There is no point in simply 301 redirecting a plain new domain with no links pointing to it. However, creating content and generating backlinks for that domain just to later on 301 redirect it is kind of gray SEO area.

If you decide to create unique content for every of these domains, here are some guidelines (backed up with Google's words): Multiple languages, website localization and SEO | Inchoo

[williamc]

Originally Posted by Toni Anicic

However, creating content and generating backlinks for that domain just to later on 301 redirect it is kind of gray SEO area.

I will grant that it could be seen as a grey area by some.