Can your website rank well with a keyword-rich domain name? Sure, however it can rank JUST as well with no keyword(s) in the domain name at all. There are over 200 other less-obvious factors that impact rank, and the domain name is usually not the most significant. However, it can definitely make a difference in the eyes of web searchers, as well as Google crawlers. Let’s assume your website has been up and running for several months, and as a company President or CEO, you assume that your company could get a higher search engine rank if you were using a keyword in the domain name instead of the one you already have. In addition to your company’s web domain, maindomain.com, you go out and purchase new web domains, companykeyword.com, companykeyword2.com and keywordcompany.com.

From Google’s perspective, this is considered a beneficial and potentially damaging way to assign these additional domain names to your site, depending on how the process is handled. This can cause much company headache in terms of organic ranking if you go about the process incorrectly, specifically in terms of duplicate content and trust. Have you ever heard of duplicate content? Maybe so, but do you know exactly how it can affect your original site? Which domain name does Google have more history and trust with, your current domain name or one you just purchased and created?

Clearly duplicate content is frowned upon in Google. Search engines want to see fresh and unique material, because this increases the probability of a user finding the content useful, new, and intriguing. If you have 2-3 newly created websites which are hosting the same content as your original domain name, your original domain name will (usually) be given preference in search engines, because it has been established on the web longer than your newly created sites. However, the fact that the new and original sites have the same content will lower search engine ranks for all sites containing this content. New sites may not even show up on Google at all, and the original sites search ranks may suffer to some degree. Best practice is to rewrite completely new content for each domain name that your company creates and uses online.

Common methods used by webmasters to point multiple domain names to a web server include:
• Domain Mirroring and Masking
• Domain Cloaking
• Domain Redirecting

The domain “mirroring and masking” technique is sometimes called a “pointer domain”. A site like this will look like the domain name when it is viewed in a browser, but it is actually a mask overlaying the real domain name and its web content. When a user types in www.companydomain.com, it is actually forwarding the user to companydomain.blogspot.com without the address visibly changing in the user’s address bar. The user continues to see www.companydomain.com in the address bar, even though the site and its contents are really from companydomain.blogspot.com.

“Domain cloaking” uses an iframe or embedded frameset to visibly display the content of another site.

“Domain redirecting”, which is also called URL redirecting, requires all website traffic that is sent through the new domain name to be immediately redirected to the main domain name. This can also be a domain redirected to a subdirectory of the original domain, or multiple domains redirected to a complex URL. This is different from the “mirroring and masking” technique and domain cloaking because, when a user types in www.companydomain.com, they end up on www.maincompanydomain.com, and the address changes accordingly in the user’s address bar. So with all these possibilities out there, let’s take a look at the issues you must consider before making this important decision.

To minimize confusion, it is often better to change the brand (or company) name to better reflect the keyword-rich domain name. This could be as simple as recreating the company logo, but depending on the company, this may be a huge change, so you may wish to consult your customer base first.

The technical procedure of redirecting domain names must be done properly so that the search engines like Google and Yahoo! do not get confused about what you are attempting to do. Otherwise, you risk triggering a duplicate content filter, which would cause Google to accept only one domain with that content. However, the biggest risk is setting off an alarm at Google or Yahoo! that you are trying to manipulate their methods, in order to get your company a better rank.

For the sake of example, let’s say you’ve decided to change the company name to reflect your new keyword-rich domain. If you use any other method than domain redirecting, you are more than likely going to be disappointed with your new search engine rank. Domain “mirroring and masking”, as well as cloaking, all confuse search engines because they see the same content under different domain names. Google then chooses one of the domain names to display that content, and therefore limits search results by leaving your other sites out. The search engine chooses for you, assuming you are not aware of how to manage your duplicate content issues, and there is no way to predict which domain name Google will choose. You could be saying “goodbye” to all the hard-earned web traffic gathered by your main domain name.

The more serious issue with the domain “mirroring and masking” technique is the probability that Google suspects you are attempting to manipulate search rank by suddenly using keywords in your additional domain names. The end result is either a loss of whatever good ranking your company did have, or your site being banned from Google altogether. Now that would be unwanted search results! This is precisely what happens with some clients. Despite many warnings, but thinking they might change the company name eventually, they buy several additional keyword-rich domain names and have the webmaster point them all at their server, using domain masking. Within a couple weeks Google drops their domain ranking across the board, and may even ultimately ban them.

Of course, companies who find themselves in situations like this then come to internet marketing specialists (like TriMark Solutions, *wink wink*) with their issue. Internet marketing professionals would politely remind them to consult the specialists next time they’re considering making technical decisions regarding their company’s website, and to allow the professionals to handle the proper redirecting of domain names. Once a company has found themselves in poor status with Google, it may take up to 6 painfully traffic-free weeks to restore their good rank again. When a company obtains additional domain names, they should be permanently redirected to the company’s main domain name – the one, central location for all of the company’s information and content. When redirecting a domain name, it should be done differently depending on the type of server hosting your site (Apache, Windows, etc), how much control you have over that server (shared or dedicated server), and the purpose of the redirected domain name.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 8:51 am and is filed under Internet Marketing, SEO - Tip of The Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.