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I have some questions regarding SEO and the best use of keywords in conjunction with corresponding domain names, and I thought it'd be best to pose the questions in the form of an example: Let's say I have a company called "Nick's Winery" with the domain "nicks-winery.com." I have a new product I'm launching that I've named "Rocket Red," the primary landing page for which is "nicks-winery.com/rocket-red." I want to optimize my search results for the keyword "rocket red,"-- thus, if one searches the term "rocket red," the Nick's Winery site would ideally show at the very top of the results page-- and in addition to providing a good deal of information on the actual product page, it's prominently referenced at the top of my homepage at nicks-winery.com. I've gone ahead and purchased the domain names "rocketred.com," "rocket-red.com," "rocketredwine.com," etc. and I have pointed them all to the primary Rocket Red page at "nicks-winery.com/rocket-red"-- thus, no duplicate content, just the one primary product page.

My question is as follows-- what further steps can I take to optimize for this keyword with respect to the domain names? Should I explicitly add all the domains I've purchased-- with both www and non-www variants-- into Google webmaster tools, and submit them to be indexed, even though they all point to the primary landing page within the "nicks-winery" domain? Is this even necessary? Should I even be pointing all the brand-name domains to that page in the first place, or would it be optimal to take a different approach? Should these keyword-specific domains in fact be pointed to just the "nicks-winery.com" instead of the specific product page?

Thanks for any insight here.

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  • why you have purchased "rocketred.com," "rocket-red.com," "rocketredwine.com," etc? To match your keyword with domain?
    – Helping Hands
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 6:41
  • yes, the idea in this (hypothetical) example, is that the supplemental domains were purchased to assist SEO for the given keyword
    – nickpish
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 6:48
  • I see. But that will not help you..:)
    – Helping Hands
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 6:49

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Oh Lord you are wasting your time and money!

Keyword domain names do not count for much and will give you nothing more than a big bill at the end of the year.

Keyword matches do happen only in the very narrowest of circumstances for sites that have content and rank on their own. Purchasing multiple domains for the purpose of gaining an advantage does not work. Having multiple domain names for rank does not work. It is an old black-hat trick that was very very short lived when Google discovered the foolishness of it's theory (exact match keyword domains) and pulled it quickly. Unfortunately, we see this come up often even 2 years after Google pulling the plug.

You are always far better off creating one well optimized site and ranking for the things you should rank for.

There are no tricks, buttons, levers, magic incarnations, mystical potions, enchantments, and no even Bloody Mary cannot help you get better SEO.

There are too many people willing to spend money on useless domain names and too many people willing to take your money. Worse yet, there are the middle men that make you feel like you are doing the right thing for their own piece of the pie. Forget the non-sense and go straight for the one domain name and do damned good work and get your prize the old fashioned way- work for it. Stop fiddling about with silliness and get busy.

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  • did you understand why NICK has purchased these domains? "rocketred.com," "rocket-red.com," "rocketredwine.com," etc. For ranking to match keywork with domain? I am confuse for that sentence.
    – Helping Hands
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 6:39
  • well, first off, the client purchased all the domains, thinking it would help in our specific instance. While I realize it might be overkill, I am surprised that ownership of the domains and pointing them to the primary site would not make much of a difference. This is not about magical tricks, but ways to get a bit of extra help for a specific keyword. If owning corresponding domain names really doesn't have much of an effect, then so be it.
    – nickpish
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 6:45
  • @HelpingHands He has three problems: one, keyword domains do virtually nothing without content of their own; two, it appears that he wanted to redirect these domains to a sub-directory which cannot be done; and three there it always the duplicate content issue if it applies.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 6:53
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    @nickpish I certainly did not mean to sound critical if I did. Keyword matches do happen only in the very narrowest of circumstances for sites that have content and rank on their own. Purchasing multiple domains for the purpose of gaining an advantage does not work. Having multiple domain names for rank does not work. It is an old black-hat trick that was very very short lived when Google discovered the foolishness of it's theory (exact match keyword domains) and pulled it quickly. Unfortunately, we see this come up often even 2 years after Google pulling the plug. Sorry about your client.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 7:01
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    @nickpish SEO and designers see this all the time these days. People read all this SEO junk and believe it wholesale. It is a shame really. It leaves the rest of us to clean up the mess. I appreciate your concern and asking the question here. I tend to be rather frank on these issues. These answers I do not want to soft peddle. I hate all the old and often very wrong SEO advice out there from all the SEO peddlers trying to carve out a niche for themselves. I do what I can to set the record straight. If you can stand a bit of frankness, this is an excellent place for SEO questions. Honest!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 7:11

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