Using keyword URLs

[CarmaCreative]

Hello everyone,

Have any of you had experience of implementing a keyword URL successfully?

I have a website that is the company name and in addition what I think are great keyword URLs relevant to my business and location. I bought the URLs a year ago and they've never been listed on the search engines.

Any ideas on how to make this work?

Thanks,
Phil

[Corrosive]

Well, you have a couple of choices.

Firstly you can use a 301 perm redirect on the other URLs. This avoids any penalties from Google for duplicate content. The drawback is that Google will probably only register/rank your existing site as the primary URL so the 'juice' you get from it might not be worth the effort.

The second choice is to build something unique on the other URLs and then linking keywords back to your original site. Maybe a blog or article site?

Generally though keyword URLs are great if you have built your core website on them but not sure how much use they will be to you now. Perhaps consider moving your main site... But with caution!

[Boss Hog]

The second choice is to build something unique on the other URLs and then linking keywords back to your original site. Maybe a blog or article site?

This :icon_thumbup:

[CarmaCreative]

Thanks guys. The keyword url is parked on my primary domain. Will that be treated the same as a redirect?

Thanks for the tip about setting up unique content for the website. I have just set up an integrated blog for my new website, so will have to go back to the drawing board

Thanks,
Phil

[Corrosive]

Thanks guys. The keyword url is parked on my primary domain. Will that be treated the same as a redirect?

They are not usually teh same thing. A domain can be parked but you'll need to set up the 301 separately. If you want to post the content of your .htaccess file I can tell you if it correct.

Thanks for the tip about setting up unique content for the website. I have just set up an integrated blog for my new website, so will have to go back to the drawing board

We run our blog internally to our own URL. It seems to do the job pretty well for SEM purposes. There are things in your markup you could do to improve your Search Engine performance. Such as using the Phark Image Replacement technique, combined with CSS Sprites, to replace those DW generated javascript rollovers. I know you have alt text but proper text links would help massively. It would also degrade correctly when visitors without javascript enabled come calling.

[CarmaCreative]

Thanks for the info. On reflection, I wonder whether I should use the keyword url as the primary domain and have the company name url as the redirect. In theory this would be better for search engine ranking?

[Corrosive]

Thanks for the info. On reflection, I wonder whether I should use the keyword url as the primary domain and have the company name url as the redirect. In theory this would be better for search engine ranking?

Only slightly better and you'll need to be careful not to set yourselves back a few months rather than moving forwards. You need to make use of services such as Webmaster Tools to properly inform Google about what you are doing so they don't just see duplicate content leading to getting both domains penalised.

Still think there is work to be done on your site in terms of SEO before you dive into a URL marketing strategy.

[Boss Hog]

Thanks for the info. On reflection, I wonder whether I should use the keyword url as the primary domain and have the company name url as the redirect. In theory this would be better for search engine ranking?

Bad idea, the keyword domain should be developed with relevant content on the subject, then link from a couple of "keywords" to the page selling the product on your main website. Put them on different IP's and try and get some relevant links in to the keyword domain.

[CarmaCreative]

OK understood, thanks guys.

New website is about to launch any day now. It has been totally built with SEO in mind, much more so than the current website.

[Corrosive]

OK understood, thanks guys.

New website is about to launch any day now. It has been totally built with SEO in mind, much more so than the current website.

OK, fair shout. I'll wind me neck in then