Comments on: Domain Strategy – Why It’s A Critical Component to SEO Technical Audits

By: Robin Ong

Robin Ong — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:45:41 +0000

Great post. My company initially plan to have 2 domains to work with, the company and the main product. Now, I am sure that a single domain would suffice. Probably would make a 301 redirect from the product domain to the main site of they insist on using 2 domains. Thanks.

By: Frank Zimper

Frank Zimper — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:07:03 +0000

Michel,

If you use a non-country TLD – such as .com, .net, .org and the likes – you *can* set up target countries on a directory level in Google’s Webmaster Tools.

Not that would help you much in markets where Google is not the predominant search engine.

Frank

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:09:34 +0000

I apologize Michel, I called you Michael! Thanks again for your comment.

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:06:28 +0000

Thanks Michael. I’m glad you brought up international SEO. It’s a growing area and I’ve helped several clients with how to best tackle it for their specific businesses. That might be a topic for another post actually. Regarding Google Webmaster Tools, you can geotarget by subdirectory (and subdomain).

Here’s a video explaining more about it. Geotargeting in Google Webmaster Tools

I’m not saying that’s what I would always recommend doing, but again, that’s for another post. :)

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:49:36 +0000

Thanks Sharon. I’m glad you liked my post. You make some great points about keyword domains and using vanity domains (301 redirecting to a subdirectory). The latter is a great way to use a custom domain in your messaging, but still be search-friendly.

By: Michel Leconte

Michel Leconte — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:06:51 +0000

Good post.

One area that is not addressed here is multi-lingual websites, and the impact of the Google Webmaster Tool “this website targets user in…” command (which can only be applied to domain or sub domains, not directories) on search results.

By: Sharon Hayes

Sharon Hayes — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:04:02 +0000

Great post and one I will direct clients to read. I’ve worked for many years on domain strategy (branding, using them for traffic purposes). IMO the only times it make sense to use multiple domains are 1. When you can acquire keyword word domains where the keywords get searches and build up “simple” pages. Time and again, we’ve put this to the test and it can result in #1-#5 rankings. 2. When doing an offline marketing campaign as a REDIRECT to a subdirectory on your main site. Anything else and you end up diluting.

On the domain side, we’re now working with a handful of new clients a week who have us do the research on keyword domain acquisition for them. This is really a growing area.

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:31:47 +0000

Thanks Seth. You bring up an interesting question. Taking a step back for a second, placing a blog on the core domain is optimal for most sites, with using a subdomain coming in second place. I’m not sure the scenario you listed above would work well. There are several small issues that could arise that might throw off the setup (and possibly down the line). I’d have to see exactly how it was going to be set up to see if it would work. That’s a good question, though. :)

By: Glenn Gabe

Glenn Gabe — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:06:05 +0000

Thanks for your comment Alan. I definitely agree with you. Domain strategy can get complex, especially with larger companies or brands. Depending on the client and site, there are times when subdomains or separate domains make sense. But for many sites, building content, links, and strength across domains is not feasible (resource-wise). Like you said, you need to take time during the audit process to evaluate the situation at hand. Thanks again!

By: Alan Bleiweiss

Alan Bleiweiss — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:27:02 +0000

Serious considerations Glenn. I find it critical to take the time during the audit process to evaluate domain factors like this. The concept of one domain vs. many can get complex and requires serious understanding of the company’s mission, brand strategy and market.

Personally, I do sometimes advocate niche domains under highly controlled circumstances, yet beyond SEO, as much as there are times when I think it’s wise to go with multiple domains that are truly niche, the amount of time it can take to build individual domain value is far outweighed by the more immediate value in building that content right into the existing main site as far as end-customer exposure is concerned.