Many domains - redirected to one

This can't be legit

[giorgioh]

First off, you guys are the greatest. I've been reading these boards for a month now and have learned so much. So I had to register and ask a question.
I was doing some research on goto and found a page of results where 9 of the top 14 positions were all differenet domains owned by the same company and all redirected to a single domain. Looks like a company that does seo owns the 9 domains. These were not paid listings so where did the actual results come from? And is this a legitimate technique?
Hint - the search was for "fujitsu plasma monitor" and the 9 domains all ended in -mv.

[agerhart]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld giorgioh,

Your post seems a tad bit odd to me.

These were not paid listings so where did the actual results come from?

Do you mean that they did not pay the regular click price, or they did not pay extra to be listed on the top.

I do not deal with GoTo as I do not consider this SEO, but I think it is time that I do start to consider using GoTo. I have done some research and taked to some people and realized the benefits.....but this is off topic.

And is this a legitimate technique?

NO, this is not a legitimate technique, by any standards. How can you justify using the same content nine times? I would have to assume that there is something else going on between GoTo and the website.

[john316]

<<These were not paid listings so where did the actual results come from?>>

The domains that you referenced were delivered by Inktomi. No one is manipulating GoTo paid results, but they sure sure did a number on Inktomi.

Is it legitimate? Apparently the folks who spammed Inktomi think so.

[giorgioh]

I thought the results without "cost to advertiser" were from other search engines. So I assume they used this "technique" somewhere else and the results show up in goto.
OK, I figured it out. The seo company guarantees a top 20 position and they don't even have to touch your website. They just use a whole bunch of domains that redirect to their clients site.
My education continues...

[giorgioh]

Hey thanks John316 for verifying what I thought. And when I say my education continues I mean learning what NOT to do as well as the right things to do.
Thanks again

[jonbach]

I am glad I came across this topic. I have a handful of domains registered, each with its own keyword focus (ie, one focuses on our products, the other targets regional keywords, etc etc). What do I need to keep in mind when submitting to search engines? All of the domains point to the exact same website. Is this spam? Is this not a good practice for a webmaster? I just don't want to become like that seller of plasma monitors! Thanks.

[IanTurner]

I think this is an interesting discussion, I have a client who is buying the domain names for his trademarked products and pointing them all to his website. This I think is a very legitimate use of multiple domains, especially if they were to sell off a division of the company sometime in the future.

They are not promoting these additional domain names in anyway and are not submitting them to search engines so if they were to be penalised in the search engines, I would consider it to be a significantly unfair practice.

[jonbach]

I've been reading up a little more on this, and it definitely looks like a no-no for many search engines. So I think I will point them all to separate sites. I'll start with a simple doorway to my main site, but it will give me the opportuninty to develop each one with its own goals and focus. But lets take a worst case scenario here, in which each domain would simply host a doorway page to my main site. Is this something I should NOT do? You see, when I first started our company, I knew nothing of search engines, keywords, SEO, etc....so my current domain doesn't have a single one of my keywords in it!

[IanTurner]

jonbach, I was in very much the same position as you. I was working with two business partners one of whom isn't interested in anything that isn't financial and the other was blanket submission worked two years ago so it must still work.

Luckily we managed to fire him and get some new focus into the business, so the websites have been redesigned to actually focus on some keywords associates with our business.