differently named domains same site?

Is it worth having different names to max keyword

[hunkydory]

I am currently setting up a niche website and have purchased a name for it, however the name I have chosen is not topic related, long story but there is reasons why.

Should I also buy 'niche name.com' so when people search for that exact term the site comes up as well and to stop other people creating a similar site?

Would search engines not approve of having 2 different names for the same site?

I plan to redirect the exact keyword domain to the other domain directly without htaccess.

Thanks for any help!

[farmboy]

I have a related question. I'm about to build a new website, let's say about widgets.

Blue widgets and red widgets are sub-topics and popular search terms. I have the dotcom versions of blue widgets and red widgets registered.

Will I be better off putting the content concerning blue widgets and red widgets on the widgets dotcom site and redirecting blue widgets dotcom and red widgets dotcom to that larger site

or will I be better off having a general widgets site, a separate small blue widgets site, a separate red widgets site and then linking from the widgets site to the blue and red?

FarmBoy

[Robert Charlton]

Is it worth having different names to max keyword.

No. What matters is your inbound anchor text, and while multiple domains or company names can influence this on links to the default home page of the site, what's going to matter in the long run is the content on your pages and relevant links you can obtain to that content.

Multiple domains are really fraught with a lot of problems. You're much better off sticking with one.

...and redirecting blue widgets dotcom and red widgets dotcom to that larger site...

When you properly redirect, via a 301, your source domain effectively ceases to exist. It doesn't matter what it was called. All that matters is the inbound link anchor text. If the domain isn't there to link to, it's not really going to help you get that anchor text.

Spend your efforts creating some decent content to attract inbound links.