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I'm looking for some direction as to whether a particular strategy is likely to be "OK" with Google (and other major search engines) or not. The strategy is not designed to to manipulate SERPs, but I'm concerned SEs may see it that way.
Say our company sells Widgets, is named Acme Widgets, and our main website is hosted at ht*p://www.acmewidgets.com.
We then register a bunch of other domains along the lines of ht*p://www.bluewidgets.com, ht*p://www.greenwidgets.com, etc, and put a single splash page on each of these domains. These splash pages are similar but not identical, and explain a little about the connection between Acme Widgets and Blue/Green/whatever Widgets, before linking through to the main website (acmewidgets.com).
The purpose of these pages is to help catch search engine users who are searching for Blue/Green/whatever widgets - and then gently introduce them to the Acme Widgets - before sending them through to the main website.
Is Google likely to see this as manipulative / doorway pages / duplicate content? I e-mailed Google with this query (wanted to get it clarified before we do anything), but they simply pointed me at the Webmaster Guidelines (which aren't explicit in this case).
Appreciate any responses,
Matt
[edited by: caveman at 10:02 pm (utc) on Mar. 7, 2006]
[edit reason] Delinked links. [/edit]
We then register a bunch of other domains along the lines of ht*p://www.bluewidgets.com, *://www.greenwidgets.com, etc, and put a single splash page on each of these domains. These splash pages are similar but not identical, and explain a little about the connection between Acme Widgets and Blue/Green/whatever Widgets, before linking through to the main website (acmewidgets.com)
In my book, this is pretty much the definition of a doorway page.
In any case, what makes you think you can make a single-page site on a new domain rank in the SERPS? If you've got the recipe, please share :-) Keywords in the domain name alone aren't going to do it. How are you planning to drive traffic to these new domains?
If your main domain is example.com, why not have the unique content at www.example.com/blue-widgets.html?
[edited by: caveman at 10:03 pm (utc) on Mar. 7, 2006]
[edit reason] Delinked links. [/edit]
In any case, what makes you think you can make a single-page site on a new domain rank in the SERPS? If you've got the recipe, please share
BTW, agree with webdoctor's assessment that these single page sites might get the main site in trouble...if you wanna just grab the type in traffic you can 301 the domains to the main site.
In my book, this is pretty much the definition of a doorway page.
Maybe I have my definitions wrong, but I was under the impression that a doorway page was a keyword stuffed page (often unrelated keywords too), rather than a page with some real content?
Can I assume from this comment that you think Google is unlikely to see this favourably?
In any case, what makes you think you can make a single-page site on a new domain rank in the SERPS? If you've got the recipe, please share :-) Keywords in the domain name alone aren't going to do it. How are you planning to drive traffic to these new domains?
A few backlinks to the new domains, and the fact that most of the keywords these pages are targeted towards have VERY little representation in SERPs - searching most of these keywords returns less than five relevant pages, and lots of junk. It's a bit of an experiment for us too.
If your main domain is example.com, why not have the unique content at www.example.com/blue-widgets.html?
I guess that would be possible, but to me that doesn't have the same impact as ht*p://www.bluewidgets.com.
Thanks for the reply.
BTW, agree with webdoctor's assessment that these single page sites might get the main site in trouble...if you wanna just grab the type in traffic you can 301 the domains to the main site.
We currently are 301 redirecting the domains.
How about using?nofollow on the pages on the extra domains - do you think this will affect how Google sees the extra domains? As I said it's nothing to do with SERPs so we don't care if Google doesn't follow the links back to the main site.
Thanks for the reply.
If your main domain is example.com, why not have the unique content at www.example.com/blue-widgets.html?I guess that would be possible, but to me that doesn't have the same impact as ht*p://www.bluewidgets.com.
Impact on whom? Are you talking about search engine ranking, or visitors' perception?
How about using?nofollow on the pages on the extra domains - do you think this will affect how Google sees the extra domains? As I said it's nothing to do with SERPs so we don't care if Google doesn't follow the links back to the main site.
If it's nothing to do with the SERPS then simply ban all bots from your extra domains - robots.txt would do - and you can rest assured that mainstream search engines won't spider or rank your extra domains.
Question: How exactly are users going to end up on your extra domains, if they aren't supposed to find them in a search engine?
Maybe I have my definitions wrong, but I was under the impression that a doorway page was a keyword stuffed page (often unrelated keywords too), rather than a page with some real content?
Why would anyone stuff a page with unrelated keywords?
IMHO if you stuff a piece of text with unrelated words it's generally known as writing
If you're going to stuff keywords, you have to at least stuff related keywords :-)
Can I assume from this comment that you think Google is unlikely to see this favourably?
Are you building these pages for visitors to read, or are you building them primarily to do well in the search engines?
If the content is primarily there for visitors, then perhaps you're OK. If you're primarily building them to increase your search engine rankings, IMHO you're heading for trouble...
If your main domain is example.com, why not have the unique content at www.example.com/blue-widgets.html?I guess that would be possible, but to me that doesn't have the same impact as ht*p://www.bluewidgets.com.
Impact on whom? Are you talking about search engine ranking, or visitors' perception?
Visitors.
If it's nothing to do with the SERPS then simply ban all bots from your extra domains - robots.txt would do - and you can rest assured that mainstream search engines won't spider or rank your extra domains.Question: How exactly are users going to end up on your extra domains, if they aren't supposed to find them in a search engine?
Sorry, I'm doing a poor job explaining myself :-S We do want these extra domains to rank in SERPs, but they have nothing to do with affecting SE ranking for the main site - the point I was trying to make is that we're not trying to manipulate rankings/get more inbound links/etc.
Why would anyone stuff a page with unrelated keywords?IMHO if you stuff a piece of text with unrelated words it's generally known as writing
To draw users searching for the unrelated terms to the secondary site(s), and then try and get them to go through to the main site. I've seen it done before many times - I'm sure you have too?
Can I assume from this comment that you think Google is unlikely to see this favourably?Are you building these pages for visitors to read, or are you building them primarily to do well in the search engines?
If the content is primarily there for visitors, then perhaps you're OK. If you're primarily building them to increase your search engine rankings, IMHO you're heading for trouble...
Visitors 100% - this is the point I've been doing a very poor job of conveying. We want the extra domains to be ranked by search engines so people find them, but the content on them is genuine and we are not trying to influence the SE results for our main site.
the keywords these pages are targeted towards have VERY little representation in SERPs - searching most of these keywords returns less than five relevant pages, and lots of junk.
If this is the case, I'd go right to building your main site with
Since you have the other domains, direct them to the pages above with matching names. This avoids any risk of alienating SEs with doorways, which isn't necessary in an uncompetitive area. Why risk when winning is easy?
Plus you start building the power and relevance of your main site.
To draw users searching for the unrelated terms to the secondary site(s), and then try and get them to go through to the main site. I've seen it done before many times - I'm sure you have too?
Yes, I have; usually I think "Yet more doorway pages <sigh>", and if I'm in a particularly bad mood I'll file a spam report [google.com]
If this content is so useful and relevant for your visitors, just put it ON YOUR SITE (just as treeline says). What is it with wanting to put it on a different domain? Your http://www.example.com/blue-widgets.html page can rank well for 'blue widgets' and your http://www.example.com/foo-chips.html page can rank well for 'foo chips', even if 'foo chips' have nothing to do with 'blue widgets'. Believe me, I've done it enough times :-)
We want the extra domains to be ranked by search engines so people find them
From where I'm standing it look like you are either
1. Building a network of interlinked sites
or
2. Building doorway pages to feed to one main site
I think it would be fair to say that Google doesn't really think very much of either of these approaches.
There are plenty of threads where people have taken a hit when the algo caught up with them. As treeline said, why do it the hard way?
Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
something to consider…
Maybe I have my definitions wrong, but I was under the impression that a doorway page was a keyword stuffed page (often unrelated keywords too), rather than a page with some real content?
This is exactly what doorway pages are, and your pages are not. You are not serving up pages for search engines or jump paging using fast meta refresh etc.
I would have to agree with teelline al the way here. Remember popularity and relevance /semantics also translate across links.
Having a series of links on your domain to page (say) blue-widgets.html will have a much bigger impact than having new domains called blue widgets. Why? Because the seach engines should already see your site as being about widgets. You ae basically giving your own pages a vote.
Name your files if possible with the adjective and then keyword - 'blue-widgets.html'
Thanks for all the assistance guys and gals, I'll have a mull over what you have all said before going ahead.
