The Utility of Redirects

[Disciple67]

Hi,

I'm thinking the answer is "no" but figured on pickin' some experts' brains about it:

The domain my-keyword-phrase.com is now available but I've already set up mkeywordphrase.com (that's "m" and not "my" there) and have made a bit of money with it...should I get my-keyword-phrase.com and have it redirect to mkeywordphrase.com??

A competitor, mykeywordphrase.com, consistently posts above me for the search term "my keyword phrase" and it's getting annoying! Honestly, I have much better content and more of it but I don't know how he's getting ranked above me all the time -- and I'm pretty sure his site is only as old as mine if not younger (which I say 'cause I seem to recall trying to get the domain mykeywordphrase.com when first starting out and couldn't register it even though there was no site up at that URL).

So I'm wondering whether a redirect would serve any good SEO purposes...this is a very narrow niche -- have made only $465 in about 14 months (though at least all it took was 2 month's worth of effort)....

All advice appreciated.

 

[djbaxter]

The only advantage would be

1. if you find that potential clients are typing in the hyphenated version and you want to ensure that they end up at your actual (non-hyphenated) site; or

2. to protect the domain so no one else can use it.

I'd probably buy it just for reason 2.

 

[Disciple67]

1. Well, no one would be typing in a keyword phrase with hyphens, but since it appears that Google tends to rank higher a domain name exactly matching a keyword phrase, and Google's smart enough to discount hyphens in domain names...well, I was just wondering whether a redirect would work in my existing site's favor. Or does Google frown on redirects for SEO purposes, even if the redirect leads to relevant content??

2. Huh?? But it sounds like you're saying such a domain name would be of extremely limited utility...in which case, what would be the point for anyone to own it, never mind my preventing someone from doing so...?

 

[Caleb]

There has been a lot of talk about exact match domains being devalued by Google. You may want to research it a little if your only reason for purchasing it is SEO reasons. SEOmoz has some info on it.

I'd also recommend researching the domain's history to see if it was used for spam.

 

[djbaxter]

1. Well, no one would be typing in a keyword phrase with hyphens

You might be surprised to see what people will type in to find your site.

but since it appears that Google tends to rank higher a domain name exactly matching a keyword phrase, and Google's smart enough to discount hyphens in domain names...well, I was just wondering whether a redirect would work in my existing site's favor.

The value of exact match domains has been decreased in recent Google algorithm changes and likely will continue to decrease.

Or does Google frown on redirects for SEO purposes, even if the redirect leads to relevant content??

A redirect has no content of its own so it's not a factor, either plus or minus, for SEO. It's simply an instruction to consider the source URL as identical to the destination URL. This is true for spiders as well as human visitors. The source URL will not be indexed, or if it is already indexed the redirect instructs search engines to drop it.

2. Huh?? But it sounds like you're saying such a domain name would be of extremely limited utility...in which case, what would be the point for anyone to own it, never mind my preventing someone from doing so...?

It's to protect yourself (a) from confusion regarding your site vs. the other site; and (b) from someone grabbing the hyphenated domain and using it to set up a similar competitive site.

See also Caleb's comments above.

 

[Disciple67]

Thanks, Caleb, those are some good pointers -- glad you'd thought of 'em!!

---------- Post Merged at 12:41 PM ----------

Okay, Minstrel, I understand you much better now...sorry for making you spell it out!