RealTown's RealTalk

Hi Lisa,

You wrote - "I have a website created that I would like to just point some additional domain hames to.  Is it a correct statement that I can simply buy addtional domain hames and have them all point to my current site without having to create addtional websites?"

You didn't write why you would want to do this... but the simple answer is yes. But what would be the point?

1. Rankings in search engines are not determined by the domain name. Rankings are primarily determined by the HTML code of the site, the overall optimized content, and many other factors including in-bound or "back" links to the site. But an in-bound link can only reference 1 domain name in that hyperlink and it wouldn't reference any of your other domain names.

2. Unless you don't use absolute URLs in the navigation menu and page links to other pages inside the site, (which, byt the way, having the full page address is also very helpful to get your site indexed completely by each search engine), each page will resolve to the main domain name being used anyway. So the other domain name will just disappear as soon as they arrive.

You might use another domain name for off-line marketing, like some neighborhood name that points to the site. But to see what I mean about that 2nd name getting lost as soon as they arrive, try this. Go to www.seeutahhomes.com and then go to www.jeantanner.com - and see how the 2nd domain name is now irrelevant (only still in use because at one point, Jean did advertise the domain name that had her name). From that moment on, all you will see is the www.seeutahhomes.com design and content.

3. There would really be no way for anything other than the primary domain name to rank high organically in the search engines. The others would be just an "alias".

4. Most importantly, the search engines, (whose consumer is their "searcher"), frown upon having multiple domain names and information in their search results if all of these just end up taking someone to the exact same site. They feel that is misleading to their audience who might think, "Searching here just doesn't work. Whenever I click on a different domain name, I just keep seeing the same web site over and over." So the search engines have "threatened" to kick out sites that are trying to get multiple domain names ranked because they see this approach as skewing the search results to "mislead" their visitor. They haven't done it yet, but the topic keeps coming up. And since they "know where your site lives", it wouldn't be hard for them to program that to happen some day in the future.

So why spend the money on other domain names? I would suggest you spend your money on getting the current domain name and web site found instead. You had it right - the search engines would really prefer you build a unique web site for each and every domain name you own.

Win

************************
Win Singleton, CRB, e-PRO
Summit Web Design
(703) 536-7631
wins@summitweb.com
http://Summitweb.InternetCrusade.com
an Internet Crusade Approved Vendor
"Custom web site design that gets results!"
************************

Win wrote:
You might use another domain name for off-line marketing, like some
neighborhood name that points to the site. But to see what I mean about that
2nd name getting lost as soon as they arrive, try this. Go to
www.seeutahhomes.com <http://www.seeutahhomes.com> and then go to
www.jeantanner.com <http://www.jeantanner.com> - and see how the 2nd domain
name is now irrelevant (only still in use because at one point, Jean did
advertise the domain name that had her name). From that moment on, all you
will see is the www.seeutahhomes.com <http://www.seeutahhomes.com> design
and content.
 

Win,
 

That is exactly what I thought. If I wanted something different, I built a
completely different site. But recently I tried a pointer domain. I've
always heard there was a difference between "Pointing" and "Pointing and
Masking". My sites are hosted by Internet Crusade and I was quite happy
when I saw how my pointer worked. For an example, here is one of them,
http://www.StCharlesHomeBuyerSeminars.com. Try going to additional
pages....they all say the same thing. But they are all really on
http://www.FindStCharlesCountyRealEstate.com. Now I am looking for a short,
simple domain name (or domain names) for advertising. My name is too hard
to spell to use, and most of my domains are long. The ones I have liked the
best are already gone. Any ideas from any RealTalkers would be appreciated.
 

Linda Grissette, GRI, e-PRO Certified, Certified e-PRO Trainer, JIM * The
Best Seller GMAC Real Estate, St. Peters, MO * Mailto:Linda@Grissette.com
Check out my real estate products...with special pricing at
http://www.RealEstateMarketingHelp.com/Special.htm

Hi Linda,

You wrote, "But recently I tried a pointer domain. I've always heard there was a difference between "Pointing" and "Pointing and Masking". My sites are hosted by Internet Crusade and I was quite happy when I saw how my pointer worked."

Certainly that can be done... but you are only achieving this "techniqe" of "pointing" by framing the pages being seen with a single frame web site using the 2nd domain name. The underlying URL that is showing the content to the human visitor is still found at -

http://www.findstcharlescountyrealestate.com/SeminarSponsors.htm

The human visitor may not see that web address, but the search engine robots certainly do... since all they see if HTML code. Furthermore, inside the page that is being framed, you are not using absolute URLs, like the one above, but only relative URLs as page links - SeminarSponsors.htm. So the only URL that can really be indexed at all with that domain name is www.StCharlesHomeBuyerSeminars.com... the page doing the the framing. Perform a search in Google for that domain name and you will see the results show 2 other pages, both with the www.findstcharlescountyrealestate.com domain name instead. So this technique only works as a pointer to people who you can drive to the site yourself, but it doesn't work for getting the site to really rank in the search results to be found by complete strangers.

As I wrote yesterday -

"2. Unless you don't use absolute URLs in the navigation menu and page links to other pages inside the site, (which, byt the way, having the full page address is also very helpful to get your site indexed completely by each search engine), each page will resolve to the main domain name being used anyway."

The key point is that by using absolute URLS as links, like the one I showed, these help search engines to index each and every page on a web site. But your HTML code doesn't do that and shows -

<a href="SeminarSponsorship.htm">Learn how</a> you can
become a sponsor for future seminar

You then wrote -  "Now I am looking for a short, simple domain name (or domain names) for advertising. My name is too hard to spell to use, and most of my domains are long. The ones I have liked the best are already gone. Any ideas from any RealTalkers would be appreciated.

There are still plenty of great domain names available! Gee, how about "HomeSalesByLinda.com" or "BestStCharlesHomes.com". I found both of these in less than 30 seconds of trying at GoDaddy. I'm sure we could find several more together in a matter of minutes.

Win

************************
Win Singleton, CRB, e-PRO
Summit Web Design
(703) 536-7631
wins@summitweb.com
http://Summitweb.InternetCrusade.com
an Internet Crusade Approved Vendor
"Custom web site design that gets results!"
************************

The simple answer would be Marketing.    You can market the other domain name to get people to your site.  With fowarding and masking, the visitor would see what you want them to see as a page name and address.  What is more important ,is that the  page content be relevant so that the visitor to your site does not just click away, but  stays there long enought to take the action that you hope for: contact you, sign up for more info, etc .

Mitch Rudnick

Century21 Annex Realty