Linking strategy feasible?

Hello, wondering if you can help.

We have just bought couple of small businesses run by a slightly larger
parent business. They have a "dedicated server" which has about seven IP
addresses off the one server (does that matter??) and about 60 domain names,
let's say about 10 keyword specific domains related to each individual
business.

Most of these domains don't feature particularly well on Google and the
like, hardly any incoming links, and since we're taking it over, am
wondering if it is worth selling these domains and starting again? Or is
there a strategy that could be employed to make use of all these domains,
maybe some sort of interlinking? I'm trying to weigh up whether it's useful
to have all these keyword domains or just an added expense we don't need.
Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks

Elvin

I'm trying to weigh
up whether it's useful to have all these keyword domains or just an
added expense we don't need. Any thoughts welcome.

If you let them go, your competitors could buy them and use them and beat
you.
Domains are cheap. If you have some nice, succinct ones, keep 'em

Hi,

Try establishing which keywords are important to the business and
start to incorporate those into your site via title bar and links i.e.
SEO optimisation.
I doubt you need 60 domain names, so best allow them to steadily
expire - when u buy a domain name you get is for 1 or 2 years. Try to
hold onto the domain names that incorporate the important keywords as
these appear at get a higher rating in google.

Hope this was of use.

J


"Spartacus" <spartacus (AT) andromeda-iron-mount (DOT) com> wrote

Hello, wondering if you can help.

We have just bought couple of small businesses run by a slightly larger
parent business. They have a "dedicated server" which has about seven IP
addresses off the one server (does that matter??) and about 60 domain names,
let's say about 10 keyword specific domains related to each individual
business.

Most of these domains don't feature particularly well on Google and the
like, hardly any incoming links, and since we're taking it over, am
wondering if it is worth selling these domains and starting again? Or is
there a strategy that could be employed to make use of all these domains,
maybe some sort of interlinking? I'm trying to weigh up whether it's useful
to have all these keyword domains or just an added expense we don't need.
Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks

Elvin

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 15:31:37 -0000, "Spartacus"
<spartacus (AT) andromeda-iron-mount (DOT) com> wrote:

Or is
there a strategy that could be employed to make use of all these domains,
maybe some sort of interlinking? I'm trying to weigh up whether it's useful
to have all these keyword domains or just an added expense we don't need.

It depends a lot on the keywords in the domain. If they are single
words or hyphenated and very relevant to the business then they could
be very helpful.

Also depends a lot on the content available and if you plan to market
the domains so they get decent PR. If you have enough content to
spread between the domains and you can get one some decent links you
could get it to work really well and at less than $10 a domain per
year it's not very expensive.

BTW you can do similar with sub domains, though with those you are
always stuck with the main domain name in the sub domain, so if you
are targeting a lot of unrelated phrases they aren't as good as
separate domains.

David
_
Free Search Engine Optimization, SEO and
Search Engine Placement Tips (updated 10/10/2003)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ooar123...-optimization/

"SEO Dave" <ooar123SP (AT) AMntlworld (DOT) com> wrote in message

there a strategy that could be employed to make use of all these domains,
maybe some sort of interlinking? I'm trying to weigh up whether it's
useful
to have all these keyword domains or just an added expense we don't need.

It depends a lot on the keywords in the domain. If they are single
words or hyphenated and very relevant to the business then they could
be very helpful.

Also depends a lot on the content available and if you plan to market
the domains so they get decent PR. If you have enough content to
spread between the domains and you can get one some decent links you
could get it to work really well and at less than $10 a domain per
year it's not very expensive.

BTW you can do similar with sub domains, though with those you are
always stuck with the main domain name in the sub domain, so if you
are targeting a lot of unrelated phrases they aren't as good as
separate domains.

David
_
Free Search Engine Optimization, SEO and
Search Engine Placement Tips (updated 10/10/2003)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ooar123...-optimization/

Thanks for the replies. A couple more questions if that's OK?

These domains may be useful but I could use sub domains to do the same
thing? Even so, is there a way of linking these domains together to generate
or even influence the PageRank that you all talk about or do I have to get
external links from high PageRank pages to make it worthwhile?

Also on that note, how many pages does a site have to be worthy of Google or
the like including? I was thinking of smaller topic specific sites that feed
or link in to each other, is this a good way to use all these domains?

This all seems complex stuff, no wonder people pay professionals to do this!

Thankyou for all the replies so far.

Elvin

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 08:43:26 -0000, "Spartacus"
<spartacus (AT) andromeda-iron-mount (DOT) com> wrote:

Thanks for the replies. A couple more questions if that's OK?

Don't know about that, one question is all we can manage here :-))

These domains may be useful but I could use sub domains to do the same
thing?

Google treats sub domains as separate entities, so to Google a sub
domain is a separate domain, so anything you can do to a domain can be
done to a sub domain.

Even so, is there a way of linking these domains together to generate
or even influence the PageRank that you all talk about or do I have to get
external links from high PageRank pages to make it worthwhile?

I wouldn't crosslink all of them (was it 60 domains?) together, but
instead build a hierarchy with the most important domain(s) getting
most links. Treat the domains as though they are sections of one
domain (sub folders) and give them a number or something based on
their importance. i.e. the main domain could be #1, next #2 etc...
then link it together so #1 gets most links (most PR) number #2
(second most PR) etc...

You can do exactly the same thing with sub domains, sub folder,
individual pages of a site. This drives the most links (PR) to the
important pages.

With 60 domains you could have them all linked to domain #1 from every
page on the 60 domains. Domain #2s number of links would be based on
it's importance, if it's almost as important as domain #1 go for lots
of links, if it's about half as important go for half as many links,
do this for every domain, every sub domain, every page on a site. You
get the idea.

The thing to remember the more links a page has the more likely it is
to rank well. At the same time think about the competitiveness of a
SERP, if it's really competitive it may need more links than you are
prepared to give it. My lingerie site has a Condoms section, this is
going to be a competitive keyword and as it's a small section of my
site (one page) I haven't gone after the phrase (yet).

The real benefit of separate domains is in obtaining links. Where a
single domain can only get one link (two at best) from places like
DMOZ with 60 domains you have the potential for 60 (120) links from
DMOZ etc...

If you did manage to get one link from DMOZ for each domain you would
probably not need to do any more link chasing, since it would almost
certainly give your main domain a high PR. The only time this wouldn't
be true is if ALL the links came from very deep DMOZ pages (low PRs
i.e. adult section of DMOZ).

To do this you would have to make every domain interesting and not
mirrors of others. 60 domains could be a lot of work, but if you are
serious it would be well worth it. I plan to do something like this
next year, though not 60 domains.

You can possibly do the same with sub domains, though I suspect you
wouldn't get anywhere near 60 links from DMOZ since the editors are
real people who will look at the various sub domains and only list the
main ones.

Also on that note, how many pages does a site have to be worthy of Google or
the like including?

1 page as long as it's got links. Think in terms of 1 PR4 link or lots
that get the main index page to PR3. This tends to be enough to
maintain a page in Google. PR4 practically guarantees it.

I was thinking of smaller topic specific sites that feed
or link in to each other, is this a good way to use all these domains?

Yes, think hierarchy when you are doing the links. Not much point
giving a domain about an unimportant part of your business a high PR.

This all seems complex stuff, no wonder people pay professionals to do this!

Not really, just takes a little research and a lot of time. Then again
I'm going to be offering SEO Services in the New Year so yes you
should pay professionals for this :-)

Thankyou for all the replies so far.

Elvin

David
_
Free Search Engine Optimization, SEO and
Search Engine Placement Tips (updated 10/10/2003)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ooar123...-optimization/

SEO Dave wrote:

You can possibly do the same with sub domains, though I suspect you
wouldn't get anywhere near 60 links from DMOZ since the editors are
real people who will look at the various sub domains and only list the
main ones.

Most people don't understand the power they have with just a single
domain name and hwat the possibilites are. Think of something like a
free web host such as Geocities. You sign up get a username which is a
subdirectory at www.geocities.com/seodave/ as an example and it's a
whole new url. And it has suddenly occured to me what your big plans
might be you've been talking about but keeping secret. You're going to
start a free web hosting service. The home page will be your sexy
lingerie page and all the free hosted sites will have a back link to
sexy lingerie and with that you will clean up with a pr10. Love the
idea!

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:43:09 GMT, Sam <. (AT) mail (DOT) com> wrote:

And it has suddenly occured to me what your big plans
might be you've been talking about but keeping secret.

LOL

I haven't kept them that much of a secret, if you check all my posts
you'll see me mention parts of what I'll do now and again. It's not
like it will be difficult to copy either, anyone with enough to
purchase a dedicated server and few domain names will be able to copy
it. What I have planned is freely available online for anyone to use.

You're going to
start a free web hosting service. The home page will be your sexy
lingerie page and all the free hosted sites will have a back link to
sexy lingerie and with that you will clean up with a pr10. Love the
idea!

LOL, I wasn't going to do that, but it's not a bad idea if you have
plenty of bandwidth available and disk space on a server. I'm signing
up for a 700GB bandwidth a month server as soon as I finish the new
site design (possibly today, almost finished) so at least in the short
term I should have 500GB a month available and more than enough disk
space.

BTW I wouldn't have them link to my Lingerie site, if you start a free
host the smart thing to do is have them all link to the home page of
whatever the free host will be and include something like Google
Adwords on all the pages. Then on the home page advertise paid
hosting.

This will give the home page decent PR and anchor text (something to
do with web hosting) and produce a revenue stream from the adwords and
the home page ads.

David
_
Free Search Engine Optimization, SEO and
Search Engine Placement Tips (updated 10/10/2003)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ooar123...-optimization/