Multiple entry pages - good or bad?

[BP72]

I was taught keyword research should be done before picking a domain name. At least that is what it think is correct. If a company strikes out on the web then the domain should reflect the company name and additional domain names can be purchased to use the company name and keywords for entry pages.

Poor example i know...
For example business has JimBobsGoodEats.com and the company name is "Jim Bob's Good Eats". Then you can compliment that domain with 1 page entry page if Jim Bob is famous for his award wining ribs then a 1 page site about the award including a link to the main under the domain JimBobsBbqRibs.com

In a little debate it was stated that is outdated seo and that any complimentary domains should be pointed at the main site. Just as any .net, .info, .biz and .us should be pointed at the main .com domain.

Wouldnt having domains with different keywords pointed at the main site be well... for lack of a better term... spammy?

If the one page domain entry sites have unique, informative content and a link to the main site be pretty much the same as setting up 1 page affiliate squeeze page promoting a product?

Or are entry pages with unique domains and unique content now a bad thing?


Thank you.

[Elion Makkink]

I do think it's better for SEO to have a different site for each domain but a few redirects wouldn't matter that much

[MikeFriedman]

Why not just separate pages on the same domain trying to target specific traffic?

In your example, you could use JimBobsGoodEats.com/FamousBBQRibs or something like that.

[GeckoTribe]

If you have multiple sites with exactly the same content, I'd imagine at best Google would pick one to list and ignore the others. At worst, you'd run the risk of getting penalized for creating duplicate sites.

If you have multiple domain names REDIRECTING to one domain...I wouldn't expect that to have much effect at all.

A one page site focused on specific keywords, linking to your main site seems like a better option than either of the above. On the one hand, it may not have much more value (if any) than, as MikeFriedman suggests, just adding a page to your main site that's focused on those keywords. But there are a few potential advantages:

* A searcher may be more interested if the domain name matches what they're searching for more precisely.

* If you want to expand beyond a single page later, it may be easier to do that cleanly than adding more pages focused on those keywords to your main site.