Do I need 20 different sites or just one site with 20 keywords?

That's what I wonder too! I was thinking of having several sites in order to targeting several keywords, and all this sites should redirect to this main site. Someone was saying that Google might dislike this. Wonder if that's true because sometime companies register similar domain names in case of any minor misspelling by the user.

But if it's OK for Google then it sound like a good idea.

I would prefer to have plenty of keywords rather than having plenty of sites with few keywords. A good site with a good keywords are likely to be more on the top.

Well,

I scoured my list, and I have 3 keywords that may be good to use, but, I defer to the wisdom here.

I went to Google Keyword Search Tool and checked Broad, Exact, and Phrase. And then, I went to Google and checked out the # of searches (without quotes.)

Keyword #1 - 2900/4400/1300 with 201,000 searches
Keyword #2 - 4400/3600 searches with 48,000 searches (this keyword is 5 letters.)
Keyword #3 - 2400/1300/1880 with 99,000 searches.

If I am understanding all of this correctly, keyword #2 would be the best website URL with a .COM, right?

You can use subdomains for any reason you feel you need a domain for (IMO) and save a buck each.

Hi Jeremy

It's always a good idea to register 'keyword specific' domain names. IF it is possilbe i would register a domain name using 'keyword specific' words as part, if not all of the domain to begin with.

Having said, if the website has already been built, then you only need the one website, from which you can market all of your 20 keywords using various strategies.
If you haven't done your keyword research, then you will need to verify that the 'keywords' you believe are correct, because you could place yourself in a position of wasting alot of money and time!

The content on your website should encompass using 'long tale' keyword phrases that include your keyword as well as deritives of that keyword. By that i mean words that are at least two words plus .. e.g. cabinet making specialists, cedar wooden cabinets etc.

Make sure that the content you create for your website, flows when reading, with the appropriate keywords inserted where relevant and possible.

Relevance of content on your site plays huge role in Google ranking and indexing your site, so it's 'key' that content and use of keywords flow and blend consistently accross all pages in terms of relevancy to the product or service you want to market. In this instance you mention 'cabinet' ..

If you unsure about the relevancy of the keywords you have selected, go check out the other sites that you say are promoting and selling a similar type service to that of your father in law. Then pull up Google Keyword tool and run them through there. See what Google themselves come up with.

You also need to bear in mind that there is only so much 'on page' stuff you can do to rank your website and that it takes a combination of 'on page' and 'off page' strategies to get yourself ranked consistently, with the goal being, 'over time' you rank on the left hand side of the search engines for organic listings.

You may also want to consider talking to your tech about plugins for your site, that will help you to rank.

Hope this helps
Coleen

Having one site with folders or subdomains for some of the keywords should work better than having a bunch of sites with each keyword in the domain.

Thanks for the help.

The main keyword that I like - 4400 searches with 48K sites - is pretty cumbersome - hard to put on a business card, or give to others. Would it hurt me in the rankings at all if I made his main site some other name - i.e., joescabinetshop.com, but, went and and registered the Main Keyword a domain name, but, just had it do a re-direct to the "main" site that he would have?

be careful with the Google Adwords tool. its is extremly inaccurate, I would even say that
it is deliberately lying!

Use the Sktool of Google Search-based keyword tool instead in conjunction with Google Insights Google Insights for Search

Jeremy

Jeremy man...here is what I would do...I agree with everyone else. You should build one site targeting all 20 keywords. Focus on that one site. Once you are getting traffic into that one site, see what pages bring in the most traffic.

For the pages that get the most traffic, you might consider additional websites. It is real easy to get caught up in the idea of having one website. Why not have five sites or ten sites? Granted, all of these websites would take months to get built and ranking in the search engines. Once you build your first site with the 20 pages, see if any of the pages get tons of traffic. If you have a couple pages that seem to do really well, those keywords might be easy to target on a 2nd website, 3rd website,etc.

I would only focus on one or two websites at a time. You'll probably find other keywords to target once you build your first website with the 20 pages. Good luck!

I would make one main site with the main keyword. On that site, if it's a WordPress blog, you can then make posts or pages that contain all the other keywords each. So your main index page is optimized for your main keyword. Then all the other pages are optimized for one keyword to each.

Then you can buy the keyword domain for each of the keywords in your list and build a mini site on that domain for each of them. On those sites, make a link pointing to your main site page that is optimized for the keyword domain of the mini site. In this way you are building your own link will around your main site. This structure will get you strong rankings for all your keywords.

As this is a offline traditional business model you want the website to represent your business and be easy for offline clients to find and also looks nice on a business cards in adds etc. Unlike online marketing businesses that are not working offline this is an important consideration.

Something like customcabinet.com or producttype.com

You can then use wordpress to build a CMS style site with static pages covering the basics and then use your posts to target the 20 keywords.

We do this for businesses all the time and it works great.

Your posts should be keyword rich and this will give you the exposure.

Example:

We have a customer that sells Sheds and they wanted to target local councils so we did a post Affordable Sheds for Local Councils. Put it in google and you will see they are on the top in Australia or on page 1 depending where you live.

Affordable Sheds for Local Councils | Brisbane Domestic and Industrial Sheds

As the site is getting a bit of notice now after a few months of posting you can even put in just Sheds for Local Councils and it turns up.

Your business would be the same as they would be looking for local search dominance not global.

This is a great way to get your business noticed not only for the 20 you found but ongoing projects and ideas.

Quentin

To answer your question yes if you use the exact keywords in your domain it would be easier to rank for that specific keyword.

However you really need to consider ROI and time you spend. Is it more cost and time efficient to target the keywords SEO wise or is it more cost efficient to create a site specially targeting that keyword. This really depends on the competition for the specific keyword and domain availability.

Personally if there was 1700+ Exact global monthly searches I'd invest in a domain name and make a site of it.

What I would personally consider is perhaps since you want to target 20 different keywords you could have exact matching domain and one major site all pointing to it.

Thus one professional site with a good short memoriable domain name. Say you were targeting furnitures.

Site: FurnitureShop.com
Minisites: QualityDiningtable.com
CheapSofaSet.com
GoodLCDTV.com
ect.

You get the point. That way you aren't wasting your effort with smaller sites. It's easier to rank for the keywords and you can redirect the traffic as well as possibly some SEO link juice to your main site to boost it up for a more major term.

I hope I make sense?

Also, how hard is it to see the difficulty in rising to the top for this specific keyword - 3600 searches and 48,000 sites?

Question 2 of the original post asks:

"Say, for instance, I wanted to capitalize on all 20 of these keywords - would I need to have 20 different website URLs that went directly to one site, or, could I get away with having just one site?"

The way I understand it, and it could have changed or I could be wrong, is that just having URL redirects to one site won't help in SEO or anything else for the main site. The only benefit you get from this is type-in traffic if somebody directly types in the domain name of one of your redirects.

You would have to build at least a one page minisite and and links back to the main site, like a link wheel, for all 20 URLs to get any benefit for the main site.

Dennis Graves

Both can work.

If you've got ONE site that targets a specific buying keyword with lots of searches and you rank well for it....you're a rockstar and are going to get paid.

...BUT, if you have 20 little niche sites that each are optimized for ONE keyword and have the whole system in place (backlinks, traffic etc), you're still going to do great.

I'm a fan of both. Have an authority site but also have a stable of niche sites so you don't have all your eggs in one basket.

That way if one site gets killed (vendor pulls the offer, Google dumps it etc.) your entire income doesn't die.

I would do both. First set up a main domain with a keyword in it if possible (though not necessary in my opinion), and work on that site for a while. This will be your main site so the reason I say you don't necessarily need a keyword in it is because you want the domain to be easy to remember and authoritative on business cards and what-not. If you can get a keyword in there great, but like I said not 100% necessary IMO.

When it's up and running, SEO is done for say 3-5 main keywords, and getting traffic, set up some 'feeder' sites that have the domain name as the exact keyword with some valuable content in them and then have links that point to your main domain.

Hello! You need multiple web pages with a couple major key words per page. Also, you need to sign up at a couple blogging sites, and write 5-10 blogs or articles with good key word placement.

Just focus on 2-3 key words at a time (max). Try posting 2-4 blogs per set of key words.

Hope this helps!

Hey - if I buy the domain name today, how hard is it to build the website? I haven't really done this before, at least, not in 13 years.

Here's a question - what does better - crappy looking Wordpress Themed websites, or, beautiful, organized, snazzy sites? The answer seems to be common sense, but, I may be wrong.....

You need 20 pages for 20 keywords, with all of them linked and also containing related terms etc. Weave that basket ;-)

So, if I have one main site, but, 20 different "subsites," for instance, joescabinets.com/drawers and joescabinets.com/handles if there is a link on each page referencing the other, and, the main site references both of those, does that build website rank?

I would rather have 1 website and make it rank for the keywords I would like to rank on search engines...