I met with one of my web design clients this evening. This particular client, I had spent some time consulting with in the past of the benefits of owning keyword domains in their industry. Eventually, I helped them purchase several domains related to their products and those names now redirect to their primary site. Particularly beneficial to them was the fact that most were hand regs, so the cost was low.
During the meeting today, the owner of the company asked why the domains don’t appear on the first few pages of Google when he does a search on the keyword terms. He wasn’t in our prior meetings so he missed our discussion. He had a valid question and a common misinterpretation.
As I explained, the company has, and will continue to, receive type-in traffic from those keyword domain names. But in order to reap SEO benefits, these pages would have to be developed to some extent, which would require an additional investment by the company. This investment, I believe, would quickly pay for itself in the form of increased sales. I’d like to point out that I am not an SEO expert, nor is this a service I sell.
Developing these pages is a decision my client will need to make, but I thought this was a good example to share describing the differences between redirecting a domain and developing one.
2 comments
Hey Sully
I think the distinction here is quite apparent to domainers who are perhaps used to changing namservers and redirecting etc and understand the basic principles of SEO. To us it’s somewhat stating to the obvious, right?
Chances are however, as you have evidently found, a business owner probably won’t understand these concepts and, when you explain it to them, might even be put off at the idea of outlaying more money on developing more websites when in most cases they already have one.
Of course some web-savvy business owners probably do understand that for a domain name to appear in search results it must be developed but still might not want to outlay more money if they are satisfied with their current, functioning site.
It’s almost like there is an element of “If it ain’t broke…” In either scenario, this is probably why I haven’t had a great deal of luck in my attempts to sell product and/or keyword domains to relevant businesses lately.
Ultimately however, if the keyword domain has enough type ins then developing might not be such a necessity.
@Fromainer – great comments. It also helped me to realize that the average business person doesn’t know how it works, and why would they?