As example-- Kids Birthday Parties Corporate Events Schools
At present we have one main website ( www.abrakid.com ). Under the main site we have other pages that go into details for the various types of clients.
My boss was told that such a system confuses or dilutes search engine results. It would be better to have domain names separate for each type of business we do. www.AbraSchools,www.Abrabday.www.Abraevents and have them cross linked to our main page.
The idea is that if all the info on Abra-BDay.com is about birthday parties, it will get higher on the google page than if there were also corporate event info and school info on the page.
I don't believe that makes sense, but I am not a web-specialist.
Opinions?
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
The idea is, I believe, that the more references on a single page that relate to the same subject -- domain name, references in the text, IMG alt tags, meta info, etc -- the higher the search rankings.
This helps, to a point. But as far as can be determined, the single biggest thing to pump up your Google ranking is to get people to link to you. Google rates most highly on relevance, and looks to see which and how many sites are already being looked at for your subject.
There are some good standard rules for improving your search engine rankings, but nothing is more effective than word of mouth by way of links to you.
Personally, I'd stick with the single site that's easy to navigate and offers reasons to visit besides just selling your services. For the birthday party section I'd add pages with suggestions on how to throw parties kids will actually enjoy, for example, or lists of party themes, or party food recipes, or printable party games. Add photo galleries of parties you've worked and encourage people to send you their own photos. Try printable checklists of items parents might want to buy or make for their child's party. Make your site useful, instead of just an ad for your services, and you'll get more traffic and a higher Google ranking.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
DM, if you have specific pages dedicated to birthday parties, that will have roughly the same effect as having an entire domain dedicated to birthday parties.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Also make the site continually useful. Add new stuff regularly, or change the old stuff out. Add an events calendar so people can list their upcoming parties, or provide an e-mail service with templates for people to send out invitations through your site even if they're not using your services.
And that's just for the kids' party section But ultimately this sort of thing will have a much broader, more lasting effect in Google than any number of tips designed to trick Google into ranking you higher.
Posted by Phanto (Member # 5897) on :
That advice sounds bad. Using domain names for marketing plans etc can be a part of a complex plan where you want to be able to see efficacy of advertising, or highly target things, but I've never heard of doing so for search engine rankings.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
But ultimately this sort of thing will have a much broader, more lasting effect in Google than any number of tips designed to trick Google into ranking you higher.