My forum current URL is DecentDiscussions.com but I find it very long so I registered another domain called DecentForums.com It is short and to the point, I will change the URL of my forum to DecentForums.com and will redirect the domain DecentDiscussions.com to DecentForums.com - now I want to know that if I have both domains DecentDiscussions.com & DecentForums.com will it give me ANY kind of benefit for search engine traffic?? One of my friend told me that if I have both domains then search engine will give me more priority, is it true? If it will not give me any benefit, should I sell the DecentDiscussions.com domain? Please ONLY serious and experienced SEO people should reply.
It depends on what you have done with your original domain. Does it have backlinks? Does it get traffic? If you haven't marketed the site at all, the redirect won't really help you. If you have done some marketing, the redirect can pass on that marketing to the new domain.
It doesn't have backlinks yet because it is very new forum (less than a month) but I have done lots of marketing and I am getting 700+ visitors daily. I know if I redirect the old domain to new domain the traffic will continue but I am asking about SEO point of view. Will search engines give me any priority because I have two domains coming to 1 forum or they don't see the no. of domains?
i believe domain with keywords are not required yet very important if available. so yes, i think "forums" is searched more than "discussions" so i think you would benefit. jmho.
I don't think they would give you any kind of boost for having another domain redirected to your site. If so, every company would buy hundreds or thousands of domains to redirect to their main site. In your case it would be worth redirecting to retain your traffic and the value from any links you may have attained.
I would not use the redirect at all, and here is why. For the search term "decent discussions" your are ranking number one and you are already considered an authority by Google for that phrase. For "decent forums" you are ranked on the second page number five ( or rank 15). In time with some s.e.o work you will also rank number one for "decent forums", contrary to popular belief you do not need the keyword in your url to rank at the top for it. I would suggest you use the anchor text "Decent Forums and Discussions" or "Decent Discussions/Forums" when acquiring links into your site. Log into your webmaster tools in google and click the link "what google bot See's" that will tell you Googles perception of your site, the words decent, discussions, and forums should be at the top of the list. If its not that should be your goal, when that happens you will start ranking number one for both search terms. Don't worry about the length of your url, its not that long and it has a nice"ring" to it. Having both search terms ranking number one, will increase your traffic. But using a redirect will not, because search engines will still only see the one url. A better reason for buying decentforums.com would be so no one else can get it and become your direct competition.
So according to you I should just keep the decentforums.com domain as it is? should I redirect it to decentdiscussions.com?? Edit: I just checked the google webmaster tools and found this keyword at #1 ( Decent Discussions Forums ) It means I am already at #1 for this keywords and also having domains with these keywords so I can say the wind is blowing in my favor
Since both are brand new, I would just go with both. But be careful about duplicate content and cross linking. Both will kill you (the sites). In a year, make the decision on which way to go.
Yes, you should redirect "decentforums.com" to "decentdiscussions.com". This preserves all of the work you have put in Decent Discussions and secures your brand by locking down "decent" forums. So no matter whether some-one is searching for a decent discussion or forum, in the end they will always find you. Good Luck and Happy Ranking!
i highly recommend building on decentforums.com instead of decentdiscussions as you originally planned. in the long run, you'll win out. "discussions" is only searched 135,000 times a month on Google while "forums" is searched an average of 6,100,000 times a month. as mentioned above by zurpit, do a 301 redirect. i'm no math major, but you'll likely get more traffic from being on the 2nd page with 6 million searches for "forums" vs. the first spot with 135 thousand searches for "discussions."
Don't sell your domain, just use 301 redirect so that you could divert your current traffic to new domain and also direct the links.
Yes, this is better. I have already done Marketing, SEO and banners for DecentDiscussions.com forum. And I have domains for Forums and Discussions so I think no need to worry now Thanks for your suggestion.
Keep your old domain and do a 301 redirect to the new one, to avoid a loss of already existing links, bookmarks and visitors using the old URL. There will be no problems SEO wise.