Advice Needed, very tricky one

Ok I need some advice about SEO

I have a site that is ideal to target 'Insurance' keywords in the UK 'Premium domain name'


I also have about 6/7 sites that have over 14k backlinks each but are unrelated to Insurance but are related to CARS.


All sites generate a good stable income but I am considering gambling it all and going for the ultimate 'CAR INSURANCE' Keyword in google, (very hard term with major players doing SEO for it like moneysupermarket and gocompare etc.)


I could:

a) put a link on all my sites to the new insurance site, (safest option) but will have least benefit.

b) 301 all the sites to the new insurance site and build on the massive number of inbound links with 'car insurance' links




Has anybody ever tried option b as I think this may have the most benefit?

I would really like some opinions on this

Thanks

 

bump anybody any ideas?

 

If the inbound links to your existing 6/7 sites don't have car insurance in the link text then 301 redirecting those URLs to your new insurance domain is going to do little more than pass your site some PR. Those redirected links are not going to really help you much in the way of ranking for car insurance related terms.

If this is the case (the 6/7 sites do NOT have tons of links w/ car insurance as the link text) then I would suggest that you simply ad links from those 6/7 sites' home pages to your insurance domain. You might want to make a little sidebar widget that has an <h2> with something like "car insurance" as the <h2> text. Then add a couple of paragraphs in this sidebar widget about about car insurance and finally add a link like "Learn more about car insurance." at the bottom of the widget.

I would recommend a different but similar widget on each site... with different <h2>s on each site ("Affordable Car Insurance", "Auto Insurance", "Cheap Car insurance", "Best Auto Insurance", etc.) I would include different text for the 1 or two paragraphs in each widget. And I'd use MOSTLY "car insurance" and slight variations if "car insurance" is your targeted phrase... with a site or two using "auto insurance".

Or you can create a page on each of those sites about car insurance, link to that page from each of the site's home pages... and then place a link on the car insurance pages to the new car insurance site with your targeted keyword phrase (car insurance or auto insurance) as the link text.

Or do both (widget on home page of all 6/7 sites AND a page on each of the 6/7 sites dedicated to car insurance BOTH linking to the car insurance site).


However, IF your 6/7 sites have mostly car insurance as the link text of their inbound links then you might do better with 301 redirecting. Or if the 6/7 sites already have a car insurance page that has inbound links from other sites, consider ONLY 301 redirecting the existing car insurance pages on the 6/7 sites to your new car insurance domain's home page.

 

Take a look at the following article; it should help answer some of your questions (any maybe give you some new ones).

seomoz.org/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keywordrich-domains

 

@Canonical

Thanks for taking the time to comment some good insight there. The links to the other sites are all car terms but dont include the word insurance.

Yeh I will try and do the widget idea i think it is too much of a gample to 301 all those sites and lose the income.

My reasoning was mainly that the large number of links would 'empower' the site so it would naturally rank for car insurance based on other factors, ie the sites linking to the car sites often have car insurance content on them. power by association and all that then with a bit of work could build on the links with loads of car insurance links making it easier to climb the ladder as it were rather than with a 'fresh' site.

Thanks!

 

I would perform the link, not the 301.

I haven't had the best 301 experiences and frankly I always go for the easiest solution when there isn't a clear answer.

 

I say do neither. The links from your other sites are coming from unrelated sites. They will help you some, but not a lot. If you are going after a super competitive industry like insurance, you're better off looking for more credible sources for links.

 

If that is the case then your car sites should have been (or might be!) already ranking considerably well for 'car insurance'! No matter whether or not you have that type of content on them.

Anyways as one of the poster said, link to a 'car insurance' site from the home page and contextually from dedicated internal page (with car insurance content) of your car sites with different keyword variations...that will conclude both the objectives and keep your income from car sites, intact!

The only drawback would be that you can not quickly generate loads of links to a fresh site to avoid looking shady in terms of manipulating SERPs, which is quite tolerable for a site already having so many of them (or that sort of authority due to 301s)

In any case, I would have not 301 redirected multiple 'income generating' sites to a single site, while also considering the future benefits of having strong network in such a competitive niche!