DN forwarding, does it show up in search engines?

[Jeroen]

Hi

I would like to know how domainforwarding works in respect to search engines.
I will give an example here:

For a small business, I own [companyname].com .Its a fruit exporting company. Our company name sounds a bit exotic and probably will not remain long in memory initially that easily.

The following domains are pointing to the [companyname].com website:
[countryname]fruit.com
[countryname][mainfruitproduct].com
[countryname]produce.com

I bought these DNs because in everyday communications its a lot easier to point out our website by just saying [countryname]fruit.com

[countryname][mainfruitproduct].com was bought because on generic fruit boxes, these 2 words are printed in bold letters. These boxes are also used by our competitors. No one ever registering a .com for this. Again, in everyday communications (phone conversations etc) very easy to point out to our website + its very easy to remember.

The [countryname]produce.com was bought because a lot of fruit importers seem to use these two keywords during their search.

The big question i'm having now is; how do these DNs show up in search engines when they are all forwarded to our company website?
So, if someone is looking for ' [countryname] produce ' in google, will our website eventually show up somewhere or do I need to place the link somewhere on the net first?

Thanks for your time,
Loko

[draggar]

I always thought the forwarded domain doesn't show up but on one of my sites, under a previous design, I had a .net, .info, and .us point to a .org and for some odd reason the .net would beat out the .org in search engine results. It would even show a page (domain.net/page.php even though I used the .org)

It was odd.

[clasione]

You should ensure you are using a 301 redirect.... This is the safest and best way to forward a domain name if you are concerned about the search engines... A 301 properly tells the search engines that the domain has moved permanently, and the destination URL is the main url which should be displayed.... If you have any links pointing to the vanity domains, their PR, link juice, etc, will be properly assigned to the destination... Google responds best to the 301... Yahoo seems to still show the old domain sometimes.

[Jeroen]

draggar & clasione

Thanks, that's really interesting.
Yes, the domains i was talking about are 301 redirected. I will leave it as it is and see how it will develop (if at all) in search results.

I understood from whats written elsewhere on DNF that a keyword rich domainname could help show up higher in google search results.

Let's say someone is looking for the words [countryname] produce on google. My domainname is exactly like that ( [countryname]produce.com ).
Will it get closer to the first results on google eventually even though its redirecting to another website? Does google "see" the connection with the domainname thats being redirected and the content of the website where is directed to?

[clasione]

Will it get closer to the first results on google eventually even though its redirecting to another website? Does google "see" the connection with the domainname thats being redirected and the content of the website where is directed to?

Yes, I believe this will help... Google does know what is going on and handles the 301's very well.... I'm almost certain that if you have links pointing to [keyword]produce.com that the destination URL will rank better if those links are pointed towards [keyword]produce.com with the anchor text "[keyword] produce"... I still very much believe the old domain name is taken into consideration if there are links still pointing to it (which gives Google the reason to even look at it)....

So the shortened version of the answer is YES, I believe keywords in your domain help, even if their in the domain name that is being redirected... I'd also bet this is a strategy, recipe, ingredient for many who focus aggressively and closely on SEO.......

Owning multiple keyword domains is a great strategy for many reasons.

[Jeroen]

Thanks again clasione, I have to do more SEO in that respect.
Another nice aspect is that it really helps in the offline world to have additional domainnames (like you indicated).

Once, I had a (nondirected) domainname like [profesionname].info .I built a simple website around it with barely the profesions name mentioned on the pages. It showed up as the 7th result on googlepages without doing any significant SEO. And it remains in memory very easy after seeing the URL on a business card.

cheers

[draggar]

Discplainer: All domains mentined here are only used as an example.

OK, I'm assuming your setup is like this:
Lokosproduce.com (an example) is your domain that your company is based on, correct?

And you have, say, MexicanAvocados.com and 301 that to Lokosproduce.com

Search engines will only see the 301, I do not think your results will rank any higher from searches for Mexican Avocados but you will get the type in traffic.

Your best bet to maximize the potential for this is to make a mini site (a couple of pages) on MexicanAvocados.com that is very rich in content, great keywords, and make the most of SEO that you can and then have a link to LokosProduce.com for potential customers to contact you (or even have Loko@MexicanAvocados.com email address forwarded to the main business email (sales@lokosproduce.com).

[Dale Hubbard]

Not sure that anyone including Google would see anything at all at mexicanavocados.com in the above example if it was 301'd?

[Jeroen]

Thanks draggar, i will certainly take that into consideration.
And your example of mexicanavocados seems to works similar to what I have (malimango)

[David G]

For best results you should use framed forwarding and not regular forwarding and pointing.

[Jeroen]

What is the advantage of framed forwarding over regular forwarding and pointing?