How to build links for a domain name that is redirected to another url?

[mrsmelmitch]

I'm helping a friend build links to his site because he recently moved across country. His primary domain isn't very SEO friendly (shef1.com) so he registered another domain (stephenshefrinphotography.com). Shef1.com has been around for awhile and has at least been crawled with a page rank of 1 so we decided to keep shef1.com as the main website and redirect stephenshefrinphotography.com to it. So for SEO sake I know it's best to at least have a keyword in your URL so I have been using the url stephenshefrinphotography.com in my link building efforts for local directories and blog comments. Is this the right way to go about this or should I be using the main url shef1.com? He had virtually no backlinks until I started helping him but the ones I have created over the last month are not showing up on the link analysis in my campaigns. I just want to make sure my efforts aren't in vain. Advice please. Thanks!

[Francisco_Meza]

Dude, don't worry about the keyword in the domain. What you probably heard was someone talking about exact match domain. What I recommend is to market the domain name (not the URL) that is easier to remember. Who in the world is going to remember stephenshefrinphotography.com?

Put all your energy into one domain. Redirect old pages to new ones.

While it is good to have the keyword in the URL, don't forget there are over 200 other rankings factors. If you want to get something to rank just a little better, write your URL like this www.your-easy-to-remember-domain.com/keyword.

[mrsmelmitch]

Thanks for your response but I'm still not sure my question has been answered. I'm trying to be more clear.

Will I be able to get his website to rank if I am entering the easier to remember url (because it is his company name: stephenshefrinphotography.com) into listings/local directories/blog comments for link building and not the original url (shef1.com)?

There are not two websites. He started his website on the url shef1.com and also purchased stephenshefrinphotography.com which is only being redirected to shef1.com when clicked on.

So far... I've entered stephenshefrinphotography.com as the domain name for all the local listings I've created for him (Google Places, Yahoo & Bing Local, Yelp, etc). Is this OK or should I have used the actual domain shef1.com? Maybe it doesn't matter but I don't want to continue doing the wrong thing. At this point I could potentially go back and fix all the listings I've created to date if need be.

I understand the principles of ranking in the Google local listings because I've done it for several other people. I know I have to use the same company name, address, and phone number through out.

[Andropenis_Australia]

I respect Francisco's response however if it were me I would go for the longer url as the main one and redirect the older one to it. If you are building links you shouldn't be doing it to a url that get's redirected, of course that is just my opinion, but hope I could give you something to consider.

All the best

[Francisco_Meza]

**Will I be able to get his website to rank if I am entering the easier to remember url **

I haven't heard Mat Cutts nor Rand talk about that, but my guess would be no. I say pick one (preferably the brandable one) and stick with it.

[Francisco_Meza]

I think a good way to get feedback on which domain is better is to ask facebook friends. I did that with my domain.

I asked them which do you like better: Bigfootmarketing.com or Planetmarketing.com

PlanetMarketing got about 70% of the votes from my Facebook friends.

[dasdeepak]

Hi All,

I have been facing the same problem but still i have been confused so please see my thoughts below.

We should be clear on @Melissa's question.

1 - He wants to know should we do the link-building on redirected domain or not.

2 - If we will do the link-building on redirected domain then what URL Google will follow and display in SERP.

As he said this new website "stephenshefrinphotography.com" redirected to his old domain "shef1.com" , that means  new website domain is virtual and old one is real.

If we will create the backlinks for new website in order to get good ranking and traffic that will work or not ? If it will work then what URL will come in search page stephenshefrinphotography.com or shef1.com.

I am looking forward to hear from you soon.

Thanks a lot in advance..