Updating Domain Yearly for Branding Purposes?

[accessintel]

We host an event every year which updates it's branding to include the year (Ex. Acme 2013, Acme 2014, etc.). We used to use the branded domains (acme2012.com) to redirect to the event microsite on off of our main content site (ex. acme2012.acme.com). Just this year our event managers decided host the event on it's own domain, separating it from the content site. So it is now acme2013.com.

Their strategy is to update the domain every year to include the current year, so next year the domain would be acme2014.com. I understand the use of the domain for marketing purposes but I feel like it could be hurting our SEO by doing this. Should we revert to our original strategy or is this okay with the proper setup?

I should note that because this is an event promotion site, the site template and content updates every year.

[brad.s.knutson]

Does most of the traffic come from referrals or from organic search?

If you are targeting organic search, you would probably be better off using the acme2013.com domain as a redirect (for those that want to go directly to the site, easier to type in) and hosting the content as a subdomain of your main site.  You can piggyback off the domain authority you've built with your main domain to gain added exposure in search engines - as opposed to starting from scratch with a new domain.

If you aren't concerned with search traffic, it might be easier for people to remember a shorter domain than a longer domain, so creating a new domain each year would be the way to go.

[Prospector-Plastics]

Or another way to look at it, have the main domain acme.com and update the meta info and on page content for the current year. That way you're building up your site strength in many ways: links, domain age, etc... Then categorize each year for future reference by acme.com/2011, acme.com/2012, etc. Then you have a repository for content from each year's event (white papers, videos, etc...). Added bonus - you don't have to maintain so many domains and websites which could eventually become problematic. Instead focus on branding the shortened URL in the minds of your audience.

[accessintel]

Thanks. As organic traffic is important for our site, I think it makes sense to avoid starting over with a new domain every year.

[accessintel]

We typically use this model for most of our other event sites and I would agree. Thanks!