Any SEO value in gTLD redirect?

[Jen_Floyd]

So, my client is thinking of purchasing several gTLDs with second level keywords important to us.  Stuff like this...we don't want .popsicles, just the domain with the second level keyword. Those cost anywhere from $20-30 right now:

• grape.popsicles
• cherry.popsicles
• rocket.popsicles
• companyname.popsicles

The thinking is that it's best to be defensive, not let a competitor get the gTLD with our name in it (agreed) and not let them capitalize on a keyword-rich gTLD (hmm). The theory was that we or a competitor could buy this gTLD and redirect it to our relevant page for, say, cherry popsicles. They wonder if that would help that gTLD page rank well - and sort of work in lieu of AdWords for pages that are not ranking well.

I don't think this will work. A redirected page shouldn't rank better that the page it links to...unless Google gave it points for Exact Match in the URL.  Do you think they will -- does Google grade any part of a URL that redirects?

Viewing this video from Matt Cutts, I surmise that a gTLD would be ranked like any other page -- if its content, inbound links, etc. support a high DA, well, ok then, you get graded like every domain. In the case of a redirect, the page would not be indexed as a standalone so that is a moot point, right?

So, any competitor buying a gTLD with the hopes of ranking well against us would have to build up pagerank in that new domain...and for our purposes I see that being hugely difficult for anyone - even us.  Still, a defensive purchase of some of these might not be a bad idea since it's a fairly low cost investment.

Other thoughts?

[Kara.Wallace]

Hi Tim,

As of right now, you are correct in what you are suggesting. Google will not give rank to your redirect - meaning grape.popsicles is not going to appear in the SERPs.

This is a great strategy for other marketing purposes though (flyers, campaigns, etc.)... utilizing them as redirects. If you did get a bunch of sites linking to "grape.popsicles" though, that link juice would pass through a 301 to the final page.

Another option would be to create micro sites for each of the gTLDs that would then link back to your main www.company.com site. You would have to do this in a strategic way though... not just linking all of your micro sites to attempt and pass link juice around. For instance, your company site could be more targeted for parents and your micros be more targeted for kids with fun summer activities to do while enjoying your popsicles.

Still a good buy either way you decide to take it.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Jen_Floyd]

Awesome response Mike, and you're right on the trail of some other thoughts that are buzzing around the team right now.

Thanks so much - Tim