Domain Name Masking Redirect for Brandname to Keyworded Domain

[emerald]

Hi mozzers

I have 2 domain names, brandname.com and keywordname.com and but have a question related to web vs print marketing on deciding which domain to use or redirect.

We already have established unique content first on the Keywordname.com site over the last 6 months and it has started to climb well in google rankings.

But now we'd like to do some print advertising and think it would make more sense to use Brandname.com when refering to our website.

So the 2 question are:

1. Should I 301 redirect brand.com to keyword.com (preferred as all content and rankings on keyword.com) or vice versa, as I realize I can only have one site to avoid duplicate content.
2. And is it possible to use domain name masking on brand.com if redirecting to keyword.com to avoid risking our rankings, or is masking bad for seo?

Thanks!

[aarondicks]

You have two options (well, 1 real good option) - This is a site wide 301 redirect onto your branded site. Brands will always beat keywords in Google these days, so it's the obvious choice. If you can change any of the inbound links to the new site that would be great too, as it will send the right signal to Google that you are looking after the transfer and doing it well.

Brand names work well in Google as they are trying to minimise the anount of keyword rich domains that pop up on a regular basis.

See the following posts for more information on Brands:

• http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/what-signals-could-make-you-a-brand-in-google
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/dear-google-big-brands-arent-enough
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-next-generation-of-ranking-signals

For more help with your transfer, you should look at a .htaccess rewrite (hopefully someone will jump in with a suitable one..!!)

Hope this helps enough for now,

Regards

Aaron