Would a 301 redirect on a keyword based domain be a worth-while investment?

[aaronharlow]

Similar questions have been asked - but I couldn't find a direct answer to my specific question here.

I have the opportunity to purchase our exact keyword phrase domain name for fairly cheap (if I sold red balloons it would be redballoons.com).

If I i set it up to 301 redirect to our main domain - would it provide any short-term or long-term SEO benifits?

ADDITIONAL INFO:

I sell a service to a niche market and in a relatively short amount of time have been able to rank #21 on our main keywords. Our domain is fairly young (about 1.5yrs), but we are WAY behind our main competition in the link building category (they have been at it for 10+ years). I'm looking for an interim solution to drive genuine SEO traffic while we work on our link building over time.

Our main keywords only get about 15,000 global searches per month (google) and some of those are not our market (don't know how many exactly).

The competition for our keyword is classified as "medium" in google adwords.

It's really only worth it to me if I can begin getting page 1 results from this practice.

Thanks in advance!!!

[john4math]

I don't see how redirecting that domain to your site is going to help your SEO all that much, unless that site had a lot of existing links pointed to it.  People aren't going to link to your pages through redballoons.com; they're going to link to your domain now.  I would be very surprised this would get your from rank #21 to page 1 on the results pages (unless that domain had a bunch of relevant links pointing to it).

If you're building a brand name at your domain now, buying domains with the keywords you're targeting and redirecting those to your site aren't going to help much.  I wouldn't bother.

I can think of one use for buying this domain... if you're doing PPC, you could try using redballoons.com in your display URLs instead of your current domain and see if you get a higher CTR and/or more conversions.

[RyanKent]

Hi Aaron.

If I understand correctly, you want an alternative to PPC advertising so you can appear on page one of SERP for a specific keyword. You are viewing the exact name domain match as a possible solution.

I would suggest taking a step back and re-evaluating all aspects on on-page seo. Is your content really the best it can be? Have you maximized all the seo relevant factors on your site? Often there are changes you can make the difference.

I would avoid buying the keyword domain and put your time, focus and $$ into your main site.

[MBayes]

The only value I can think of is if you build a unique content site on redballons.com and then optimize it.  You can then link it to the main site and have some SEO value.  We see this done often within local link profiles.  But I am not sure I would go to all that trouble, instead I would use that energy working on great content to draw traffic.

Redirecting a domain ( as John pointed out) has no SEO value, but may have some marketing or branding value.

[aaronharlow]

Thanks so much everyone - great advice it seams. I will continue to work on my on-page factors and especially my link building efforts.

I felt like it was a long shot and you confirmed my suspicions. Thanks again!!