(Entry was posted by Leslie Pang on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/21/2014).

Why 301 domain names that contain related keywords?

This may be a really stupid question but I just can`t find the answer anywhere. Someone I know is registering a bunch of domain names that contain keywords related to his business. The new domain names will be forwarded to his main domain using 301 redirect. His thought is that these domain names will come up high in search results (because of the keywords in domain name) and thus bring more traffic to his site. Does this approach make any sense? My feeling is that these domain names will never rank higher than his own site and so it is just a pointless exercise. ?

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Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Leslie Pang: This may be a really stupid question but I just can't find the answer anywhere. ;Someone I know is registering a bunch of domain names that contain keywords related to his business. ;The new domain names will be forwarded to his main domain using 301 redirect. ;His thought is that these domain names will come up high in search results (because of the keywords in domain name) and thus bring more traffic to his site. ;Does this approach make any sense? ;My feeling is that these domain names will never rank higher than his own site and so it is just a pointless exercise. ;
Devin Peterson: I think those domain names won't even rank at all, let alone somewhere that people will find it.
Frank Ludriks: Exact Match Domains are so 2009.

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-emd-update-15776.html

Plus the 301 redirects mean nothing unless the domains come with an impeccable backlink profile - if there are crap backlinks the bad juju will just get redirected to his domain.

All in all, a bad idea.
Iblis Bane: Also, IIRC, a 301 on a home page is a negative signal.
Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:57:23 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/why_301_domain_names_that_contain_related_keywords +Leslie Pang

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