Keyword rich domain names

Hi All,

I have a friend who is starting a vacation lodge. His current domain name is just the name of the lodge which isn't keyword rich. He hasn't started to do much SEO work and I was going to help him out. There are some keyword rich domain (KRD) names that are available and I was going to buy them up. Now to my questions:

1. Would it be better to list his regular domain in directories or a KR domain name in directories that points to his site?
2. What are the penalties to pointing KRD names at a primary site (I wouldn't be doing a billion names, but maybe around 4 - 8 domain names)
3. Would it be better to create micro sites for those KRD names and then link tastefully to their main site?

Thanks in advance, Mark

Pointing multiple domains to one site does nothing for SEO. The multiple domains will simply be ignored by the search engines as duplicate content. And use the name of the vacation lodge as the domain name. That would make the most sense to human beings which is whom the website is for.

No penalties. No gains. Just not worth the effort for SEO.

Also a waste of time. Those links would have no value because the pages they were on would have no value. Just focus on the main site.

FYI, tricks and gimmicks won't make them successful. Good content and hard work will.

I've been reading the eBook SEOBook, and it does mention in it benefits of having keyword rich domain names, I don't know if you have read it and agree or disagree with the thoughts in it ...

Would you still bother buying up the domain names as more of a, insurance policy against others using the domain names, or not even worry about it?

Thanks for the other suggestions.

My thought was to write up useful articles, information about the area, things to do etc. But it sounds like your suggestion is if I'm going to bother doing something like this why not just keep it on the main domain name.

It's good to have a keyword rich domain name. It's just not helpful to have lots of them pointing to one website. It accomplishes nothing. If you want to do it, do it because the extra domains contain typos or common misspellings of your domain or you just don't want your competitors to have them. Keep in mind this won't help your SEO at all though.

Write that content and put it on the main site. That way the links all go straight to the site you want to rank well. Don't dilute the effects of that content by filtering through another site. Also don't dilute your marketing efforts by trying to promote a bunch of sites you really don't care about.

Thanks for your feedback.