Separate domains for content, forum & community for SEO?

[hiro]

I am thinking about launching a community that has audience is different parts of the world and would find different fucntionaliy useful. Depending on the location of the person viewing the site, certain parts of the site would be more important. I view the major areas of the site this way:

Area 1. Content - Local / Regional information for people living in, moving to, or thinking of visiting the region.
Area 2. Social Network - Mainly for people that live in the region and not people that are just visiting. Visitors probably would not get the most out of it.
Area 3. Forum - A place to discuss topics related to the region and would be more interesting to people living in the region, but maybe some outsiders would enjoy it also.


Here is my primary concern (Domain name SEO and segmenting the two primary chunks of my audience by short brandable keyword phrase domains): the audiences for the content site versus the social network or forum will use different google primary keyword phrase searches and I would benefit from having different domain names that are optimized for different primary keywords phrases. I would be able to capture more organic traffic over the long term. There is not a gigantic audience for this topic, therefore, I can get relatively short brandable keyword domain names that are very targeted. If I just use one domain name, I miss out on some of the other really strong targeted main keywords from a domain perspective.

Over time, I want to become the authority site or sites in this niche. I know that I will not rank for my primary keywords in my domain name(s) at first, but over time I will.

I think it would be easier to optimize the content sites for one main keyword phrase in the domain name and then optimize the social network / forum for another main keyword phrase domain name. I think this would also help because someone not in the region will not likely get much value from the social network / forum, but would love the content site!

Here are my site architecture options:

Notes: ALL OF THE POTENTIAL DOMAIN NAMES ARE VERY BRANDABLE, RELATIVELY SHORT AND KEYWORD OPTIMIZED. ALSO, I HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH WORDPRESS AND DRUPAL AND HAVE DETERMINED THAT DRUPAL WOULD BE BEST AS THE PRIMARY CMS FOR CONTENT AND SOCIAL NETWORKING.

Option 1. Put everything on one short keyword targeted brandable domain name (content, social network, forum) and lose the opportunity to target another equally sized audience that uses another primary keyword phrase. To have all of the functionality I want, I would use drupal. Not sure if it is a good idea to have the forum on the same site or using drupal and I think it maybe good to use a dedicated forum package like vbulletin or phpbb. Pros: Everything would be on one site and would be easier to manage. Cons: Lose the opportunity to really target another portion of my audience through my domain name.

Option 2. Put the content site of one doman with a strong short keyword targeted brandable domain name and then put the social network and forum on another strong short keyword targeted brandable domain name. Both sites would use Drupal. I have used wordpress and have opted for Drupal because of the strong social networking and content management fuctionality. Pros: I would have domain names that target the two most valubale keyword phrases and not just one. Cons: I would have to manage two different sites.

Option 3. Have the content and social network on one strong short keyword target domain and then have the forum by itself on another strong short keyword targeted domain. If I did this, I would use drupal for the content and social network and then could use drupal, vbulletin or phpbb for the forum portion. Pros: I get to benefit from utilizing all of the primary keywords in my niche for my domain names. Cons: It will be more work to maintain the sites and I will have to manage drupal and a forum package.

Has anyone else faced this situation or have recommendations on how I can mazimize my SEO position when different parts of my audience use different primary keyword phrases? Anyone with experience, similar situations or insights?

[Ryan]

Hey there.

Hopefully I read everything, sorry if I missed something.

Have you considered subdomains? Let's say your name is "brand", as in Patrick's is "iFroggy".

You could have:

learn.brand.com
connect.brand.com
discuss.brand.com

Or if you wish to go with domains, the same idea can be applied. I'm not sure what is the best choice for you as I haven't been in the business as long. Maybe there are some other opinions?
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[Rocket 442]

I think keeping them all on the same domain is going to help you more.

if they're all on different domains, and you're reciprocally linking to one another, it'll dilute their "link-juice" a bit. I'd say do something like Ryan said if you really want to have them separate, with a sub-domain.

I also think it might be a bit confusing to potential visitors to use 3 different URLs.
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