Godaddy domain forwarded to Keller Williams Site....Need Help!!!

What many of these folks are getting at appears to be the idea that you need to chose one, and go with it (at least in the short term).  Barb brings up a very pertinent idea.  Additionally, by building up (content, backlinks, etc) a KW subdomain, are you really building up your brand...or someone else's?

I know you won't believe this but call GoDaddy.  I had a couple of questions about forwarding vs. 301 redirects and they helped me thru it no sweat.  No charge too.

I would not foward it period. You need your own seperate domain. You will never see as much benefit using a subdomain as you would using your own. When you use domain masking google can and does get confused. I tried this myself and when I got my own domain instead of forwarding it things changed instantly.

Just see if you can use one of their templates or something? Then tweak it how you like it. Just definately dont waste all that time working on backlinks going to a subdomain thats a huge waste of your time and effort.

This is a great post and response event.  Those with techno-saavy are goinig to win.  The Geek shall inherit the Earth !!!

Contrats to everyone on this post.  You've already way ahead!!

Josh, KW has a similar site that is just as great as the sub-site.  What Boston is backing me up on is the fact that all your backlinks would be supporting KW and not your own brand.  What KW is about is branding you and creating that presence on the internet. 

You are smart Josh and so smart that you need to keep your thinking simple.  KISS.  Truly.  So, while KW has a great website for agents, the majority of my business doesn't come from the KW website but from my own website.  How could I betray KW and not be loyal, you might ask?  I am not betraying KW but I am loyal to the company.  There is a difference and that difference being "it's about you and not the company". 

On research performed with the websites connected to the mothership (the company website) it is generally a turnoff and you will only keep them at your site for maybe 4 seconds.  Why do they not stay longer even after you do all these great things and blah, blah, blah ...... because it's about the company (as the consumer looks at it) and not about them.  Consumers are judgmental and rightfully so as Realtos used to hold buyers "hostage" because we had the books and nothing was online.  People don't forget that and that technique, while not used by all, has not been forgotten.

Listen to what people are telling you here because they've been there and understand this.

I just know from experience that when my site was being forwarded it ranked nowhere in the search engines. The minute I put my site on my own domain I jumped up an incredible amount in the rankings. Google was seeing the forwarded domain as basically not being there while the one that I was trying to mask started showing up in results. It was definately not working the way I intended it.

If you put all that effort into SEO and then they changed their site structure and suddently your subdomain was moved. Guess what happens? POOF! All gone. No more SEO. Imagine how devastating that would be in 2 years or 5 or 10? A decade of SEO work in the toilet because they did a redesign.

Josh I really think you need to build a site using the domain name you want. You will have to either see if they have a template or find a way to design one. But any amount of forwarding will kill your SEO potential.

Josh,

If you have truly forwarded your domain to the KW subdomain, then there is only one website up and running.  You can't have back-links.  In order to have any links between sites, you have to have two sites. 

Its just like telling the PO to forward your mail to a new address.  Folks send to one, but it gets to you at another.  Forwarding is not linking.

I agree with most everyone's opinion regarding KW's site.  Set up your own so that it is yours, no matter where you go or which brokerage you work with.  Your' clients will always know its you and know how to find you, not chase you through different brokerages.

Keep your original site, then set up a small one on KW with a link to your main site.  Run the SEO on your main site.

You can of course not wait at all. There is nothign stopping you from building up backlinks right now. I was building mine before my site was up. You lay down the roads and when the building is there the roads are there as well (not the best analogy lol) I would focus on getting a GREAT domain name and then start linking to it however you do. Then when the site is up you are ready to go.

Ok, let me diagram what I think you have going on:

backlinks from   Original Site:                             KW site

other sites

*.com     ---->  JoshSellsVirginia.com  ==>  agent.kw.com

               ^                                             ^

            links                                        forward

If this makes sense as a character based diagram, then the SEO is taking place on agent.kw.com unless it is masked to only look like JoshSells.  

Take off the forwarding to the KW site, set up JoshSells as your main site and then link from the KW site to your site.  This further enhances your SEO.

Any discenting opinions or clarifications are welcome.

We all know how SEO is such a cut and dried discipline. :-)

What Mike drew is what I was trying to say lol. With forwarding there is no way to really enhance your target site. Its best to just do what he is saying and target your godaddy domain.

The links will go to the KW site via the forward as you have it set up now.  The benefit we're all talking about is for your own domain name.  It is better to have your own site with links for your brokerage site.  The brokerage site can have all their standard canned stuff, then you have a link from there to your "real" site.  Your customers will always be able to find you, regardless of the brokerage you're with.

Shane (Eau) and others can either verify this or correct my interpretation.

Any "company" website is just that -- a company website. Building ones own unique and personally "branded" website will end up serving them much better in the long run. Our 2 cents.