Does domain name matter for SEO?

[TraderBane]

Yes, it could help improve the CTR by a lot, but make sure it does not look spammy at the same time.

Second this

influences the CTR

 

[sageshark]

You will always find mixed opinions about it. I want to advice you that keeping a keyword in your domain name is not a bad thing. It may not help with SEO but it will definitely help you build a brand (if you are planning to make it big) and ofcourse people will easily remember it

But think it this way - if you are building site about beards then it will be not harm to keep a domain name "mylongbeardcare dot com" than to "xvhjtw dot com" that is talking about beard care. It may not help with SEO but the name will be brandable for sure.

 

[code API]

It does not, it actually limits you. Back in the day small niche sites would rank pretty easily if you point links to it, so people would make something like bestgarbagedisposal.com. the game has changed now and bigger sites rank better, so you're going to run out of topics to write about garbage disposals. What you want is a site that talks about garbage disposals, kitchen sinks, other kitchen stuff.. so if your site is bestgarbagedisposal.com it will just look weird af right? Instead you want something like kitchenpicks.com or whatever else that is more of a brand or category based domain that allows you to expand.

I second this ^

 

[Andreyc]

You will always find mixed opinions about it. I want to advice you that keeping a keyword in your domain name is not a bad thing. It may not help with SEO but it will definitely help you build a brand (if you are planning to make it big) and ofcourse people will easily remember it

But think it this way - if you are building site about beards then it will be not harm to keep a domain name "mylongbeardcare dot com" than to "xvhjtw dot com" that is talking about beard care. It may not help with SEO but the name will be brandable for sure.

with many backlinks I don't think the keywords in the domain name matter anymore

 

[AngelSeo]

Works like a charm. Obviously better to not use 5 words in the domain name, but EMD works just fine.

 

[Nezuko Kamado]

There are other factors that are MUCH MORE important. Compared to them domain name or tld is nothing.

domain extension is important, if someone registered your domain name with easy to remember tld you may lose your position.

 

[Nezuko Kamado]

Works like a charm. Obviously better to not use 5 words in the domain name, but EMD works just fine.

Cant imagine someone registered domain name in whole sentence

 

[AngelSeo]

Cant imagine someone registered domain name in whole sentence

Quick search for domains with 25+ characters shows funny things

 

[BarryTheBaptist]

In my experience, EMDs work tremendously for third-world local SEO.

I've seen homepages ranking solely on their domain name.

An example of such searches would be something like Plumber [Insert City] or Dentist [Insert City].

For the US market and other tier-1 Google search results, I have seen minimal effect.

 

[sandeep_1207]

No it does not work now a days, better create good meta tags and do correct on page.

 

[bitmanalex]

It can.
Some local businesses do this with success.
For example location + service .com
If there is search volume for that combination of keywords you can play to that.

Do 50 different searches and see where exact match domains rank. I bet 5 or fewer are #1. If we said all the SEO factors are worth 100 points, I bet exact match is worth .1 .

 

[AngelSeo]

It can.
Some local businesses do this with success.
For example location + service .com
If there is search volume for that combination of keywords you can play to that.

Do 50 different searches and see where exact match domains rank. I bet 5 or fewer are #1. If we said all the SEO factors are worth 100 points, I bet exact match is worth .1 .

Yeah do this for any really hard competition keywords. See how it goes.

 

[paisawaisa]

Having keyword in domain name was useful years ago. Now it makes no difference. However, it might be good for branding.

 

[MisterF]

EMDs can still work, as can PMDs, but these are not as effective as 10-15 years ago.
The downside with a lot of EMDs is they aren't brandable.

 

[TheN20]

yes

 

[TheN20]

Having keyword in domain name was useful years ago. Now it makes no difference. However, it might be good for branding.

u dont know shit about seo

 

[Tremonade]

I would say, yes!

 

[mubashirshakoor]

For example, if I have the keyword in the domain name, will it help me rank higher?

If you have it in your domain name it will definitely help you in SEO.

 

[DuckingOutstanding]

It no longer matters in SEO, it was exploited so badly in the past that has been entirely taken out of the equation in terms of ranking... In fact too much of an exact match to me could be harmful in most cases.

That said, keyword in the URL such as https://randomdomain.com/(keyword)

Or

https://whateverthefuk.net/10-(keyword)-that-rank-and-bank

Replacing (keyword) with your actual keyword - that will definitely help because that Google uses to determine what that page is about.

So to summarize:

keyword.com - makes zero difference

Randomshit.xyz/keyword - makes a notable difference

 

[wankawonk]

exact match domains are definitely still helping with google

beyond that, a memorable/brandable domain helps a lot, so that people can remember it and type it into their address bar or google search bar. google likes type-in traffic.