Keywords In the Domain

[englandrm]

Here's Matt Cutts talking about the importance of keywords in the domain. Pretty straight forward, and common sense, but at the end he mentions that "some people think too much emphasis is being put on the keywords in the domain, so they have been considering changing the mix to reduce the effect."

I wonder what that would do to a lot of our sites.

 

[Nookie Monster]

It appears that Cutt's is saying that EMD's won't be as golden as they once were. However I think they will if the content is great and you hold trust rank.

Another interesting thing he talked about was brandable names. Makes me want to invent a word.

 

[speakeasy602]

It appears that Cutt's is saying that EMD's won't be as golden as they once were. However I think they will if the content is great and you hold trust rank.

Another interesting thing he talked about was brandable names. Makes me want to invent a word.

I have noticed that on exact match domains lately, they haven't been ranking as fast. I wonder if they've already started implementing some of this already.

I'm glad that some of the people on BHW actually pay attention to legitimate SEO news. I think Google is going to make some more big changes over the next few months. Panda/Farmer update gave them insight as to who was getting the shaft, and I think it only helped prove their point.

Some people are saying that onsite SEO is actually going to given heavier weight than in the past. We'll have to see about that.

 

[d4rkl0rd]

I understand what he's saying about websites with 'brandable' names being easier for people to remember and recall. It's very easy to make a lasting impact on someone with an odd sounding domain or one that isn't 'keyword laden'.

I think he's skirting around the issue though. Obviously the original question was asked to see how Google views keywords in the domain, not how we as consumers feel about it. Having plowed through way more domains than I would ever have liked to I've been able to determine that provided the competition isn't too steep, you'll almost always get what you want with a keyword powered domain. If your domain is exactly the same as an intensely popular search term, I've seen it be completely ignored in the top 100 despite intensive marketing efforts. Google seems to be completely cognizant of these things and able to make judgement calls accordingly... perhaps there just isn't enough room for newcomer sites to rank with the big boys on hugely popular terms... but like I said, as long as it's not something EVERYONE is competing for, I've always had great success with keyword domains.

 

[Chrisss]

Some people are saying that onsite SEO is actually going to given heavier weight than in the past. We'll have to see about that.

I hope that's true, as most people don't know anything about onsite SEO. I assume that would help most people on bhw.

 

[speakeasy602]

I hope that's true, as most people don't know anything about onsite SEO. I assume that would help most people on bhw.

There were a lot of people talking about it over the past couple days. Some of the commonalities that have been noticed are where ads are placed in the pages, H1 relevancy to the overall site topic, and a few other indicators that something like this is down the pike. We'll have to wait and see, but there are some pretty authoritative people saying this right now, so it definitely shouldn't be ignored.

PLUS, onsite SEO is just good practice. I hate going to a site that is poorly optimized, from a code standpoint, or from a usability standpoint.

 

[speakeasy602]

I understand what he's saying about websites with 'brandable' names being easier for people to remember and recall. It's very easy to make a lasting impact on someone with an odd sounding domain or one that isn't 'keyword laden'.

I think he's skirting around the issue though. Obviously the original question was asked to see how Google views keywords in the domain, not how we as consumers feel about it. Having plowed through way more domains than I would ever have liked to I've been able to determine that provided the competition isn't too steep, you'll almost always get what you want with a keyword powered domain. If your domain is exactly the same as an intensely popular search term, I've seen it be completely ignored in the top 100 despite intensive marketing efforts. Google seems to be completely cognizant of these things and able to make judgement calls accordingly... perhaps there just isn't enough room for newcomer sites to rank with the big boys on hugely popular terms... but like I said, as long as it's not something EVERYONE is competing for, I've always had great success with keyword domains.

Good point. I don't understand why anyone wastes time in these ridiculously saturated niches. Even if you have an exact match, you're not very likely to rank based on that alone.

 

[JerrickYeoh]

i do believe that keyword domain name is better than lot of SEO methods. Because i see the result which the blog did not update for 3 years, but with the related keywords in the domain name. It always appear in the top 5 of the search result which unable to kick off yet.

 

[blackma]

Ha, I was just thinking about this today. Having the domain name match the keyword phrase is KILLER!

I outrank some webpages that soooooo deserve to be ahead of me in the rankings in terms of good content!!

 

[ivictus]

I hate watching that lying putz. How old is this video? I saw some other "word on the street" rumors about EMDs being next on the list to be hit by G()()gle. Personally I would love it. Crappy EMDs are sitting right above me with only 100 back links to them.