Domain Names and SEO

SRLee · Nov 25, 2009

Hi everyone.

1. http://www.keyword.com
2. http://www.keywords.com
3. http://www.keywordx.com

Referring to the above, SEO-wise, I understand that the first domain will rank highest if all other factors are equal.

But how about number 2 and 3 if both of these domains are optimizing for "keyword"? If all other factors are equal, will number 2 rank higher than 3?

And if number 3 is optimized 20% better than number 2, will it outrank number 2?

Thanks!

mbceo · Nov 25, 2009

That's like asking if 1 is better than 2, and d is bigger than c, what is b? Who the hell knows?

No one can give you an answer based on your questions.

Just pick a domain name, with an s, x or whatever, and go with it. If it has the keyword in it, you are OK. But please don't get caught up in needing the keyword in the domain. It is not as important as you might think.

SRLee · Nov 26, 2009

mbceo said:
That's like asking if 1 is better than 2, and d is bigger than c, what is b? Who the hell knows?

No one can give you an answer based on your questions.

Just pick a domain name, with an s, x or whatever, and go with it. If it has the keyword in it, you are OK. But please don't get caught up in needing the keyword in the domain. It is not as important as you might think.

Sorry for the confusing question!

I thought getting the keyword in the domain is one of the most important onpage SEOs.

wookie85 · Nov 26, 2009

SRLee said:
Sorry for the confusing question!

I thought getting the keyword in the domain is one of the most important onpage SEOs.

Domain name makes little to no difference in SEO. Just look at all the major players out there and how many of them rank for stuff that is not even vaguely related to their domain names. Its all about the links my friend, all about the links. You can have the best domain name, if I have more and better links, you loose, by far.

MrBearman · Nov 26, 2009

Domain name makes little to no difference in SEO?

I can't believe I read that! Back to school Wookie

insider · Nov 26, 2009

I think number 2 will rank easily than number 3 because it's the plural form of keyword, and google recognize this.

eskimo · Nov 26, 2009

MrBearman said:
Domain name makes little to no difference in SEO?

I can't believe I read that! Back to school Wookie

Domain names make a difference for small sites and in niches, but in real life it makes almost no difference. Why do you think if you search for "nokia 6230" or something like that the first results are always ebay, gumtree, craigs list etc...

Traffic is pretty much the main factor in SEO

MrBearman · Nov 26, 2009

I have a number of websites, two are money sites and have been established 2 Years. I thought I would try an experiment and purchased an exact match domain for a keyphrase I wanted to rank for. I put this site up a week ago, a single page. When I checked in BING today the website that is the oldest was No 6 on Page 1 the newest site No 7 and the other No 8. Maybe google don't pay much attention to domain names but when Yahoo and Bing merge in the New Year they will have about 30% of search. I've noticed really crappy sites using hyphenated keywords as their domain name appearing No1 Page 1 so don't regard this strategy,
Domain names can be very important.

breakfree · Nov 26, 2009

Basically, domain names are important, but just as many other factors, and there are so many that domains are just one small component of the whole SEO picture.

So definitely go for the keyword in the domain, unless you are looking for strong branding, online and offline, plural is good for search engine users, .com is too, but don't waste time, money and effort into picking the perfect SEO domain because it won't guarantee results alone.

Good luck!

SRLee · Nov 27, 2009

Ah interesting information, thanks everyone!

blackhataffiliate · Nov 27, 2009

A keyword rich domain will help you, but it is not a guarantee that you will rank good. You also need content, backlinks, etc.

Blueprint · Nov 27, 2009

I'd say getting your BRAND tied in with the keyword you want to target is the most important thing, if it means a crappy URL just to get your keyword in it, i'd aim for creating a cool brand over a keyword rich URL

For example rather than - http://www.insulateyourhomeatwinter.com

I'd go for http://www.cosyhome.com

and hammer the backlinks to that....

(these are just examples)

spfld69 · Dec 5, 2009

Very interesting post. I have a related question.

I want a domain like this:

the-perfect-domain-name.com

Is this a bad idea for SEO purposes by having 3 hyphens. My main keyword is "perfect domain name" in this example. Now as some of you have stated it does not bear a ton of weight but it does help somewhat to have keyword in domain name and in my opinion, every little bit helps.

I like the domain, I am just wondering if there would be any reason not to go with it from a marketing standpoint.

Thanks in advance...

rinrin · Dec 5, 2009

From my experience, if you can have the keyword that you are targeting in your domain name, it can help you in getting ranked, but it is not as crucial a factor as many people believe. As for hyphenated domain name, I haven't experimented with it, but I have heard many people advised against it.

TermsB · Dec 5, 2009

wookie85 said:
Domain name makes little to no difference in SEO. Just look at all the major players out there and how many of them rank for stuff that is not even vaguely related to their domain names. Its all about the links my friend, all about the links. You can have the best domain name, if I have more and better links, you loose, by far.

So very, very, very, very wrong. You seem to not know the difference between authority and on page SEO.

spfld69 · Dec 7, 2009

Thanks rinrin...

Does anyone else have any thoughts on my above post?

erroronline14 · Jan 12, 2010

Keywords in your domain helps IMHO, I tried experimenting with domain names last month. I just had a hard time ranking with domain names with the dashes though. In my experience if I have the option

word1word2 + suffix.com vs word1-word2.com

Id go with the first one.

tee1 · Jan 12, 2010

I definitely think keywords help with SEO. I also think the ext plays a role as well. I read somewhere, sorry can't find the link that each localized version of G weights extensions differently. So G.de would rank .de 1st and the other extensions after that, the tip was to search the localized version of G and with site:.ext and see if they rank on the localized version of G.

I am under the impression the idea is to get people to click on your URL so the domain name has to convey something to the user. IMO

badcredit · Jan 12, 2010

Google, Yahoo and today's Bing are not based on keyword related domains but still on top.. think about the thing which is keeping them up.

plut0 · Jan 12, 2010

I have a question...

if i have a domain "product.net" and the and the company who sell it has "company.com" domain.

The company url ... company.com/stuff/product.net

So if i can make my url product.net/stuff/company.com

Do you think i can be number 1 in google ??

Domain Names and SEO

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