How important are keywords in the URL?

How important are keywords in the URL?

Let's say I have a domain called BHWStuff.com and I want to rank for "BHW Topics". Let's also say that BHWTopics.com was taken, along with BHWTopics.org and BHWTopics.net.

Will BHWStuff.com be a little bit harder to rank than BHWTopics.com?

There was an EMD .co domain availability which I thought looked nice but it had loads of pharma backlinks.

Kepler said:

How important are keywords in the URL?
....
There was an EMD .co domain availability which I thought looked nice but it had loads of pharma backlinks.

Click to expand...

It used to be that an EMD would play heavily in the ranking. Now its not as important as it once was. The thing you should think about is /are the backlinks you found for the EMD. The currency of the internet is backlinks... so get some good links and you can outrank an EMD with for instance... mythoughts . org and it will not matter if you are selling blue widgets. A few PR 4 links will do wonders for your rankings. I have actually seen a single pr4 on dmoz send a keyword to 3 rd on google. The real work is developing a good backlink profile. Concentrate on links and you will be rewarded for you effort. The emd will make it easier for folks to remember your website but will not out perform good backlinks.


On another note... consider the emd . co and since you found lots of pharma links and if the domain is not burned, maybe set it up to sell an affiliate program in pharmaceutical. Just a thought.....the links are all ready there...

SEO is dead, don't bother.

WPRipper said:

SEO is dead, don't bother.

Click to expand...

Yes it died with panda, bobcat, matt cutts, and any number of other algo changes.. We just do it differently today vs as how we did it yesterday ... LOL

Say what you want but KW in the domain always help.

Short answer - yes, it would be easier to rank BHWTopics for KW "BHW Topics" than rank BHWStuff for the same KW.

Long answer - you could do *just fine* with PMD or with domain that has no KW inside (you can still put it in URL after the domain).

It will be comparatively difficult to rank "BHWStuff.com" on keyword "BHW Topics". I would rather suggest you to book a domain with some prefix or suffix along with your keyword. So it could be something like TheBHWTopics.com

This should work good for ranking on the keyword you target. I hope you got my point.

Regards

KW in the domain is beneficial and even better is to have the KW phrase in the permalink. Granted neither will shoot you to the top but there are benefits to domain and permalink SEO.