agente808
Regular Member
- Aug 23, 2009
- 458
- 200
2 things matter when trying to get "almost" EMD:
Having your keywords first is better, add the junk at the end.
% of domain that is your keyword - the fewer characters you add the better
so, for example:
mydogphotography = 87.5%
dogphotographyspot = 77.7%
Is dog-photography available?
One dash between 2 words is usually the next best option.
Having your keywords first is better, add the junk at the end.
% of domain that is your keyword - the fewer characters you add the better
so, for example:
mydogphotography = 87.5%
dogphotographyspot = 77.7%
Is dog-photography available?
One dash between 2 words is usually the next best option.
Disagree 100%.
I would avoid dashes. I have a few sites with dashes and I think it has less value then something like mydogphotography. EMD is losing value, and I don't think it has very much juice at all anymore. Still better than nothing, but not nearly as powerful as it once was. This coming from someone with 200+ EMDs and tracking ranking on every single one.
nougattrout
Junior Member
- Jan 6, 2010
- 131
- 14
+1 to plurals
agente808
Regular Member
- Aug 23, 2009
- 458
- 200
The dash is just one character like any other, it isn't inherently better or worse for ranking purposes. The "value" of a more memorable domain is pretty subjective, and depends on what you are doing. In my case, I am only looking for SE traffic, no type-in, so that has less value to me.
I agree that EMD does not hold the weight it once did, but it still holds a lot of weight, and the rules still apply.
@jon_xx_x: I am not going to get into a pissing contest, but the data from my own sites show significant value from EMD. Could there be something else at play with your sites?
oyim2000
Elite Member
- Jun 10, 2010
- 1,919
- 161
I prefer using some relevant words at the end of the keywords like "tips", "Guides", "Info" etc. But to be honest at the end it does not matter where you put it. Just make sure the keyword phrase is in the domain and concentrate in on-page optimizing the website for the search engines. And of source build quality links.
Obviously we could go back and forth, but neither really have any proof but our own experiences. Even though it's just a character, I don't see google giving it the value of a regular letter. Maybe that sounds funny, but like I said, I'm just speaking from my experience with sites with dashes compared to sites with no dashes.
volund
Supreme Member
- Jan 24, 2010
- 1,226
- 751
Are your saying you have a harder time ranking sites with dashes or that they get less clicks?
I have not noticed in my testing that it is any harder to rank a site with a dash but I have noticed that when you start adding them you get less clicks for a particular ranking position than you would if you did not have them. Not much for just one but at two or more the clicks you would expect to get drop off quite a bit.
agente808
Regular Member
- Aug 23, 2009
- 458
- 200
That is interesting... I haven't done any analysis of click-through of dash vs no dash...
So for 1 dash a small amount of drop off, are you using the dash in a logical postion? ie: kw1-kw2.com or odd positioning? And how does the ctr compare with, for example: kw1kw2x.com or some other near EMD formula?
More than one dash just looks spammy, so that makes sense, but with only one I wouldn't have expected a difference.
...hmmmmm, now I am going to have to try a few tests...
I would love to hear more
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volund
Supreme Member
- Jan 24, 2010
- 1,226
- 751
I used the dashes between words in a two or more keyword phrase. So something like pretty-blue-cups.com. The drop off using just one dash was pretty small and since I only tested it a few times is hard to really quantify. When adding two the drop off was more noticeable and with three it was significant. I do not recall the exact numbers as it has been awhile but I believe I ran between 1-3% drop off for one dash, 6-9% for two, and 20-30% for three.
I rarely build a site around just a keyword or two any longer I as I have found that building them around groups of 10 or more seems to work better for me. Because of that and the fact that I have not really noticed a large advantage between keyword.com vs domain.com/keyword I really just try and find a domain that works for me as opposed to any kind of EMD.
I rarely build a site around just a keyword or two any longer I as I have found that building them around groups of 10 or more seems to work better for me. Because of that and the fact that I have not really noticed a large advantage between keyword.com vs domain.com/keyword I really just try and find a domain that works for me as opposed to any kind of EMD.
volund
Supreme Member
- Jan 24, 2010
- 1,226
- 751
I have to agree, I have found little difference in how hard it is to rank for a keyword as long as the keyword is somewhere in the url. Not much difference between keyword.com vs domain.com/keyword. The other thing is if you choose a longer EMD than you are somewhat locked into limiting yourself for adding additional keywords. A more generic domain with a lot more keywords per site seems to work better for me.
edgematch
Elite Member
- May 24, 2010
- 2,545
- 1,971
I always respect the speakers like you.
So brave. So brave that he/she does not feel any fear when saying totally BS ideas.
