IsThisDomainGood-For-SEO.com?

ShadeDream · Jan 28, 2011

When all domains are taken, it can be a pain in the ass to try and think up of a good name. So when all the .com, .org, and .net extensions are taken for an exact keyword domain name what's the next option? You would say, look for hyphens, but what if all the hyphens are taken too? Would hyphens that split up only parts of the domain be good?

For example: the domain name "thesupernoobimguide.com/org/net" is taken. The "the-super-noob-im-guide.com/org/net" is taken too. So what would be the next thing to do? Would "the-supernoob-imguide.com/org/net" be just as good? Or could this affect SEO in a bad way? Would it be better to just add another word to the end of the domain? e.g. "thesupernoobimguidebook.com/org/net".

cyberzilla · Jan 28, 2011

I would choose supernoobimguidebook.com

flymethod · Jan 28, 2011

You can still rank fine with dashes in the domain name, but I really don't like them because they are harder to remember and too many dashes can get kind of silly.

I'd rather have like:

domainsite.com
domainblog.com
domainbook.com (like the poster above me said)

etc...

ShadeDream · Jan 29, 2011

What if the keyword is something like "thesupernoobimguideforyou" and all domain combinations have been taken. Would it be better to go for "the-supernoob-imguide-foryou.com" or "thesupernoobimguide4you.com"? Of course this is just an example.

-Jericho- · Jan 29, 2011

I still try to use keyword domains when possible but I'm finding that they don't carry the weight that they used to. I can rank non-keyword domains just as easily.

DutchBeardMan · Jan 29, 2011

Thanks jericho, really helped me to choose a domain!

santacruz · Jan 29, 2011

Yeah, you get it right. Add suffix word not Prefix word.

Most of the time I will add something at the end of that keyword. It must draw attention, make curious, include action word or be personal.

madoctopus · Jan 29, 2011

If you want just for SEO and don't care about branding this is the order I'd go with:

bluewidgets.com
bluewidgets.net
bluewidgets.org
blue-widgets.com
bluewidgets.info
blue-widgets.net
blue-widgets.org
bluewidgetsword.com
bluewidgetsword.net
bluewidgetsword.org

No .info domains are not penalized, they are simply seen less authoritative than com/net/org.

Exact match domain without dashes and .com is in a way seen by google as the "official" site of the term. That is why those rank well with little links.

.net and .org are behind and not as well seen, but still good.

Domains with dashes do offer a slight SEO advantage. Very small advantage if number of dashes is more than ONE.

Even if you have dashes (even more than one), google will change his oppinion about the domain if you get a lot of links (majority of them) with that specific keyword. In that case, the advantage will increase to become close to that of a .com without dashes. Difference is, you will only get this advantage after you build those links, not from the start as it happens with domains without dashes, especially .com ones.

ShadeDream · Jan 29, 2011

Great answers. One last question and I'll probably let the thread settle down. What would you do if you had a great keyword and you wouldn't really be able to add a word and you had to choose between "the-super-noob-im-guide.com" or "thesupernoobimguide.us"? Of course the main source of traffic in this case would be from the US. But which extension would be better to go with? I've never dealt with .US so I don't even know if these rank well.

madoctopus · Mar 30, 2011

.us ranks well for US traffic, not so well for international, just like any local TLD. I never use a domain with more than ONE dash in it if I plan to make the site a money site. When I don't have the option for a good keyword domain I check sedo.com sometimes I find good deals there. Then if I still got no luck, I just think of a more brandable .com without dashes maybe one that includes the main keyword. Like if i make a site about "blue widgets" i could go with widgetscentral.com

blacktrilby · Mar 30, 2011

I add an "s" if possible
ie if whaletrainers.com is gone use whalestrainers.com

seems to work

wkrappen91 · Mar 30, 2011

if dashes are not THAT bad (i noticed that google picks up on this:
i enter dogfood and the domain dog-food.com get highlighted, so it seems to be able to read around those) how would d-o-g.com rank compared to dog.com?

werefish · Mar 30, 2011

madoctopus said:
If you want just for SEO and don't care about branding this is the order I'd go with:

[Bunch of domains]

Same here, and further down the line:

bluewidgets101.tld
bluewidgets123.tld
bluewidgets24.tld
bluewidgets365.tld
bluewidgetssite.tld
allaboutbluewidgets.tld / (Although this one works alot better in my native language)

There's always some short suffix or prefix that can be added.

werefish · Mar 30, 2011

wkrappen91 said:
if dashes are not THAT bad (i noticed that google picks up on this:
i enter dogfood and the domain dog-food get highlighted, so it seems to be able to read around those) how would d-o-g rank compared to dog?

dog is better than d-o-g. Dashes can only do good when standing in for spaces.

carlito · Mar 30, 2011

this could be seen as spammy domains by GG, use it with care (ie dont raise other alerts like H1 spam, kw density spam etc...)

edit : talking about numbers in dn

data84 · Mar 30, 2011

Dashes are very good to use and Google gives them slightly less athority than it gives the actual full name together. EX. LakersGear is only slightly better than Lakers-Gear but the second is usually a lot easier to get your hands on since most people don't realize how good they are.

At the moment having a keyword on the domain name is a huge boost and Google has been saying that they are about to give less juice to those sites but thats complete crap.

One important thing to keep in mind tough is that like someone mentioned above me it only works if the dashes are in the place where spaces would go. Don't put dashes in the middle of words (Duh!) Hope that helps

madoctopus · Mar 31, 2011

dash should only replace a space in a multi-word keyphrase. "my keyword" -> "my-keyword" otherwise u get no advantage,plus it looks very very bad.

DamnTees · Mar 31, 2011

I agree dashes should be used as spaces for keywords. As far as buying a .us it depends on what you are trying to market and how hard you want to marked a tld. Most tlds are hardly known buy average computer users. Now if you want to rank for search terms would stick with 3 words or less minimize the amount of dashes if possible.

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