Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name?

Jeremy James · 10-13-2009, 07:03 PM

I wanted to hear your take on whether or not I needed to put my unique keyword phrase in my domain name.

Thanks.

Kevin Williams · 10-13-2009, 07:08 PM

You don't HAVE to, but if it is a competitive niche than you'll have a hard time without it. You'll have to do a good amount of extra work.

Zeus66 · 10-13-2009, 07:10 PM

It helps, but no it's not absolutely essential. The biggest factor is having links pointing to your page with the target keyword as anchor text. You can get pages ranked at Google for keywords that never appear at any point in the page with enough good backlinks. I'm talking no appearance in the title tags, meta tags, image alt tags, and nowhere in the page text. It's just that those on-page SEO elements help your cause. But they are not absolutely necessary.

John

JeffMitchell · 10-13-2009, 07:12 PM

In your Blog posts I would definately put the keyword in your blog.
Put your keyword in...

1. URl
2. Title
3. Keywords (obviously)
4. And 1 time per 150 words in your post.

Beside backlinks....that is about the most I can give you for a less than rookie in SEO..

Jeff Mitchell

"The Non SEO Marketer"

Louise Evans · 10-13-2009, 07:12 PM

Keyword loaded domains can sometimes take a while longer to rank but in the long term the domain name doesn't matter much (most of my domain names do not carry my keywords).

The age of the domain is more important than the name itself.

Jeremy James · 10-13-2009, 08:00 PM

Thanks, guys. It's hard, but, I am going to be forced to not have my keyword in my blog, as I am promoting 3 different products, but, coming from the same person.

derek.ifocus · 10-13-2009, 08:33 PM

Great discussion as I was having some of the same questions.

Let me throw this out there and see if it's a good idea or not....

Could you splurge and purchase 2 domains...one keyword friendly and the other containing more of your "brand"...and simply forward everything from the keyword domain to the "your brand" domain?

Does that even make sense?

I feel more comfortable with a keyword rich domain because every little advantage helps, but I have a really sweet brand idea that I'd like to pursue. I was wondering if doing this forwarding thing would give me the "best of both worlds"?

What do you think?

seoFool · 10-13-2009, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremy James

Thanks, guys. It's hard, but, I am going to be forced to not have my keyword in my blog, as I am promoting 3 different products, but, coming from the same person.

I'm not sure I understand that completely...but why not make 3 different blogs then?

Louise Evans · 10-13-2009, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derek.ifocus

Great discussion as I was having some of the same questions.

Let me throw this out there and see if it's a good idea or not....

Could you splurge and purchase 2 domains...one keyword friendly and the other containing more of your "brand"...and simply forward everything from the keyword domain to the "your brand" domain?

Does that even make sense?

I feel more comfortable with a keyword rich domain because every little advantage helps, but I have a really sweet brand idea that I'd like to pursue. I was wondering if doing this forwarding thing would give me the "best of both worlds"?

What do you think?

That's an SEO trick that used to work about 8 years ago, it's not so effective anymore because it was over used and abused. In fact it was my main upsell to my SEO clients, it worked that well.

These days Google not only checks the domain name in question but also who owns it. So essentially Google is checking your personal domain record to see if you're trying to "out smart" it.

derek.ifocus · 10-13-2009, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lovelylou

That's an SEO trick that used to work about 8 years ago, it's not so effective anymore because it was over used and abused. In fact it was my main upsell to my SEO clients, it worked that well.

These days Google not only checks the domain name in question but also who owns it. So essentially Google is checking your personal domain record to see if you're trying to "out smart" it.

You mean I'm only 9 years too late????

Almost had that one!

What would you recommend then, if you don't mind me asking....

keyword domain or brand domain?

Thanks for your help,
Derek

Louise Evans · 10-13-2009, 09:10 PM

I think it comes down to personal choice, I always go for branding over a keyword rich domain. In the long run it won't matter too much, spend time making quality content for your visitors and you'll be ok.

Player77 · 10-14-2009, 07:01 AM

When selecting a keyword rich URL lets say for example i would like to target a niche such as metal chairs with metal chairs being the main keywords and metalchairs.com was taken.

Would it be just as effective using the title chairsmetal.com as i have noticed i can reverse the keywords in alot of very popular niches and they seem to be available
does google penalise you for this in the serps?
or would i b better off going with metal-chairs.com?

help is greatly appreciated

rapidscc · 10-14-2009, 07:05 AM

IMO your listing in the serps will be based on how people typed the keyword.

You could always reverse the order of keywords in phrases but the question is does anybody search in that reverse order. To know this simply fire up your favorite keyword research tool and search for the reversed phrase. See if there are searches based on those exact phrases and check out if you can rank on it..

All the best

Omar Diaz

mikeyman120 · 10-14-2009, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Player77

or would i b better off going with metal-chairs.com?

I would go with metal-chairs over chairsmetal. But you may want to find a domain without the dashes if you can like bobsmetalchairs or something similiar.

Mike

chicagopressrelease · 10-14-2009, 08:24 AM

This may also be an opportunity to capitalize on other popular, related search terms and dominate regional or more detailed searches such as "bostonmetalchairs.com" or "metalofficechairs.com."

Good luck!

HCLee · 10-14-2009, 08:43 AM

If you're targeting a very small niche, then you should always put your main keyword in your domain, in fact that's like a golden rule of thumb. Otherwise for a general niche, it really does not matter too much as it helps just a little.

Vaan · 10-14-2009, 08:57 AM

It depends on yourself jeremy,,
If you want to branding yourself, just go with an Unique Name, The name that you use to brand your self on your niche, the name must be short and rememberable..
ex , like facebook does, It's in Social Media site niche, you see they have unique and short name

In other side, if you just want make a site with rank higher in spesific keyword in your niche, just go with keyword rich domain name, that will ensure good SERP and maintain high traffic quickly..

Cheers,
Vaan

FriendlyRob · 10-14-2009, 09:23 AM

It is not essential to put it in the domain but at least the title.

Look at the website we are using now "warriorforum" nothing about what kind of forum it is.

But look at the title "WarriorForum - internet Marketing Forums"

The search engines will certainly pick that up.

Irishman · 10-14-2009, 09:26 AM

I agree with the above posts. Doing a quick Google Keyword Tool search, it looks like the mother load of searches is for "metal chair" and www.metalchair.net seems to be available. I've tested up one side and down the other, and with .net, .com, and .org, I've seen very small results difference.

If it was me, I grab that .net and I grab metal-chairs.com.

Further I would go after the descriptive, highly qualified keyword domains as well, such as "metalfoldingchairs" and the like.

I would really encourage you to respect word order in the domain based on my experience. Unless you have long term authority site, it can be tough to compete for the main keyword.

Hope that helps!

Will

Vaan · 10-14-2009, 09:32 AM

I agree, metal chairs is to broad niche, you could make it easier to rank on SERP by dig it to more phrases like chicago does bostonmetalchairs.com

But in case you want only on metal chairs and that keyword has been taken, just go on the domain with dashes..

Vaan

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicagopressrelease

This may also be an opportunity to capitalize on other popular, related search terms and dominate regional or more detailed searches such as "bostonmetalchairs.com" or "metalofficechairs.com."

Good luck!

Player77 · 10-14-2009, 05:32 PM

Hi thanks for all the great replies.

im just using metal chairs as an example .
lets say google had 100 000 searches for metal chairs but only 1000 for chairs metal using the exact phrase
which domain would give me better serps positioning
chairsmetal.com or metal-chairs.com or say bobsmetalchairs.com
or would they all be the same?????
Could some1 please tell me in which order google prefers these domains as im quite confused on what to pick
im just after mainly serps positioning and what google prefers

cheers

clickbump · 10-14-2009, 06:16 PM

All my niche websites have exact match keyword domains. It's absolutely essential to my biz plan. I get ranked in top 20 right out of the gate. Some sites are top ten, mostly because of the keyword domain.

besides that, the key is to cater to the googlebot w a very seo friendly page. Best way to do this is with a pure css template with no extra markup to dilute the keyword density of the content (Google loves fast loading sites with proper markup)

I find the combo of these two set a site up well for the backlinking campaign that follows to keep them ranked high and in the money.

derek.ifocus · 10-14-2009, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clickbump

All my niche websites have exact match keyword domains. It's absolutely essential to my biz plan. I get ranked in top 20 right out of the gate. Some sites are top ten, mostly because of the keyword domain.

My sites are also very seo friendly since my templates are fully css driven with no extra markup to dilute the keyword density of the content (Google loves fast loading sites with proper markup)

I find the combo of these two set a site up well for the backlinking campaign that follows to keep them ranked high and in the money.

Do you have a free CSS driven template with no extra markup that you would recommend?

Thanks

ichommylegend · 10-15-2009, 09:49 AM

not a must but it help you to get more traffic to your site

clickbump · 10-15-2009, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derek.ifocus

Do you have a free CSS driven template with no extra markup that you would recommend?

Thanks

Hi Derek, no free one that I know of, but check you PM for info on one that works and is well worth what it costs.

paulgl · 10-15-2009, 11:48 AM

It will not help you get more traffic, it just looks good.
But looking good has nothing to do with SEO.
Websites are ranked, not domains.
Think about zillow.com. What is a zillow? Does amazon.com have
anything to do with the amazon? These are just a couple of
examples. Countless websites have nonsense domains and are
highly ranked. It matters what you do with the domain, not
the words in the domain.

Here's another example. Do you know what fanzz.com ranks #1 for?
Ans: sports apparel. I guess they did not get the memo that they
needed sportsapparel.com. Funny thing. Amazon.com ranks #2 for
sports apparel. Oh well. I guess they blew it too on that domain.
What's #3? Footballfanatics.com. Hmmmmm. See a pattern?

Take your domain and get it ranked! Don't get hung up on keywords in
a domain. Put more effort where you can really make a difference.

I wish bgmacaw had a good line for this one.

Paul

A. van Heerden · 10-15-2009, 01:35 PM

Most of the time on page isn't as important as it used to be, but why should you not have all the factors count in your favor?

If all other things are equal...you can outrank your competitors if they are not all set with on page.

10-13-2009, 07:03 PM	#1
Jeremy James HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: , , . Posts: 296 Thanks: 10 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts	Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? I wanted to hear your take on whether or not I needed to put my unique keyword phrase in my domain name. Thanks.
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10-13-2009, 07:08 PM	#2
Kevin Williams Mr. CPA War Room Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Eugene, OR Posts: 260 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 46 Thanked 27 Times in 27 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? You don't HAVE to, but if it is a competitive niche than you'll have a hard time without it. You'll have to do a good amount of extra work.
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10-13-2009, 07:10 PM	#3
Zeus66 Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Near Dallas, TX, USA Posts: 1,389 Blog Entries: 22 Thanks: 329 Thanked 552 Times in 300 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? It helps, but no it's not absolutely essential. The biggest factor is having links pointing to your page with the target keyword as anchor text. You can get pages ranked at Google for keywords that never appear at any point in the page with enough good backlinks. I'm talking no appearance in the title tags, meta tags, image alt tags, and nowhere in the page text. It's just that those on-page SEO elements help your cause. But they are not absolutely necessary. John
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10-13-2009, 07:12 PM	#4
JeffMitchell Jeff Mitchell Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Muncie, Indiana Posts: 93 Thanks: 1 Thanked 16 Times in 14 Posts Social Networking	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? In your Blog posts I would definately put the keyword in your blog. Put your keyword in... 1. URl 2. Title 3. Keywords (obviously) 4. And 1 time per 150 words in your post. Beside backlinks....that is about the most I can give you for a less than rookie in SEO.. Jeff Mitchell "The Non SEO Marketer"
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10-13-2009, 07:12 PM	#5
Louise Evans Marketing Since 2002 War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 350 Thanks: 104 Thanked 116 Times in 48 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? Keyword loaded domains can sometimes take a while longer to rank but in the long term the domain name doesn't matter much (most of my domain names do not carry my keywords). The age of the domain is more important than the name itself.
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10-13-2009, 08:00 PM	#6
Jeremy James HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: , , . Posts: 296 Thanks: 10 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? Thanks, guys. It's hard, but, I am going to be forced to not have my keyword in my blog, as I am promoting 3 different products, but, coming from the same person.
	Articles written at reasonable prices! Give me the opportunity to serve you. It would be my pleasure to assist you. I offer bulk discounting and quick, friendly service. PM me for a quote.

10-13-2009, 08:33 PM	#7
derek.ifocus HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 103 Thanks: 74 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts Social Networking	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? Great discussion as I was having some of the same questions. Let me throw this out there and see if it's a good idea or not.... Could you splurge and purchase 2 domains...one keyword friendly and the other containing more of your "brand"...and simply forward everything from the keyword domain to the "your brand" domain? Does that even make sense? I feel more comfortable with a keyword rich domain because every little advantage helps, but I have a really sweet brand idea that I'd like to pursue. I was wondering if doing this forwarding thing would give me the "best of both worlds"? What do you think?
	Do You HATE Keyword Research, or just don't have the time? Why not let a keyword research expert do it for you. I provide the keywords. You reap the benefits! Premier Keyword Research At Dirt Cheap Prices >> Outsource It HERE

10-13-2009, 09:10 PM	#11
Louise Evans Marketing Since 2002 War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 350 Thanks: 104 Thanked 116 Times in 48 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? I think it comes down to personal choice, I always go for branding over a keyword rich domain. In the long run it won't matter too much, spend time making quality content for your visitors and you'll be ok.
	~ How I Make $1,000+ A Day - Click Here For Details ~ ~

10-14-2009, 07:01 AM	#12
Player77 Warrior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: , , Australia. Posts: 7 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	keywords in URL When selecting a keyword rich URL lets say for example i would like to target a niche such as metal chairs with metal chairs being the main keywords and metalchairs.com was taken. Would it be just as effective using the title chairsmetal.com as i have noticed i can reverse the keywords in alot of very popular niches and they seem to be available does google penalise you for this in the serps? or would i b better off going with metal-chairs.com? help is greatly appreciated

10-14-2009, 07:05 AM	#13
rapidscc Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Sunny Philippines Posts: 890 Blog Entries: 9 Thanks: 262 Thanked 65 Times in 54 Posts Social Networking	Re: keywords in URL IMO your listing in the serps will be based on how people typed the keyword. You could always reverse the order of keywords in phrases but the question is does anybody search in that reverse order. To know this simply fire up your favorite keyword research tool and search for the reversed phrase. See if there are searches based on those exact phrases and check out if you can rank on it.. All the best Omar Diaz
	Writer, Blogger, Pinoy Internet Marketer My Warrior Forum Blogs On How To Start Making Money, Proper Preselling - I Bet My A$$ This Works!

10-14-2009, 08:24 AM	#15
chicagopressrelease Active Warrior Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA Posts: 58 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Social Networking	Re: keywords in URL This may also be an opportunity to capitalize on other popular, related search terms and dominate regional or more detailed searches such as "bostonmetalchairs.com" or "metalofficechairs.com." Good luck!
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10-14-2009, 08:43 AM	#16
HCLee HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 144 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? If you're targeting a very small niche, then you should always put your main keyword in your domain, in fact that's like a golden rule of thumb. Otherwise for a general niche, it really does not matter too much as it helps just a little.
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10-14-2009, 08:57 AM	#17
Vaan KeywordMadness.com Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: singapore Posts: 180 Thanks: 18 Thanked 12 Times in 11 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? It depends on yourself jeremy,, If you want to branding yourself, just go with an Unique Name, The name that you use to brand your self on your niche, the name must be short and rememberable.. ex , like facebook does, It's in Social Media site niche, you see they have unique and short name In other side, if you just want make a site with rank higher in spesific keyword in your niche, just go with keyword rich domain name, that will ensure good SERP and maintain high traffic quickly.. Cheers, Vaan
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10-14-2009, 09:23 AM	#18
FriendlyRob HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Woodstock, Ontario, CANADA Posts: 183 Thanks: 20 Thanked 21 Times in 19 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? It is not essential to put it in the domain but at least the title. Look at the website we are using now "warriorforum" nothing about what kind of forum it is. But look at the title "WarriorForum - internet Marketing Forums" The search engines will certainly pick that up.
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10-14-2009, 09:26 AM	#19
Irishman Will Irish War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Washington, D.C. USA Posts: 125 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 36 Thanked 15 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	Re: keywords in URL I agree with the above posts. Doing a quick Google Keyword Tool search, it looks like the mother load of searches is for "metal chair" and www.metalchair.net seems to be available. I've tested up one side and down the other, and with .net, .com, and .org, I've seen very small results difference. If it was me, I grab that .net and I grab metal-chairs.com. Further I would go after the descriptive, highly qualified keyword domains as well, such as "metalfoldingchairs" and the like. I would really encourage you to respect word order in the domain based on my experience. Unless you have long term authority site, it can be tough to compete for the main keyword. Hope that helps! Will
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10-14-2009, 05:32 PM	#21
Player77 Warrior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: , , Australia. Posts: 7 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? Hi thanks for all the great replies. im just using metal chairs as an example . lets say google had 100 000 searches for metal chairs but only 1000 for chairs metal using the exact phrase which domain would give me better serps positioning chairsmetal.com or metal-chairs.com or say bobsmetalchairs.com or would they all be the same????? Could some1 please tell me in which order google prefers these domains as im quite confused on what to pick im just after mainly serps positioning and what google prefers cheers

10-14-2009, 06:16 PM	#22
clickbump HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Birmingham, AL Posts: 218 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 20 Thanked 37 Times in 21 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? All my niche websites have exact match keyword domains. It's absolutely essential to my biz plan. I get ranked in top 20 right out of the gate. Some sites are top ten, mostly because of the keyword domain. besides that, the key is to cater to the googlebot w a very seo friendly page. Best way to do this is with a pure css template with no extra markup to dilute the keyword density of the content (Google loves fast loading sites with proper markup) I find the combo of these two set a site up well for the backlinking campaign that follows to keep them ranked high and in the money.
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10-15-2009, 09:49 AM	#24
ichommylegend Warrior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 13 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? not a must but it help you to get more traffic to your site

10-15-2009, 11:48 AM	#26
paulgl HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 288 Thanks: 14 Thanked 18 Times in 17 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? It will not help you get more traffic, it just looks good. But looking good has nothing to do with SEO. Websites are ranked, not domains. Think about zillow.com. What is a zillow? Does amazon.com have anything to do with the amazon? These are just a couple of examples. Countless websites have nonsense domains and are highly ranked. It matters what you do with the domain, not the words in the domain. Here's another example. Do you know what fanzz.com ranks #1 for? Ans: sports apparel. I guess they did not get the memo that they needed sportsapparel.com. Funny thing. Amazon.com ranks #2 for sports apparel. Oh well. I guess they blew it too on that domain. What's #3? Footballfanatics.com. Hmmmmm. See a pattern? Take your domain and get it ranked! Don't get hung up on keywords in a domain. Put more effort where you can really make a difference. I wish bgmacaw had a good line for this one. Paul
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10-15-2009, 01:35 PM	#27
A. van Heerden Warrior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 17 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Do you have to put your keyword in the domain name? Most of the time on page isn't as important as it used to be, but why should you not have all the factors count in your favor? If all other things are equal...you can outrank your competitors if they are not all set with on page.
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