What's in a Domain Name?

[MusicisMagic]

Hi All,

I am wondering just how important a "related" domain name is when it comes to building a site and optimizing it. How closely must it be related to the content? ex. soccerteams.com when your content is about soccer shoes. Does this work? Thanks for all the input.

[jwlnewsome]

Hi, every little helps but I would concentrate on getting back links with the keywords as anchor text. This will negate any domain name issue.

[MusicisMagic]

Thanks J. It seems backlinks are THE most important things, from all the posts I've

been reading!

[CliveG]

If you can get your key words in your domain name that is a major plus point in my experience. If your site is about soccer shoes I'm not sure that I would choose soccerteams.com but I might choose, for example, performancesoccershoes.com.

[ruxi]

Quality back links are most important i get backlinks from blogging. its very cool way. however, if keyword is match with your domain name its sounds good

[Andrew O]

How important is a domain with your keyword? VERY important. I've noticed that when going after a specific keyword, choosing a domain with that keyword will make your life sooo much easier, it can be exponentially quicker to rank for the term. However, if you already have a site where the keyword is not in the domain, you can certainly still rank and shouldn't have any problems with enough quality backlinks.

[MusicisMagic]

Thanks all for your comments. Very helpful!

[dburk]

Hi MusicisMagic,

Having your primary keyword as your domain name is of great benefit for several reasons.
Seo benefit is obvious, every link to every one of your web pages will always contain your keyword within the URL.

When other webmasters link to one of your pages with just your URL or domain name as the anchor text it will count as a relvant backlink.

Having you primary keyword in your domain name can influence click through rates. Users are more likely to click on an ad, search listing or direct link if they see relevance in the domain name.

[MusicisMagic]

Thanks for the support dburk!

[bigcat1967]

try to match the URL w/ your anchor texts if possible. You may have to put a dash in there since it could be taken.

[HCLee]

If you are targeting a very small niche like a micro niche site then your domain name and what name you choose is extremely important. You would then want to put your keyword in you domain name. Sometimes if there is little competition doing this alone gives you very good search engine ranking.

[kkchoon]

Originally Posted by CliveG

If you can get your key words in your domain name that is a major plus point in my experience. If your site is about soccer shoes I'm not sure that I would choose soccerteams.com but I might choose, for example, performancesoccershoes.com.

Very true! Or performance-soccer-shoes.com will do the same.

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi MusicisMagic,

Having your primary keyword as your domain name is of great benefit for several reasons.
Seo benefit is obvious, every link to every one of your web pages will always contain your keyword within the URL.

Having you primary keyword in your domain name can influence click through rates. Users are more likely to click on an ad, search listing or direct link if they see relevance in the domain name.

Totally agreed with you Don!

Originally Posted by HCLee

If you are targeting a very small niche like a micro niche site then your domain name and what name you choose is extremely important. You would then want to put your keyword in you domain name. Sometimes if there is little competition doing this alone gives you very good search engine ranking.

I found it very effective to use domain name and rank for low and medium competition keywords, you need a lot less links if you include the keywords in:

1. Domain name
2. Title
3. H1 Tag
4. Content - bolding it as well.

All these on page optimization would greatly help you in ranking !