Relationship between URL and Keywords for SEO

[woodywho55178]

I've been looking all over for some input on this, but can't seem to find much solid info about it. It has to do with the relationship between your domain and the keywords you target for SEO. My question is about the order of the words in your domain. For example: say you want to target keywords like Stop Dog Barking or Get Cash for Paid Surveys. Would the domains dogstopbarking and paidcashsurveys be ok, even though the keywords used in the domain name are not in the same order as what is searched for? My other question is, would I target the keywords as they are in the domain, or as they are searched? Both ways would have the keywords, though. I noticed Google tends to pull up “some” websites that don't match the order of the keywords you searched for, but I don't know if this is common.

[adryn]

you'll have to place the words equal than people's search

[woodywho55178]

I might not have worded it right. I short, for a 3 word domain, could I compete with a website that has the 3 keywords exactly right, if mine are the same, but in a different order? Same keywords, just switched around. This is assuming I followed good SEO structure/backlinking etc of course...

[Kim Davis]

if you are trying to rank for stop dog barking then the words have to be in that order to rank for them... if they are switched around to dog stop barking then that is what you will rank for if someone types it in that order... if all things equal between you and the person with the URL stop dog barking, then they will rank higher than you when someone types that phrase into the search engines... however you can still outrank someone with the domain stop dog barking through other SEO tactics.
Hope that clears it up for you

[paulgl]

Keywords in the domain has nothing to do with SEO.
It's what you do with the site that matters.
Too many people believe this myth and it has nothing
to do with order at all. Google mixes up your search
terms at will.

There are dozens of threads on this forum that have buried the
keywords in the domain myth.

Every big site does not care about keywords in the domain.
Why would you think that if your competition does not care,
that it matters?

In fact, to really maybe FINALLY blow this out of the water.
just for fun I did a search for "stop dog barking."

This will kill you: You know what site comes up first, with or
without quotes? A website with NONE, that's right NONE of
those keywords in their domain. And to put the final nail in the
coffin, the #1 site did not even have the word STOP in the
title either. #1 site? Perfect paws.

I can't for the life of me why people continue the myth of this
keyword domain nonsense. If that previous example does not
do it for you, then your competition will keep beating you.

Here is a fantastic article on SEO today:
Debunking Common SEO Myths - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Paul

[woodywho55178]

Originally Posted by paulgl

This will kill you: You know what site comes up first, with or
without quotes? A website with NONE, that's right NONE of
those keywords in their domain. And to put the final nail in the
coffin, the #1 site did not even have the word STOP in the
title either. #1 site? Perfect paws.

Thanks for that! I just checked it out myself. I know there's no exact science to it, but the number one listing (when I just looked) for dog stop barking was a site that had barkingdogs in domain name...which is reversed from what was searched.

[GeorgR.]

i personally think its overrated, it might have a little weight in SEO, but content and what else you do on the site would outweigh your domain name, IMHO.

[Mike Adams]

Its all bout content, internal site structure and external links. Period. Search "book" you get returns like amazon.com, bn.com (Barnes and Nobles), borders.com..... none of which have anything in the domain to do with books.

[woodywho55178]

Originally Posted by BlackBookProject

Its all bout content, internal site structure and external links. Period. Search "book" you get returns like amazon.com, bn.com (Barnes and Nobles), borders.com..... none of which have anything in the domain to do with books.

Yeah, you're right. I'm talking about more targeted longtail keywords. In quite a few of my niches, 7 of the top 10 results all have the keywords in their domain, though. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if it makes a difference when most of your competition has the same bundle of keywords in their domain, and I have the same keywords in my domain but switched around. I know that with proper structure, backlinking etc that I can rank fairly well, but I'm just trying to figure out (to make life easier on me) if it matters what order your keywords are in when it comes to your domain name (even if it's just a little bit). After I started the topic, I did more research after paulgl wrote his reply and saw that it's mixed results concerning the order of the keywords in your domain, as long as the rest of your site (keywords/site structure etc) is up to par. For example: I just typed in "blue hair dye" and the first result had "dye hair blue" in the title, but not in the domain. the second site had an exact match in the domain, although the 1st site was pr3 compared to pr0, so it's not a completley fair comparison.

[Mike Adams]

Well there are some other things to look at. The age of the domain and the anchor text in the incoming links. Check that out when you are doing your research. Google uses "Referential Integrity" to rank sites and the above are two factors.

[makhussy]

Keywords in URL play major role in Search Engine Optimization

[ShanghaiTours]

If you have a keyword in your url, you are more likely to get higher ranks in SERPs.

[bryansmith]

Originally Posted by woodywho55178

I've been looking all over for some input on this, but can't seem to find much solid info about it. It has to do with the relationship between your domain and the keywords you target for SEO. My question is about the order of the words in your domain. For example: say you want to target keywords like Stop Dog Barking or Get Cash for Paid Surveys. Would the domains dogstopbarking and paidcashsurveys be ok, even though the keywords used in the domain name are not in the same order as what is searched for? My other question is, would I target the keywords as they are in the domain, or as they are searched? Both ways would have the keywords, though. I noticed Google tends to pull up “some” websites that don't match the order of the keywords you searched for, but I don't know if this is common.

Hi,
we can use the keyword in title tag,Body text,content,h1 tag,Anchor Text of Inbound Link.we can also use the keyword in Page URL:keyword.com plus target terms in the webpage URL.

[ARVolund]

While the keyword in the url does seem to help some. My understanding is that where in the url is of very little importance.

So

keyword.com/page.html

is not really any better than

yourdomain.com/keyword.html.

In the Google video I watched Matt said that the position of the keyword in the url was so low down on the list of what mattered that it should really be the last thing you worry about.

[warrior49]

I also agree that exact match domain names give a nice SEO advantage.

[Mike Adams]

The only advantage is when people link to your site using your domain name as the anchor text.

[turbohips]

there is a slight advantage when you first start your domain and link it from blogs. After building links to any domain, links will over power the domain keywords.

[System Wide Solutions]

it's all about onpage seo, and backlinks.

end of story.

[SEO Training Alliance]

Hmmm in my experience having an exact match domain helps, but it doesnt guarantee anything. this is a surprisingly tough call to make actually, but yes I would say for low competition keywords, having the exact phrase in the domain does help.

[mithil]

If you see Google or any search engine results, you'll notice that the top results are always those which has keywords in the domain name. So yes, I think search engines gives more weight to the sites with keywords in the domain name.

[Dital]

Great page there Paul, thanks.

[brucaSEO]

Having domain name same as our keyword gives us a little benefit i think. We also do the same thing our domain SEO content online is similar to our keyword.