Keyword in domain name - the strength of it ?!

[Bajsich]

I am wondering how much power does the keyword being in the domain name have ? IS it better to have mykeyword.com and 3 relevant backlink articles on it or mydomain.com/mykeyword.html and 5 ? 10 ? 20 ? relevant articles ....

How much more must you put in if you do not have your own domain?


Thanks

Sincerely, Base

[NoGuru]

It's hard to quantify how much it matters, but it definitely seems to matter some. I don't think it is a substitute for articles, just an extra enhancement to your site.

[c0rv3tt3]

In my experience it makes it much easier to rank for the keyword if the keyword is in your domain name.

[thecookiedude]

Its always effective to have keyword in your domain, but adding 'my' might be problematic. I have always noticed the only keywords domain ranks for that keyword without any major effort, which is if you own keyword.com your chances of ranking for 'keyword' increases 10 folds without any special effort. But to answer your question, yes it does help a little bit if you have keyword in your domain.

[paulgl]

The two biggest, baddest forums for internet marketing are
warriorforum and digitalpoint. Ask yourself why?

Feelings are not SEO.

Because people can come up with an anecdotal example,
then will scream, "SEE!" while ignoring the thousands
of other examples where it doesn't. And somehow
because one out of a 1,000 sites gets a supposed push,
they drink the kool aid.

Lots of Norway winners in the ski events in the Olympics.
Using the aforementioned logic, you could say, I better
move to Norway if I want to be an Olympic skier, because it
seems people living in Norway have a better chance.

Paul

[pitocus]

Hello Base

quantifying it would be really hard as there are things that for SEO work gets out of hands and you can't control them to quantify real impact over something, but it is important, more important for the domain than for the mykeyword.html, in fact, from my experience, some times repeating the word on the html might do a bit of damage for repeating the word too much, but just once wouldn't be a problem

If I were you, I wouldn't go with mykeyword.com if you still haven't bought the domain, but I would do some research and find some relevant word to go with your keyword, this way you might focus a better niche for that market you are wanting to get and the SEO for the domain will be even better

hope I have helped you! good luck

[Bajsich]

I didnt mean MY and then keyword. I just ment lets say bananapealer2000.com ... and its taken so i choose bananapealer2000store.com or sth. This is not the issue. I wanted to quantify (figured i cant ) the importance of it beeing in the domain name in regard to it being in lets say kitchenhelpers.com/bananapealer2000 ....

Bottom line : is it worth it to buy a domain for each keyword. Probably yes. But there have been some discussions about this so I wanted your oppinion.

[paulgl]

I know your example above is just a toss in, but nobody
will need a banana peeler, so let's try potato peeler.

Do a search on google and ignoring amazon, nextag, msn, etc.
which, by the way, have zero keywords, here are the top domains
for potato peeler.

asseenontvguys.com
foodservicewarehouse.com
vanmarkcorp.com
hobartfood.com

Nary a keyword in the domain. This is what the entire internet
is like, at least for those who want to be big and are serious.
Those 4 out rank wikipedia.

Paul

[Dexter007]

Keywords in the domain are just like desserts. If you have them, well and good, it will add to the pleasure of your belly and taste buds. If not, you can still survive with your regular routine of fiber intake. Its all about your taste buds.. You get an 'extra' advantage by having keyword in your domain.. thats it!

[Bajsich]

So if there is a keyword and the top 10 pages have PRs of 5-3-4-0-3-0-1-2-3-3 ... The PR0 are keyword.net and keyword.org with NO backlinks whatsoever. They are 1 page articles ( barely 400 words ). Keep in mind its a keyword of 9000 global searches per month.

Thats why I am asking because I do not see anything else that could get them so high.

[Bajsich]

I would also like to touch the subject of lets say my word is "wooden bungallow" and of course woodenbungallow.com is taken. Is it better to add a word or lett and keep it together or to add a - .

a.) wooden-bungallow.com
b.) woodenbungallows.com

What do you guys think ?

[Jamesyfws]

I am no seo expert but I would use b) woodenbungallows.com before using a hyphenated url because most people don't think to use a hyphen but will use a plural spelling first.

James

[John Hocking]

Originally Posted by Jamesyfws

I am no seo expert but I would use b) woodenbungallows.com before using a hyphenated url because most people don't think to use a hyphen but will use a plural spelling first.

James

If the majority of the people will find your site using a search engine then hyphens are fine and I think they make the domain easier to read.

Almost all my sites have the keyword in the domain and yes I do believe it has affect on ranking.

my adwords sites ranks #2 in google for adwords training because adwords training is the domain name.

[Sandy Cormack]

The answer is 'yes' if the keyword IS the domain name. The answer is 'maybe' if the keyword is IN the domain name.

I just started two sites based on keyword phrase search volume. I was able to get keywordphrase dot org for each site. Both debuted on Page 2 with zero backlinks, and both have moved to Page 1 after minimal backlinking.

For a better discussion of the effect of keywordphrase = domain name, look for the 'Clickbump Method' thread.

[payment proof]

I think it matters some just from a pure marketing/advertising stand point. If I have a site selling cookies for instance, it's much better to have a domain name that has cookies in it than a domain name that has "cars" or "toys" or something totally unrelated to my product or service.

I think it's a good idea to find a domain name that is both easy for people to remember and also reflects the purpose of your business. I know that's easier said then done, but it is really worth it.

[paulgl]

You people need to do real searches for real-life keyword
searches done by real people. Do that, and keywords mean
squat.

When someone says, oh yeah, it matters, they ignore
the facts. But, like I always say, feelings are not SEO.

You want to rank for some rinky dink nonsense keyword
that nobody searches for or cares about, go for it.

If you want real traffic from real people, copy the big boys.
They could care less. They want a catchy name.

Because you take a domain name, with keywords, and do what
it takes, does not mean squat about the domain name.

Just for fun I did a google search for creativity training.

Now what domains outrank creativitytraining.org?

Here are a few:
selfgrowth.com
achievemax.com
impactfactory.com
thinkingmanagers.com
Even amazon.com

So let's recap, out of the top 10 results for creativity
training, in quotes,...
Five have neither creativity nor training in the domains.
Three have both creativity AND training in the domains.
One has just creativity
One has just training

7 out of the top ten do not have "creativity training" in the
domains. 70%

But talking real world, very short searches like that are not
majority. So a more real world search would be something
like:
creativity training for my employees

Guess what? Now in the top 10, there is only one site, one
lonely site with any of those keywords in the domain.
90% don't.

So, what effect on this real world example does keywords
in the domain have? Very, very little.

A domain like selfgrowth.com? Now that rocks, baby!
I'd take selfgrowth.com in a heart beat over any domain
in the niche with keywords.

Paul

[Helps Here]

I agree, there are lots of websites that don't have a keyword in their domain, and rank very highly for hundreds of keywords, but they are also HUGE sites, that put in tons of money, time, and do so for many years to get to where they are (which is not what I'm saying is bad at all, just saying you may not have that much money to put into it), even millions of dollars in ads, Amazon is huge. But if you are a "mom and pop" type of internet presence and want to get to the top of Google, it would be sooo much time and sooo much of your money to hire out or do your own 1) articles 2) content 3) backlinks, or hiring expensive SEO companies that START at $500 a month, etc, etc...for years to try to outrank those big boys, if you had only a catchy name.

I'm just saying given the 2 choices for MOST of us, we want every little tiny advantage we can take. Google is tough as it is, why not take an advantage when you are offered one.

I too wasn't sure what to go with, short and cute catchy domain.com or longer keyword rich domain.com (no dashes). I originally had the catchy one, but after 4000 backlinks, all kinds, all different types of links (profile links, article links, blog comments, social bookmarking, onsite links from guest posting, etc). i still wasn't ranking highly, I only made it to page 3 for 1 keyword only (which was in 70% of my anchor text exactly as the keyword was), my onsite SEO was very strong..but still not ranking that great even...no other words, i only ranked that high for that one since that keyword was 1/2 in my domain name, not fully, but 1 of the 2 words was in my domain. Since then I have 301 URL'ed to a new longer keyword rich, very rich.com domain and i am ranking for many words I never was before, because all the "variations" are in my domain now...its crazy how well it works to have the words just in the domain...not even an exact match w/ any keyword but just tossed a few of my best related keywords and put .com after, its related to my site contents, VERY relevent to what my customers may type in, and google, bing, and yahoo (that i was nowhere to be seen AT ALL for any keywords, has rewarded me with page 1 as of today for my best keyword because its simply IN (not exact match domain, just IN my domain name) my domain (and i had all those backlinks from my original 301'd site to this one).

So far in Google I have moved up 8 spots so far for my original keyword, and its only been 1 week since the 301 redirect..its not official yet where i will stay at...but looks good so far.

I will never go after a simple cute/catchy/fuzzy domain again, now that I know just how amazing of a boost you really get with having your main strongest keywords in your domain itself (.com is what is best). no dashes from what I have personally seen on page 1. My onsite seo and all the info on my new site is the same as the old. nothing else changed other than the new domain w/ keywords in it.

But if you have millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars (and are not a part time mom and pop shop trying to sell your "cookie recipes" online)...then it may be smarter to get a very catchy name, like "topeka.com" I hear Google isn't using it anymore.


Great info here! just wanted to mention my personal experiences from this year...keyword domain is very important to me and will be for ever...

Mark

[warrior49]

In my opinion an exact match long tail key phrase domain is invaluable. Get one whenever possible in your niche. It will pay dividends later.

[Sue McDonald]

Hi Base

I am a firm believer in having your keywords in your URL. This will increase your ranking and if possible try and use those keywords again in your title.

Get the most appropriate keywords in your niche and them see if you can get that URL. I have put a hyphen in one of my domain names and it ranks very well.

[duia]

It is really a hard task for us and all SEOers to quantify how much it matters. But it is obvious that if your domain names contain the keywords that are relevant to your niche or content of your sites, then it means that you can gain good SERP for your sites.
For example, now, I am running a niche blog about health tips, so, the domain is healthtips4.us, which is relevant to the niche obviously.

[Thunder059]

having the keyword in your URL would be helpful for you to travel the Search Engines easily.So the best way would be, selecting an URL with your desired keyword.It would be really helpful for sure.

[dbonline]

Well let's just say having a desired keyword as part of your URL has it's advantages, but from what I've witnessed and experienced over the years is that there are so many other factors that contribute to how well a site ranks. It's a bonus yes, but not the end all be all solution in all cases when targeting certain words or phrases.

[Clyde]

Getting an Exact Domain Name match is like 60% of the SEO work.