Does the domain name matter for SEO purpose

12 replies
This may seem like a silly question but as far as I can see, there are some very popular website's that use domain names that are catchy but not at all targeted to their industry.

So the question is how important is using your main keyword when registering a new domain?
#domain #matter #purpose #seo
  • Profile picture of the author TommyBussey
    Having your primary keyword in your URL can be very beneficial to your SEO efforts. However, it is not entirely necessary. If you get plenty of high quality backlinks with your main keyword in the anchor text AND some keyword targeted, quality content on your site, then you could do without the keyword URL.

    Personally, I usually try to do it for specific niche products.

    Good luck!

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  • Profile picture of the author pharris1
    I would agree with Tommy. I know of a guy whose URL is his own name and he has been able to drive quality, targeted traffic and build his sites popularity.

    I'm sure the keyword in the domain name has its place, likely in balance with everything else you need to do to drive traffic to your site.

    Peter
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
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    If I were building a Google, Twitter or Yahoo, I would be going for branding. When I build a niche product site, I go for keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author Irishman
    What Tommy said.

    Will

    PS - and I would underscore "VERY BENEFICIAL"
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  • Profile picture of the author hotftuna
    Yes it helps t have your best keywod phrase in the url.

    No need to hyphens between words.
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    • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
      Originally Posted by hotftuna View Post

      No need to hyphens between words.
      Actually...if a page on your website besides the index page is targeted for a keyphrase Google recommends adding hyphens to separate the words in the keyphrase so they can parse it more accurately.

      So if your website is www.example.com, and the keyphrase you are targeting on a specific page is "make money online", your webpage for that targeted keyphase should look like this:

      www.example.com/make-money-online with the appropriate extension if needed (html, htm, php, et al)

      This comes straight from Matt Cutts of Google, it's not folklore.

      KJ
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  • Profile picture of the author sloth456
    I've been doing SEO for years. If you get the domain to be the exact keyword you want to rank for you will have no problems getting a first page ranking so long as you aren't targeting a super competitive keyword. This has worked well for me several times, thelink building is pretty minimal, but getting an exact domain makes a huge difference.

    Why?

    My theory is that Google always wants to rank a companies website top when their name is searched for. For example, if you type 'walmart' walmart.com will come top. That's because Google knows you are searching for the Walmart, you don't want any other site except Walmart's official website. If you get catscratchingposts.com, that is a keyword domain, but when someone searches for "cat scratching posts" on Google, Google has to decide whether the searcher is looking for the CatScratchingPosts company or are they simply looking for a range of sites selling cat scratching posts. I think that Google has a hard time figuring out the difference and always views your exact domain favourably as a company name and then based on CTR as time passes Google can make a better judgement of whether searchers are looking specifically for your site or for a range of sites based on that keyword.

    I don't think having keywords in the domain has the same effect, this is only something that works with exact domains in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bob Monie
    Sloth is spot on. Google has an exact match bonus for brands, business and companies that have zero SEO.

    Having a keyword in your domain does help with rankings but it definitely isnt a huge amount. Always depends on your level of niche competition.

    REMEMBER, Google ranks individual web pages, not websites as a whole, so optimize each page like it is its own domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
    This is interesting. I would have thought having any part of the keywords in the domain name would help with rankings.

    So Bob and Sloth you are saying if someone wanted to get ranked for
    Acne No More
    and they could not get that exact name but got
    Acne No More Today
    They would get just a little bit of domain ranking help but not a tremendous amount over a site called
    Get Rid of Bad Skin?
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    • Profile picture of the author sloth456
      Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

      This is interesting. I would have thought having any part of the keywords in the domain name would help with rankings.

      So Bob and Sloth you are saying if someone wanted to get ranked for
      Acne No More
      and they could not get that exact name but got
      Acne No More Today
      They would get just a little bit of domain ranking help but not a tremendous amount over a site called
      Get Rid of Bad Skin?
      I have done no campaigns where the domain contained the keyword but was not the exact domain, so I can't say for sure how AcneNoMoreToday would rank compared to the exact AcneNoMore.

      I only know that an exact domain works well for me. And the theory I've described behind it is basically the one I read about here:

      Digerati Marketing Making Money With Google Navigational Queries

      I subscribe to it because I think it makes sense. Much more so then the other theory which is that Google simple ranks a keyword domain higher because it suggests a specialised website within the niche that may have good content on it. But that for me isn't a satisfactory explanation when you see exact domains ranking number one with nothing but a 100 links or so, compared to competitors with thousands.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        One thing to consider re: hyphens in domain names...

        I like to use hyphens to pinpoint the exact phrase I'm going after. Partly for the SEO benefit, but mostly to avoid showing up on lists like these:

        unfortunate domain names - Google Search
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  • Profile picture of the author bannor32
    I concur that having your keyword in your domain name is crucial for ranking. Sure you can rank for your keyword without having it, but it will be more difficult.

    When another webmaster links to your site they are very unlikely to link with anchor text that contains the keyword you are targeting. However if your URL contains your keyword then anchor text becomes unnecessary - it is built in!
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