How important is a domain name

by jimmyjay

Posted: 15 years ago 26 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

A newbie question here. I have been following this forum and have gleaned a lot of information, and I am in the process of setting up my first sight. Many people recommend that the domain name uses keywords associated with the niche.

I have been searching for a domain name linked to keywords in the weight loss niche for quite a while now (days not years LOL) and I'm sure it will come as no surprise that all the good ones are gone. I can create some relatively OK sounding names using hyphens, or long phrases, but these do not correspond with the prime keywords.

My question is this: With viral marketing, article submission etc, is the domain name still that important for generating traffic?

#domain #important

innocent07 Banned 15 years ago

If your site becomes a popular site in 2-3 years, you want it to be remembered to have a 'good sounding site domain name',

I heard it can be benficial for SEO purposes to some extent
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- Peter Burke 15 years ago
  
  Hi
  
  Picking a good domain name that is descriptive of your niche/problem that you are addressing is vital.
  
  I agree with innocents comment that it should be memorable. I would add to that make it simple to remember and short and also make sure it's a .com
  
  I have also in the past made 'mistakes' on what I thought were 'clever' domain names with hyphens but the truth be known that no-one really ever remembers them or numbers.
  
  The best thing is to write down a list of the names that you would like that are relevant and try them in go daddy etc and see if they are taken. I'm afraid it's a process of elimination.
  
  Most of all use your imagination but try to get a name that describes what you customer is after but is catchy and makes sense!!
  
  Hope this helps
  
  Peter
  
  Thanks
  
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ForumJoiner 15 years ago

I believe it also depends a lot of how much do you advertise.

For instance, take the name Squidoo.com. Let's say hear this name for the first time. What do you think of it? Are you going to say that Squidoo.com made you think of submitting articles?

But now, after hearing it so many times, after maybe creating a lens or two, it's obvious what this domain name is related to.
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- Eric Lorence 15 years ago
  
  Depends a lot on your overall business plan, short term it may be better just to focus on keywords. Since you will be relying on SE traffic anyway.
  
  Long term, the name should be as short and easy to remember as possible. because you will be building your site into a destination.
  
  You can brand any domain, but the shorter the better.
  
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Franck Silvestre 15 years ago

As said above, it's good to choose a short domain name with at least one of your main keyword if you are going to use ppc.
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ste25 Banned 15 years ago

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- steveweber 15 years ago
  
  For a retail site or other site where humans may be repeating the name, it should be easy to spell with no hyphens.
  
  It's nice if you can get a keyword into the domain name, but for sure not needed. We do very well in the search engines and person to person marketing with the domain CactusCanyon...we don't sell or talk about cactus or canyons; yet the site gets plenty of targeted traffic for our products.
  
  Here is another way to look at it:
  
  A content rich domain named cats .com which is all about dog arthritis (for example) will rank much better than another domain named dog .com which has very poor content about dog arthritis.
  
  If your aim is purely for search engine traffic, the keyword in the domain helps a tad bit, but the content and page optimization matter 10 times as much...or more.
  
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shinzo159 15 years ago

of course!! domain name is important! I just cant imagine a site without a domain name... huh???
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DavidO 15 years ago

With a little creativity you should be able to come up with something using popular keywords. An associate of mine came up with a great keyword-rich domain in a very competitive niche by simple word reversal: bloodpressurehigh.com It has a big score for relevance and yet it's still easy to remember. I wish I'd thought of it first.

So try odd word orders and get real creative and you might still find something. And don't be afraid of hyphens. I use a four-word domain with hyphens and I've done very well with it.

The one thing you don't want to do is get frustrated and go for a second or third tier domain like biz. Stick with com, org or net.

In one minute I just found:

fat-busters.net & org
lose-weight-easy.org
easy-weightloss.net
fast-weight-loss.com net & org

None of these are dropdead domains but they all do the job and with a little effort you can surely come up with better.
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JimLillig 15 years ago

I always use the Google external keywords tool when looking for a domain. I usually put in the main keyword for the niche I am looking for and then do a search to see what the most popular searches are.

Making sure that I keep the phrase such as "lose weight" (avg # of Google searches per month - 2.2m) together in the name, then I look at the combinations it throws back to see if there is one that fits better.

I then try plugging in different combinations in the Instant Domain Checker.

Example: "lose weight fast" gets 300,000 searches a month.

I searched for "helploseweightfast" and lo and behold the .com, .net and .org are all available.

Of course you must do all the right seo techniques to help your site get ranked, but at least you know the name is going to help you.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Jim
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Mo Goulet 15 years ago

99% of the time I would agree with the .com theory but when someone is looking for help the .org does carry a sense of safety first as well as professionalism. Don't count out the .org domains in the weight loss field.

You can see on my domain name page below, most of my names are .com's with a few exceptions. I do have one in the category you are looking for.

A word of advice on domain names. It can become an addiction and you'll end up with several hundred names you simply will not use unless you put up a lot of websites so be aware of this before you end up like a lot of us with names you don't use and email notices of renewal coming in everyday. They should have an online biz called domainnamesanonymous.com...Oh shoot I better go see if that's available...
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- steveweber 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by proapc
  
  A word of advice on domain names. It can become an addiction and you'll end up with several hundred names you simply will not use ..
  
  That's is for sure! Buying domains can become a real addiction! Been there done that....
  
  Thanks
  
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  steve m 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by steveweber
  
  That's is for sure! Buying domains can become a real addiction! Been there done that....
  
  I have got a bad habit of this to.. Also check your spelling on the domain to as i have had to buy 3/4 domains twice now because of errors
  
  Thanks
  
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  ccleaner
  
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  jj_hiller 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by steveweber
  
  That's is for sure! Buying domains can become a real addiction! Been there done that....
  
  Guilty As Charged!
  
  Thanks
  
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- DeePower 15 years ago
  
  I have a site in the wedding niche which ranks first on Google for weddings on a budget, (no quotes) 7,870,000 competition. The domain name doesn't relate to weddings at all and has none of the keywords. I took an old site and changed the content to reflect the keywords. I then used the keyword phrase as the title of the index page, in the keyword descriptions tags and as the headline of the page as well as three times in the content.
  
  Dee
  
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  richinca 15 years ago
  
  DeePower - Great tip.
  
  Thanks
  
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DavidO 15 years ago

I agree that using an org domain, especially in your niche, can be real effective. Many people still don't realize that any business can have this domain and it does have certain positive connotations compared with com.
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jimmyjay 15 years ago

Thanks for the great response guys. I'm a lot clearer now.
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AskJesusLeon 15 years ago

like others have already said, it is important, take your time and think of something nice and catchy.
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- jj_hiller 15 years ago
  
  Here's how important I think a domain name is:
  
  It's next to nothing if you don't try and brand yourself for recognition and/or success. After all my due diligence is done, if my analysis has been worked out correctly, then, and only then, do I see if that particular domain is still available. And like so many have already mentioned, you'll end up with too many domains that you never use.
  
  JJ
  
  Thanks
  
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Habitat 15 years ago

Well I started a site the other day with a keyworded domain name. 2 Days later it was pulling in 20 dollars a day in adsense. I think that says enough. But of course I added my own special touch
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- tiger325 15 years ago
  
  yes think of something catchy that will make people remember your domain
  
  Thanks
  
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gley 15 years ago

Any Internet home business knows that owning a domain name is very important to online business success. A domain name creates identity, assigns the right image and forms the basis of email and website addresses.

Your domain name is the only clue to your online business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a word or a set of words to reach your site. Read more by going to Work At Home Start Up Guide: How To Get a Cheap Domain Name To Build Your Brand, Your Identity And Outsmart Your Competition!

Gley Yahya
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- TheRealDomainer 15 years ago
  
  Domain name is a vital aspect of any site and so a lot of factors must be considered when registering a domain you will be using for business, for sale or for anything at all.
  
  1. .com is prefered. Most people will type the .com domain so if you register a .net, .info and the rest, you are likely going to be loosing traffic
  
  2. Minshare: A mindshare domain means when you mention it, it implants in your mind
  
  3. Cybersquatting: This is a big offence when you register a domain that is a brand name of someone else. For example, registering makemoneywithpaypal.com
  
  4. Shortness: A good domin must be short. This will make it easy to be remembered.
  
  5. typo-genericness: a good domain must be typo generic, meaning you do not need to type in in search engine but visitors will go straight to the browser and type it.
  
  If you have a combination of the above and others, you will be on your way to making money online. Thanks... Domainer Henry
  
  Thanks
  
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DougBarger 15 years ago

I'm glad you asked the question because it shows you have a desire to have all of the facts before making your decision.

Let me just answer your question with another question and let that be your guide as you'll get more out of it by actually seeing it for yourself than if I just told you the answer.

Here goes:

When you enter a competitive search phrase with high search volume and a lot of results into, let's say just as an example for the purposes of this illustration, google,

you'll notice that when you enter in your phrase and we're not just limiting it to a single word but an entire phrase,

I want to invite you to pay particular attention to the words that appear

in the top two results which are in bold.

If you notice, the keywords in your search phrase are bolded in the title,
the description,

but they are also bolded in another very relevant location too.

What other data appears in the results besides the title and description?

Why are these in bold?

To show you that indeed the results returned are the most relevant.

In fact, they are so relevant that the very words you entered into the google search engine are returned to you in the results with the keywords
in bold.

Now, what if the #2 result contains the keyword listed more than once in the title tag, description and...that's it.

Also, what if the #1 result contains the exact same number of the exact same keywords listed in the title tag, the description and...

Now let me return the question...

"How important is a ____ name?"
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Dmitry 15 years ago

Since you're probably not going to build a brand with your first website I'd stress on keywords. Now when you are going to build a brand I'd start off with this book Amazon.com: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: Al... ... actually I'd read it anyway, it's just so good.
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makemoneyu 15 years ago

a domain name seems more"beautiful" and "credibal" than your affiliate link, so you'd better get one.
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