by pknerd
19 replies
Every article by marketer I read, they buy new domains for each site. I want to know why domain is still necessary while you are making research based on keywords?

Being a newbie I am hesitant to invest money on different domains, specially while I belong to non-US country.

What would you say if I get a generic domain and then create sites as subdomains. For example

myniche1.mydomain.com
myniche2.mydomain.com

Thanks
#domain #importance
  • Profile picture of the author bangwhosnext
    I don't think domains are as important as they used to be, but to be on the safe side most marketers like to have their keywords in the domain name. Your above example looks fine.

    Another reason is that it is easier for your customers to remember.
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    • Profile picture of the author pknerd
      I have seen domains consist of three to four words without hyphen. I don't think a visitor can remember it.
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    • Profile picture of the author LastWarrior
      Tough question to answer as I'm not sure of your question. For now I wouldn't worry about buying a bunch of domains. Just get what you need for starters as you don't need many and maybe it's only one. I wouldn't go the route you suggest as today you can register a top level domain, ie, .com, for less than $10, so that's not much of an investment. If you start doing mysubdomain.mymaindomain.com it's gets complicated to remember and looks "amateurish" in my opinion... plus it's hard to remember. Stick with the fundamentals. Spend some good time looking for the right domain for you, register it and develop it.

      Good Luck.

      LastWarrior
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  • I would focus on using a domain for each niche and if there are sub niches you can always use a new page instead of a sub domain.
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    • Profile picture of the author pknerd
      Originally Posted by Henrich View Post

      I would focus on using a domain for each niche and if there are sub niches you can always use a new page instead of a sub domain.
      Actually being a resident of Sub-continent, $10 have worth. Plus I was thinking to do experiment. I wonder whether someone tried what I am asking for? If yes then was it a failed experiment?
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      • Profile picture of the author LastWarrior
        Originally Posted by pknerd View Post

        Actually being a resident of Sub-continent, $10 have worth. Plus I was thinking to do experiment. I wonder whether someone tried what I am asking for? If yes then was it a failed experiment?
        Sorry, I did not mean to imply $10 was very little, only that it's part of a smaller investment when doing internet marketing and that you don't have to be concerned with buying so many. $10 has value to me brother, dang skippy on that.

        As for the rest of your questions, I think I may be getting it. Will reply to below on that.

        Originally Posted by pknerd View Post

        I didn't look at it, but to receive good search engine rankings you do not need domain matched keywords. Back in the day one may have received a little more love from Google, but nowadays, it makes no difference.... only in the fact Google Bolds matching keywords at the search results page and that it is easier for searchers, viewers and potential clients to remember. If you can find a keyword match or short meaningful related domain, that will work just fine. For the sake of SEO and how a site will rank, the domain name itself won't help or harm.

        LastWarrior
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        • Profile picture of the author pknerd
          So for sake of first timer and learning stuff, can I get some generic Domain and build first niche as sub domain and later on further? What most will happen that I will fail and I don;t mind getting failed but in this way I might learn how to do Keyword Research, getting traffic and all that and later I apply experience on new ventures?
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          • Profile picture of the author LastWarrior
            It appears you are doing something right and that is researching niches first. This is a good idea because you don't want to get introduced into a highly competitive niche where ranking will be more difficult to do if you want to rely on natural search at Google. You could do very well using Internet Marketing techniques instead of SEO, but then that's another skill set to learn along the way of becoming an internet entrepreneur. I suggest after you have found your niche, then find a domain name based on that niche and develop it without the subdomain. If you have further projects or niches to work on, get a separate domain for that.

            Good luck.

            LastWarrior
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  • Profile picture of the author taylerhughes
    You should get a new domain.

    1. It's a small cost.
    2. Google consideres subdomains to be the same website.
    3. Like LastWarrior said, it looks amateurish.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbobo2779
    A good domain will always be relatively important as it will be easier to remember for your visitors if they want to revisit or to pass it on to their friends. If you are looking to pump and dump the site then it is less important but for any site you want to keep a hold of and grow over time you want a decent domain name to accompany it.
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  • Profile picture of the author nim84
    EMD or exact match domains like the one that houses my blog are not in vogue anymore but still are useful for ranking.

    Better off creating a brand first and finding a domain that matches that, you can then take care of ranking afterwards. Also with a solid brand, you can leverage that through social media which Google is increasing looking through favorably esp Facebook and Youtube

    If you are going to go down the emd route, you must be conservative with you're link building, you have to be careful not to over optimize with an emd
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  • Profile picture of the author pknerd
    I came across this link and it talks what I am asking about.

    I am not talking about using one domain with multiple sub domains for different industries. What I am talking about to pick a theme, for instance a domain like MyAwesomeReviewSite.com and then target different keywords as Subdomains e.g: ElectronicBikes.MyAwesomeReviewSite.com etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trent Pill
    If the site is not important then using a subdomain is fine. If you want real traffic and plan to build a real product I would recommend giving it a unique domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Elisson
    One of the other issues with using all subdomains is that if you want to sell one of the sites, you can't really sell a subdomain.

    Keeping each website as a separate "business" with its own domain makes it a lot easier to cash out eventually.
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    • Profile picture of the author pknerd
      Originally Posted by Mike Elisson View Post

      One of the other issues with using all subdomains is that if you want to sell one of the sites, you can't really sell a subdomain.

      Keeping each website as a separate "business" with its own domain makes it a lot easier to cash out eventually.

      That's I think the main point. Thanks for pointing it out. I am just scared a bit that I have Zero Knowledge of Market Researching, find good keywords and how to use tools like Market Samuraei /Long Tail Pro cleverly and efficiently. But I guess I need to take risk.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Lovelace
    PKNerd,

    You can if you want have subdomains for your other sites. The reason I have multiple sites is because for not only branding, but my end goal. I want to make sure the site name is relevant to my chosen niche. For example if I was to have a health site there are a plethora of sub niches in health right, so in this instance subdomains would work for me because I am branding my main site as a leader in my niche. Now let's say I am in the IM niche as well, and add a sub domain to my previous health niche example. Wouldn't fit right and branding would be out of alignment.

    That is why I have multiple sites and the reasons behind it. For branding and establishing authority.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonvthomas
    Id say, dont go with subcategory sub domain. youll spend a lot of time if your are installing websites on all of them. Id suggest you to have a main website for example and provide subcategories.

    Thats the way i prefer for my websites. It's all up to you. Nowadays all that is not so important, just focus on giving good content and traffic will follow.

    In Wordpress u can show the category along with the topic title using permalinks. Google will know how to place it.
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    • Profile picture of the author dee4d
      Ya, that's right. Subdomains don't work well for search engines. As long as you are doing SEO the right way, EMDs still remain the most powerful way to rank. And remember you don't rank directly using the domain names, you use keywords. But indexing is a must. It all boils down to the basics.
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