How important is domain name/url in 2016?

16 replies
  • SEO
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What are your thoughts on how important having a keyword specific domain name is in 2016?

Secondly, how important is exact match, partial match and how do they compare.

Premise is that I hate long domain names.

Examples:

Keyword: Homemade Cooking Recipe's

homemadecookingrecipes.com
sarahsrecipes.com
foodbysarah.com
#2016 #domain #important #name or url
  • Google now gives less priority to keywords in domain name. If you are thinking about ranking at top in google SERP then it may not help you. Best is to have a short and relevant domain name where user can remember easily.
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  • Profile picture of the author GetPLRhere
    Keyword rich domain names are still useful but don't expect much SEO benefit from it anymore - as the search engines have grew wiser over the years. I wouldn't recommend long-tail keyword domains (except for few situations) because it's just simply too long to remember.

    It's probably better to use a shorter catchier name and make a brand out of it. Marketers today rely heavily on social media traffic so keyword-rich domains are not a must-have as it use to be.
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  • There are mixed opinions in this thread but I go for short domains even if they don't exactly match the keywords you want to rank. Perhaps what you need to focus on is to create your own branding and a name that will easily be remembered by your audiences.

    Having the keywords on your domain name is a bonus but the content of your site should be the main focus since it needs to be optimized for SEO in order to attract and build audiences. Goodluck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Tmill
    Domain name is not nearly as important in ranking as it used to be. Although, having a keyword or 2 in your domain name still helps, it does not need to be exact match. If you are creating this site to be more of an authority site and not a micro site, then I would choose a domain name that stands out and is easy to remember, instead of the exact match domains.

    Ranking factors that are more important are on page SEO and your link profile. It's amazing how many people I've seen that build a large link profile and do everything else right, but their on page SEO isn't even targeting the keywords they want to rank for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Get Friday Ace
    Dear mikeandtomphoto,

    Keyword rich domains are easy to rank. But it doesn't mean others can't rank above you. If proper SEO is done even a non exact match domain can rank above the exact match domains as well. But keywords in urls are very important for ranking. But it doesn't mean keyword stuffing.

    Regard,

    Get Friday Ace
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  • Profile picture of the author alopicatso
    domain name is very important and i think short, include keyword shall be a good domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author fastreplies
    Originally Posted by mikeandtomphoto View Post

    What are your thoughts on how important having a keyword specific domain name is in 2016?
    What I want to know why 2016?
    What is the difference between 2000 - 2015 and 2016?



    fastreplies
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    • Profile picture of the author mikeandtomphoto
      Originally Posted by fastreplies View Post

      What I want to know why 2016?
      What is the difference between 2000 - 2015 and 2016?



      fastreplies
      Well pretty obvious when you look at all the responses... It used to be a very big ranking factor hence why you used to see many exact keyword domains ranking high.

      At some point I guess google changed its alg so it wasnt as important so I was after an opinion on how google uses that factor in 2016.
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      • Profile picture of the author fastreplies
        Originally Posted by mikeandtomphoto View Post

        At some point I guess google changed its alg so it wasnt as important so I was after an opinion on how google uses that factor in 2016.
        You kidding, right?
        NO ONE knows a thing about how Algo is work or programed or ever will.

        Even if G. is making any changes why would they let people like you to know
        so you and others can use it to gain Algo and to get benefits curtsy of Google



        fastreplies
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        • Profile picture of the author mikeandtomphoto
          Originally Posted by fastreplies View Post

          You kidding, right?
          NO ONE knows a thing about how Algo is work or programed or ever will.

          Even if G. is making any changes why would they let people like you to know
          so you and others can use it to gain Algo and to get benefits curtsy of Google



          fastreplies
          So google has never told people like me any information about ranking factors?????
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeandtomphoto
    Ok so generally it's not as important but it is still a ranking factor in peoples opinion?
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  • Profile picture of the author saurabhthakur12
    If you think about using a keyword in URL for ranking purpose then it does not help you. Right now google not give priority but if you want to add this then you will because it's not bad. But it's best to use short URL, too much long URL are not performed well. A short URL easily remember by user.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeandtomphoto
    What about thoughts on partial match keywords, for example:

    Keyword: Photography Courses

    photoacademy.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparkster
    When searching for truck lettering I found a business on Google and decided to use him. I don't want to be giving out someone else's website because it may look like spam, but the website is "truckletteringXX.com" with the state initials at the end.

    When I was there he actually said that he does websites and SEO too, but in further talking to him while he was working on my truck, he said that he didn't do any SEO for his own website, the only thing he did was use that domain name.

    Right now I just searched it again with a clean browser, "truck lettering state-name" and his website comes up first in the 3 pack even tho he is over 50 minutes away and first in the organic results. Impressive.
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  • Profile picture of the author joomdev
    Hi,
    You have raised a great question.
    Let me tell you that google doesn't give such importance to exact or partial match in URL if you don't have any relevant, engaging and hight quality content.
    If you post engaging and qualitative content then, your Exact match play a role in boosting your ranking otherwise it is not.

    Hope you have understand the logic.

    JoomDev
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  • Profile picture of the author John Hocking
    Having keywords in you domain can help but what is more important is how your title
    and content are related,

    If done right each page of a site has a chance to rank well on its own
    The more your content is shared socially will also boost its rank and
    open it up to other paths for getting traffic.


    Matt Cutts talks about Keywords in Domains

    Moz discusses Best Practices in Domain Names
    https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain
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