Key words in domain name?

22 replies
  • SEO
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Today i read Market Samurais latest newsletter

They are saying that regardless of the amount of backlinks and PR a site with the key words in the domain name will always rank higher than a site without them

Any truth to this?
#domain #key #words
  • Profile picture of the author Shaun Lee
    Yes, and no.

    Having your keyword is vital from an SEO aspect. However, many factors are taken into account and having your keyword in your domain name is just one of them (that's important).

    In short, having your keyword in your domain name is advantageous.

    -Shaun
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    How did you find warriors forum?
    Doing a search for warriors?

    Whoever says a domain with keywords trumps everything
    else is daft.

    Keyword in a domain name is not vital. Tell that to
    amazon, wikipedia, etc.

    The two biggest forums for internet marketing:
    warrior and digitalpoint. And the keywords are where?????

    Get real people.

    This myth is propagated by domain brokers.

    Paul
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    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun Lee
      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

      How did you find warriors forum?
      Doing a search for warriors?

      Whoever says a domain with keywords trumps everything
      else is daft.

      Keyword in a domain name is not vital. Tell that to
      amazon, wikipedia, etc.

      The two biggest forums for internet marketing:
      warrior and digitalpoint. And the keywords are where?????

      Get real people.

      This myth is propagated by domain brokers.

      Paul
      Having your keyword in your domain name is advantageous. If all other things are equal, the domain with the keyword trumps the other.

      It certainly doesn't mean you'll get the top position, though.

      -Shaun
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      • Profile picture of the author ab420
        Does it help? Absolutely. Is it a guaranteed magic top of google listing? Definitely not.

        Here's a google search for "streetfighter motorcycle"

        StreetfighterMotorcycle.com is #4....

        I own that domain, and have done nothing with it, and have not promoted it or built links to it at all. And it's #4... so yes the domain name is very powerful, but it's not impossible to rank higher (I own 2 of the domains above that, because I DID develop them and build links).
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        • Profile picture of the author Aussie_Al
          very coo!

          One of the examples they gave was the site "creditcards" ranking above sites like Visa, American Express etc with less back links and PR
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        • Profile picture of the author paulgl
          Originally Posted by ab420 View Post

          Does it help? Absolutely. Is it a guaranteed magic top of google listing? Definitely not.

          Here's a google search for "streetfighter motorcycle"

          StreetfighterMotorcycle.com is #4....

          I own that domain, and have done nothing with it, and have not promoted it or built links to it at all. And it's #4... so yes the domain name is very powerful, but it's not impossible to rank higher (I own 2 of the domains above that, because I DID develop them and build links).
          You people are mixing stuff up. if it mattered, why isn't streetfighter motorcyle.com
          #1?

          For every example you give, I can give you 20.

          Having your keyword in your domain name is advantageous. If all other things are equal, the domain with the keyword trumps the other.

          It certainly doesn't mean you'll get the top position, though.
          Then you are friggin contradicting yourself!!!!!

          When real people, do real searches, for real phrases and keywords, it
          does not matter. When people do bogus searches, as a gotcha, it
          is rather meaningless.

          I can take xyandz.com and rank #1 for xyandz. So what????

          Paul
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          If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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          • Profile picture of the author Shaun Lee
            Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

            Then you are friggin contradicting yourself!!!!!

            When real people, do real searches, for real phrases and keywords, it
            does not matter. When people do bogus searches, as a gotcha, it
            is rather meaningless.

            I can take xyandz.com and rank #1 for xyandz. So what????

            Paul
            Hi Paul,

            I wasn't contradicting myself.

            If all the Top 10 results' SEO value was exactly the same, i.e. same backlink value, same content value, same onpage SEO, and so on, then the result with the keyword in its domain name will trump the other results WITHOUT the keyword in their domain name.

            In reality, this is not a possible case. No website can have the same exact amount of SEO done. It's either result A did it better or result B did it better.

            In conclusion, having the keyword in the domain name is useful. However, the true major SEO power comes from the backlinks pointing to a particular website with a relevant anchor text.

            Again, to reiterate my point, having the keyword in your domain name works well when you are in a less competitive situation; But the real SEO boost comes from the backlinks with a relevant anchor text.

            -Shaun
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          • Profile picture of the author Russell Hall
            Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

            You people are mixing stuff up. if it mattered, why isn't streetfighter motorcyle.com
            #1?

            Paul
            So Google page 1 position #4 isn't proof enough for you?

            I took a keyword phrase of "1962 Stratocaster" that I'd researched using Google Adwords tool and Market Samurai. I just wanted to test the Google Sniper theory,. so I went ahead and registered 1962stratocaster.com and whacked up a Wordpress blog with 1 post (original content containing the keyword phrase and other LSI words) and I tagged it with the KW phrase also and just left it.

            11 days later,... Google page 1 position #4 for exact phrase search (22,400 pages), Google page 1 position #7 for broad phrase search (222,000 pages),.. and I was also starting to rank for other phrases such as "1962 strat" "62 strat" etc without having any phrase-in-title posts for them.
            Since then I've added another 2 posts and a few images but apart from that the site is pretty bare,.. and now ranking Google Page 1 pos#7 for "1962 strat" (938,00 pages), Google page 1 pos #2 for "1962 vintage strat" (922,000),.. and the list goes on and on for Google page 1 results.

            My initial 11 day result from having a simple WP blog with 1 post, ZERO backlinks, and no major SEO effort at all is about all the proof I need that having your KWphrase in the title of a .com (or .org, .net) definitely undisputedly freaking works. Although I'm a little pushed for time I've now started to add more content to that blog and will monetize it in due course (currently getting about 35 uniques a day,.. which in a focused niche like vintage guitars is very good).
            I've since gone on to replicate this in other niches which I won't disclose here.
            Now tell me that this would have been possible without having the keyword phrase in the .com domain

            Oh yeah,... and now to explain the phenomenon of why my KWphrase.com didn't shoot to Google page 1 pos#1,... errmm... I think it might have to do with those other sites being older domains, having backlinks, and perhaps some PR rank! Having said that GP1 in the top 5 (above fold) will do me very nicely thanks very much!

            Anyway,.. to all those that insist on continuing to doubt and deny,.. be my guest,... just leaves more niches wide open for me! :p

            Russ
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  • Profile picture of the author jtooder
    It matters but only a small part of the process. Yes and No is accurate, all things equal kw in domain ranks higher period.

    GL
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  • Profile picture of the author websitemrktg
    If you promoted 2 sites exactly the same way the site with the keywords in the domain name would do better. I think that may have been what they meant.
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  • Profile picture of the author GNU27
    Every single .com keyword rich domain I have is on page 1 of Google (poledancingpoles.com and cryosurgeryequipment.com are a couple of examples)
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  • Profile picture of the author bizousoft
    worked very well for me actually, had a domain name .com with a blog on it, 0 content (I just copy pasted the google ads for the keyword), it started ranking in 2 days, I have 10 of those sites and 4 are still ranked in the first 10.
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    • Profile picture of the author SEOArbiter
      Remember, it's ALL about the BACKLINKS!

      Now, having said that, if you really want VERY good results, the formula is QUALITY CONTENT + BACKLINKS.

      However, LINKS override everything. If a site has enough high quality backlinks, Google will rank them high.
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  • Profile picture of the author Charles Harper
    I think though the the gentleman who talked about Amazon is hinting at the fact that this assumes that you do not have an 'authority' site. I believe that if your uniquie content and website are structured in silos (like an authority site would) that you can compete against those with the keywords in the domain and for that fact those with a considerable number of backlinks.

    CT
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  • Profile picture of the author Charles Harper
    Originally Posted by Aussie_Al View Post

    Today i read Market Samurais latest newsletter

    They are saying that regardless of the amount of backlinks and PR a site with the key words in the domain name will always rank higher than a site without them

    Any truth to this?
    Do you have a link to post?
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  • Profile picture of the author joshrodrigue
    There has also been a huge debate on if a domain name has hyphens in it, it won't do as well. I have hyphens in most of my domains and they do quite well seo wise =)
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  • Profile picture of the author Jaspry
    I, too, would like to know about the Hyphens! I have a choice between:

    ThisIsMyKeywordHub.com
    or
    This-Is-My-Keyword.com

    My friend says the first one, because Google deducts SEO points for having many hyphens. I don't believe this. What do you think?
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  • Profile picture of the author Jaspry
    In my experience, Keywords in Domain Name have ranked me position 1 or 2. Now they weren't "Weight Loss" or "Make Money" Keywords, but they were indeed keywords that compete with strong articles on authority sites.

    I'm wondering if establishing SEO presence with a Keyword domain and then after traffic builds, redirecting it to your non-keyword branding domain name would work and still allow you to maintain SE traffic?
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  • Profile picture of the author carertet
    Keyword rich / exact match domains are great.

    Unless you are going with a nice catchy short pure brandable, I recommend that you use keyword rich domain names.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarketItAll
    I mean there is some truth to this I'm sure but obviously not in all cases - I think it's a stretch of the truth. I've seen plenty of domains without the keywords ahead of domains with the keywords, so this is definitely not always true.

    Of course the keywords in the domain definitely helps.
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