10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Exact Domain v Phrase Domain?

by TBInternetMarketing
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Any views and thoughts on the difficulty of ranking for a phrase domain name when an exact domain is not available.

To use a tired example: If you're going after the keywords "dog training", and you can't get dogtraining(dot)com, dogtraining(dot)org or dogtraining(dot)net so you go for something like thebestdogtraining.com.

What are your views on the effects of this?

Thanks
#domain #exact #phrase
  • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
    Definitely a bit harder than with an EMD, but possible nonetheless. I've done it with plenty of my niche sites.
    Signature
    The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is hiding your valuable keywords!
    OFFLINERS, Start using this simple technique and these 6 "weapons" today to get more clients and skyrocket your conversions! - FREE, no opt-in.
    Make some money by helping me market this idea.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3368986].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author BacklinkExcellence
      they are still better than not having the keyword in the domain at all. just make sure to not use too many unrelevant words in it. EMD is always prefered obviously, but phrase works as well.
      Signature
      [ENDORSED BY LMC]
      Stop Building Backlinks The OLD Way, Use >THIS< Instead!


      >Let Me Build HIGH QUALITY Backlinks For You!<
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3368996].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author billrice
    Absolutely a good strategy. You may not be able to be #1, depending on the niche, but it will be much easier to get to page 1 (in the money - again depending on the niche).

    I would take one more step prior to finding that alternative phrase domain. Go to Google's external keyword tool (Google it) and find out where the searches are. Create a keyword cluster around the main keyword you want, i.e., Dog Training. Take that list and start searching for possible domains as close as possible.

    BTW, I would also kill any "stop" words or articles, like "The."

    Hope this helps. Best of luck in getting that killer domain.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3369009].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
      Originally Posted by billrice View Post

      Absolutely a good strategy. You may not be able to be #1, depending on the niche, but it will be much easier to get to page 1 (in the money - again depending on the niche).

      I would take one more step prior to finding that alternative phrase domain. Go to Google's external keyword tool (Google it) and find out where the searches are. Create a keyword cluster around the main keyword you want, i.e., Dog Training. Take that list and start searching for possible domains as close as possible.

      BTW, I would also kill any "stop" words or articles, like "The."

      Hope this helps. Best of luck in getting that killer domain.
      Why would you want to 'kill' any stop words? Those are words that G ignores, which would help the situation.
      Signature
      The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is hiding your valuable keywords!
      OFFLINERS, Start using this simple technique and these 6 "weapons" today to get more clients and skyrocket your conversions! - FREE, no opt-in.
      Make some money by helping me market this idea.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3369043].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author billrice
        I think they're harder to convey and market--people get them wrong or leave them out themselves.

        But, you might be right there might be a strategy in creating a pure SEO play and see if Google parses your domain back to the EMD. I suspect this might not work perfectly. It would be curious to test.

        Good point made John--I hadn't thought of it in this way.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3369107].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
    Well yea I mean it wouldn't be a 'pretty' domain and you couldn't expect any type-in traffic, but I go for rankings in the SERPs, and I've got many domains that I just tacked a stop word on the end that are ranking quite well.
    Signature
    The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is hiding your valuable keywords!
    OFFLINERS, Start using this simple technique and these 6 "weapons" today to get more clients and skyrocket your conversions! - FREE, no opt-in.
    Make some money by helping me market this idea.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3369137].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author TBInternetMarketing
      What about density in a domain? I.e. edogtraining(dot)com, which would mean only the 1 letter doesn't belong in the exact phrase. Any thoughts?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3369178].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author richinca
    I look at "stop words" a bit differently. I find they don't help but they tend to dilute the results. Think of it as the number of words or letters per url.

    Example: dogtraining.com = 11/11 letters = 100%, thedogtraining.com = 11/14 = 78.6%, thebestdogtraining.com = 11/18 = 61% - for the term "dog training". The exact keyword power in the url gets "watered down" with more words, so its contribution is less.

    One approach I have found to work is that when the EMD is not available, look for a couple of top keyword phrases and combine them. In other words, don't waste your "dilution" on meaningless words, find niche oriented keywords and use those even though the url might sound funny.

    "Dog training", "dog beds", and "fat dog" might be combined into fatdogtrainingbeds.com. Its not pretty, but it is keyword rich and you'll find yourself ranking for all those keywords as well as weird ones like "fat training beds" "fat dog beds" "dog training beds" etc. You will be surprised by sales that come through some of these weird combinations of keywords.

    One last thing, if you are combining keywords, try and place your most important keywords at the beginning or the url for more effect. In the example above, if "dog training" if the main keyword, dogtrainingfatbeds.com might be preferred, even though it sounds kind of lame.
    Signature
    NamelyDomains.com
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3369267].message }}

Trending Topics