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Niche Site - How important is domain name to SEO?

by Davegfx
20 replies
Hello everyone

So a copywriting friend and I have decided to gently dip our toes into the world of IM by setting up a niche site that will hopefully act as a good learning platform and springboard into further ventures. We've decided to focus on a real world luxury item which from research we believe there's a lot of demand for. The idea will be that we will provide reviews of this items, tips for, comparisons, maintenance tips, faqs etc etc. Basically just loading the site up with content relating to the keyword.

The search term we are going after is BRAND + PRODUCT NAME, (ie. the equivalent of something like ADOBE Photoshop or OAKLEY radar etc etc)

So my questions. Lets use oakley radar as our example

- What do you think would be the best domain for SEO purposes? oakleyradar.com? oakleyradarreview? radarinfo? oakleyradarsource? In the end does it have a significant effect?

- Misc thoughts on how to approach it?

Thanks, as always any feedback greatly appreciated.
#domain #important #niche #seo #site
  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    Ideally, Oakleyradar.com is your best bet, although Google claims that your domain extension (.com, .net, .org, etc...) doesn't really matter.

    Your domain name DOES have an effect on SEO.

    Don't forget the human aspect either...you want something that people will remember.

    AL
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    • Profile picture of the author onlinetreason
      Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

      Ideally, Oakleyradar.com is your best bet, although Google claims that your domain extension (.com, .net, .org, etc...) doesn't really matter.

      Your domain name DOES have an effect on SEO.

      Don't forget the human aspect either...you want something that people will remember.

      AL
      I agree with you. If you are able to use the two words together in a domain then it is your best bet. Unless you will be able to get more search results from two other words.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    VERY important actually. Always try to fit keyword in the domain name, if even possible. G, MSN all of them look at this.

    I am often thinking about ""fantasy" domain names....but then i chose rather "boring ones" with some keywords in it.
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  • Profile picture of the author seregap
    be careful though about using brandname.com type of names. you don't want to lose your domain after you put all your efforts and money into promoting it, do you?
    brandnamereview.com is a much safer bet
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  • Profile picture of the author Marian Berghes
    domain name has some importance to SEO but not alot...not even close...Ive seen thousands of sites raking first and the domain name doesnt even come close to the keyword...an example would be a2armory that is owned by stompernet and it ranks in the first 2 positions I think for "medieval weapons".
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    • Profile picture of the author Davegfx
      Thanks all.

      Allen can you clarify the human element? I assume you mean something that draws them in ie adding something like Hub, source, review, fantasy, info to the end? ie. oakleyradarsource? etc...

      seregap - by adding something like that on the end, can you get around legal restrictions if they come after you? or would it be in a grey area?
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      • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
        Google uses much more sophisticated methods weighing heavily on the page content these days.

        I wouldn't say the domain is unimportant, but doesn't weigh as heavily now as it once did.
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      • Profile picture of the author seregap
        Originally Posted by Davegfx View Post

        Thanks all.

        Allen can you clarify the human element? I assume you mean something that draws them in ie adding something like Hub, source, review, fantasy, info to the end? ie. oakleyradarsource? etc...

        seregap - by adding something like that on the end, can you get around legal restrictions if they come after you? or would it be in a grey area?
        depends on the purpose of the site actually.
        if you just want to talk about oakley radars then oakleyradarreviews.com is perfectly legal. you are allowed to voice your opinion about whatever you want.
        if you are going to make money off this website then you are in a grey area.
        lets say you will be making money buying used radars off people and reselling them for profit, then the company can easily take your website down for using their name.
        however, if you are going to legally get the product from the company and resell on your website then its just the matter of negotiations with the company.
        hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    Not necessarily something at the end...I mean to keep it as short and memorable as possible. ie: Google, About.com, CNN.com, homedepot.com - something they will instantly remember.

    AL
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  • Profile picture of the author hughbanks
    I'm not really convinced yet that a domain name actually matters in regards to SEO.
    I've actually tested both generic and keyword based domains and found it's not the name of the domain that makes the difference.

    I'm all for keyword based domains but not because of SEO purposes but rather placing an emphasis on the person searching.
    Seeing a keyword based url can sometimes persuade over a weak title.

    Keep in mind when I say generic I'm not referring to domains comprised of ipods and toilet paper content.

    If you get a domain name strickly related to a keyword (which is ok) you'll be limited specifically (which again is ok).
    Keeping it simple might be what you're looking for at this time.
    If the targeted keyword doesn't perform up to your expectations I'm sure it will still produce some sort of results. If not you can simply dump it.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    One thing I have noticed is that EVERY single time I put a low to medium competition keyword phrase in as the domain name, I get #1 rankings on MSN for about 2-3 months. If I play the linking game right, it sticks. OOPS, let another secret out of the bag

    TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Bogowski
    Straight up!

    Anyone telling that the domain is not important has no idea what they are talking about.

    People are using examples of sites ranking for keywords without the keyword phrase in the url. This makes absolutely no sense. If I see a book in the library and its title is

    - 'How To Grow Tomatoes'

    I know what the book is about. There is another book called

    - 'The Big Red Guide'

    Which is a guide to growing tomatoes. 'The Big Red Guide' is the top selling book not because of its name. But because its referenced 100 times in magazines and everyone bought it. Its referencing and marketing has made it rank number 1.

    That is why sites are ranking, because of links. Buying an exact match domain name will help you rank 10 times easier, its the most important aspect. Someone might still outrank you, but its because the will have built more inbound links than you. Building links will help you outrank them easily. In short, you'll need far less links to pack the same punch.

    Not to mention, if someone links to your website, what anchor text are they likely to use? The name of your site of course! So this gives you a huge benefit as well because your site URL and name is an exact match keyword.

    Anyone in this thread who says the domain is not important is misinformed
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
      I agree for the most part, but comparing looking for a book in a library to the ways a search engine serves up results are an apples and oranges comparison.
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      • Profile picture of the author marcanthony
        I have a friend that works at Google's
        Santa Monica office here in California.

        She has explained to me on more than
        one occasion that there are multiple factors
        that have an affect on SEO... domain
        name is one of them.

        She's also made another thing very crystal
        clear... That is

        Nothing is more important than Incoming
        back links.

        Look...
        • Keywords
        • Meta tags
        • URL in Domain
        These things are very important. However... If
        I were you I would spend more time focusing on
        incoming backlinks.

        From my own personal experiences with SEO - I
        have learned that it's easier to keep a #1 position
        on a competitive page in Google when my position
        relies on my backlinks.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Bogowski
        Originally Posted by Eric Lorence View Post

        I agree for the most part, but comparing looking for a book in a library to the ways a search engine serves up results are an apples and oranges comparison.
        Understandable if you dont see the connection, although in my mind its exactly the same thing. Google is a big library and websites are the books. Even the whole idea of authority via links came from textbook referencing.

        The two arent compared, it could be a TV show that's recommended, a restaurant, apples, oranges, a car model

        Take two Italian restaurants

        'The Best Italian In The World' (exact match domain)
        'Tonys' (generic domain)

        You look at the two 'coldy' (that is with no prior knowledge) and you know what the first one serves. Youd only know what Tonys serves by recommendations, ie. links. Both restaurants (sites) open up at the same time and someone is looking for the best italian in the world. Which restaurant would they go to?
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    thats why you combine all of those factors.
    But i also heard that especially MSN likes the KWs in the name - so..what i am saying: You dont LOSE by choosing a keyword-domain name, but certainly gain *something*.
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    • Profile picture of the author discrat
      The Importance of Domain name and SEO ??
      My opinon is two fold :

      1.If you want to optimize for Organic Traffic try to fit in as many important keywords in your Domain as possible.

      2. If you want Social Traffic and Readership then put in a clever, fancy name that has no keywords but something your Social Traffic will remember.

      Its your choice. Do you want 5,000 RSS Subscribers who are ALL Bloggers or do you want highly targeted Traffiic from GOOG, YAHOO, MSN etc...that converts into Sales ??

      P.S. I also think that your business model is important for deciding a domain with or without your Keywords. From my own experience when Sites are centered mostly around Adsense then I think it is good to have a domain name with as many keywords as possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author Glenn72
    In regards to using a brand name. It's probably best to check with the company and get their permission first. See if it's alright to include a disclaimer that will let people know you're in no way affiliated with the company, even though you may be selling their products
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  • Profile picture of the author WorksForWeb
    I think you would better keep your domain name simple, short but still informative. Think about your visitors - oakleyradarreview is difficult for perception.
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    If I am building a website and I know i'm not going to put a lot of time into it, you better believe I put a lot of emphasis on having the best keywords in the domain title.

    As someone else mentioned, MSN puts a lot of weight on this, especially in the beginning.

    On the other hand, if I were creating a huge website that I wanted to be an authority, I would look at other factors like creating a brand for myself, and wanting to make sure the name was catchy and easy for people to remember.

    Matt
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