12 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
12 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Best SEO Practise: Keyword in the domain or in the directory

by harchyboy
10 replies
Hello fellow warriors,

In your opinion what's the best SEO practise with regards to having the keyword in the actual domain.

1. Should it be in the root domain - e.g. keyword.com keywords use your keywords to GO direct to web pages and files.

OR

2. Will you get the same results having it in the permalink of the domain - e.g. www.URL.com/keyword ?

Personally, if there was no difference, I'd rather go for option 2. It means less financial outlay as you wouldn't have to constantly buy new domains, and over time the domain would receive more overall backlinks and higher PR and all the backlinking (all be it pointed to the permalinks).

Would you agree?

So, what's the pros and cons of each?

With gratitude,

Craig
#directory #domain #keyword #permalinks #practise #seo
  • Profile picture of the author Apollo-Articles
    Lets not talk pros and cons we'll be here all day.

    Option one is best, option 2 should be used for secondary pages.

    San
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905620].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author BigDaddys101
      a keyword rich domain name would be easier to rank
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905631].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author jacked
      Originally Posted by Apollo-Articles View Post

      Lets not talk pros and cons we'll be here all day.

      Option one is best, option 2 should be used for secondary pages.

      San
      Short and sweet.
      Signature

      BEST LINKS AT THE BEST PRICE GUARANTEED
      HIGHLY REVIEWED - BEST PRICES - AMAZING SERVICE
      Comments, Profiles, Pyramids, Bookmarks, Article Submissions, Web 2.0 Creation, & Much MORE
      WF THREAD
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905800].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author thedog
        What's everyones thoughts on using a letter like "i" or "e" before an EMD?

        Would these rank better than something like "my" or "online" as it's a higher density EMD?
        Signature

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905818].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author PatriciaJ
          Originally Posted by thedog View Post

          What's everyones thoughts on using a letter like "i" or "e" before an EMD?

          Would these rank better than something like "my" or "online" as it's a higher density EMD?
          I'm not sure if I'm right on this or not so please correct me if I'm wrong but

          I try to avoid using i or e before an emd and use something that's actually searched for like best, or I add something like site or guide to the end. I just think that those alternatives are more natural and as I've found give you easier ranking for more than one keyphrase
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905889].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author alcymart
    They both have different ranking level factors quite simply. If you want the best ranking factor, #1 is the way to go, #2 will help but not nearly as much as #1 by experience.

    Bernard
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905783].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Ian Varnava
    The moment you add anything to an exact match domain, be it "i", "e", "blog", "site", "review", etc, it's not an EMD anymore.

    To answer the OP question, in my experience, and in many internet marketers' experiences, it is a known fact that a true exact match domain gives you an advantage when it comes to ranking. Sure, it may not be much as Google continues to update their algorithm (according to Matt Cutts anyway, but who believes him?), but I believe it will still always be an advantage.

    The main reason for that in my head is that, let's say you own BlueWidgetsNow.com, and Blue Widgets Now is also a nice keyword to rank for, and I go search for "blue widgets now" on Google... how does Google know whether BlueWidgetsNow may be a brand name, or an official name of some sort, or just someone trying to go after the domain because of it's keyword richness? Very hard for an algorithm to decipher that. If they want to continue delivering relevant results, they have no choice but to include that exact match domain as well, in case the searcher is looking for that 'brand'. Of course, there is a lot more to it than that. Nonetheless, with proper SEO, IMO it will always be much easier to rank exact match domains.

    However, the more competitive a keyword becomes, the less important the domain name becomes, because all other tricks in the book are deployed. Search Google for "make money online", one of the all-time most competitive keywords. How many of the top 10 results are exact match domains? None. Most of them are some weird names (congrats to Bring The Fresh for making it on there recently). Still, makemoneyonline.com ranks #12 (according to Scroogle), yet it doesn't have half the links some of the other sites trying to compete for the same keyword do.

    That doesn't mean that non-keyword rich domains cannot be ranked. That's when properly anchored backlinks, proper on-page optimization, and all that good stuff comes into play even more than it does with an EMD. Hope that makes sense.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3905989].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Claire Sharp
    Option 1 is the best. Most IM use the option 1.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3906557].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author StatCentric
    Make sure your domain isn't too generic (i.e.: only keywords). Otherwise you may end up not ranking number 1 for your brand name and that is very bad. Also you are giving free advertising to your competitors. Most likely a generic brand name will have no or little PPC ads (other than a few unsavory competitors), whereas a great keyword will show tons of competing ads any time someone types in your brand name.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3906718].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author zoobie
    both ways will work... but a keyword rich domain is simpler
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3906748].message }}

Trending Topics