domain name seo question

Try using dashes in between words (-) or (--) that doesn't seem to affect SEO at all. Baring that I would go for domainnameblog or domainnamereview (if you are reviewing a product). Then use the 'now' if none of those work.

For me your domain name doesn't make all that much difference for SE rankings. Because if Google (and the other search engines) placed too much importance on a domain name then people like yourself could just register a keyword rich domain name and have good rankings. The most important factor for good placement is your backlinks.

Comparatively speaking it's makes very little difference. (Unless you're targeting extremely low competition keywords and even that it's questionable how much difference it makes.)

Personally I choose my domain names with my customers in mind. And I think you're concerned about something that isn't worth thinking about. To answer your question adding the "now" to your domain isn't going to make very much difference at all.

Thanks for your help guys.

A keyword rich domain, in addition to relevant frequently updated quality content, good backlinks and all the other foundational SEO practices can be a very important part of the overall picture. In and of itself as a stand alone piece of the pie, I agree with ZigZag, it holds very little value at all.

With that in mind it is beneficial to go after your keyword in the domain name if you can get it. Don't be tempted to stray from the [.com] though. If you plan on attacking a competitive market and the [.com] is taken I would move on and keep thinking of new names.

The hyphenated version is also a tough sell. Simple branding 101, if someone hears your domain name "www .my-brand-of-stuff .com" do you think they will remember it when they get home? Unless they have something in front of them to remind them to hyphenate, my bet would be on them typing "www .mybrandofstuff .com" and if someone has that domain already, you just lost potential traffic.

It's a hard game to play and I pull my hair out weekly from frustration trying to find the domains I want. But ultimately you'll find something. Try approaching from a different angle. Change your perspective on the product, brand or project. Ask you friends to help. What would they tryp in if they were looking for your stuff? If they wanted X result or X kind of product, what would they look for?

Don't forget the old standby keyword tool. Take a competitors URL and put in the Google keyword tool to see what keywords Google thinks the site is about. Do the same with your site and any major player in the top 10 results in your chosen industry's search results. If you do that with enough sites you'll start seeing things you may not have thought of before.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

i feel keyword rich domain names do help with SOME search engines and in particular Yahoo. Yahoo appears to be puttin a lot more emphasis on keyword rich domain names then google.

For example do a search on yahoo for houston lawyers or vice versa.

Look at the list of the domains and you will see what i am talking about - most domains contain at least one or both of the keywords, i have been seeing this to be more and more of a trend, perhaps this is just coincedence...

For me i would rather go with a domain that is keyword rich, firstly without hyphens if possible.

personally, I would go with a word added to the end before I'd start using dashes, but thats just me. I have had dozens of 1st page rankings from sites where the domain had the keyword plus another adjective in it. Haven't been proved wrong yet..

Try to get you keywords in the domain and adding a "now " or "review" to it wont affect.
Get good -human readable (non rewritten automatically) - quality content.
Then get backlinks from GOOD NEIGHBOURHOODS.
And watch the serp rise.

There are two issues here raised by the comments so far

You need to first decide what you are trying to acheive
If its a Barnd name then you need a url with a name that your customers and potential customers will remember.
If your objective is to generate traffic by SERP then the keyword in the url is vitaly important.
As others say ther are many factors but I beleive that keyword in url is a major factor in SERP results.
When I started out selling on the Internet i did not know this and How i wish I had
I have some domains without keywords which take thousands of backlinks to get up in SERP and I have newer ones with the keywords and they take a lot less effort to get aresult in SERP
So decide whether you are Branding or SERPing and make your decision from there

You need to consider whether or not you want type in traffic. If you do, then i suggest short and brandable (easy to remember) with no hyphens. However, if you don't mind whether or not you get type in traffic then go for hyphens between keywords. Like kalidasa said - it doesn't affect SEO in the slightest.

If ONpage optimization factors were REALLY that critical,
then why has Adobe.com been ranking #1 for the term
"click here" for years?

Well, it's simple...

It's because ONpage optimization factors are NOT as important as OFFpage optimization factors.

Source: Chapter 8

EDIT: To directly answer your question, in an ideal world you would want only your keywords in your domain name (ONpage optimization). However, don't sweat it adding the 'now' to it seeing as your keywords would still be in your domain name anyway. Moreover, even if they were NOT in your domain name at all refer to the info above (It still ultimately comes down to your OFFpage factors).

Would agree that sometimes hyphens can work in your favour in making your domain name stand out and get noticed by websurfers, but I think it depends on whether you want people to look at your web domain name or, whether you want people to have an easy time typing it in to a web browser. If you need it to stand out for maximum clicks go with the hyphens, if you want an easy to remember web address for people to type in, go without. Just my 2 cents!

Laurel makes a good point for sure! I don't think that using dashes in between words would affect SEO at all. If you want to add the 'now' on the end of your domain name, it may be just simply more for the webseeker to type in if they are doing it manually, if its just a click on your link I don't think it would matter that much.

You can use a brandable domain thats not seo related, or if you want the keyword to rank in SE, use hyphens or adding an extra keyword is good as well

Keyword rich domain names do help with SEO. In an nutshell, it usually means the majority of links back to your site have your targeted keywords in them.

Steer clear of dashes.

Keep it short. (13 or less if possible, not including www or extension)

Make sure your keywords are in the domain. (Make sure you have done good keyword research as well as PPC research to see what terms are actually profitable/high competition)

Anyone who doesn't think that the domain is EXTREMELY important for SEO rankings is not paying attention.

Here's a really simple test:

Google[.]com > Keyword: Best CPA Network

Look at #1

Click on #1

Now, View Source...

Cheers,
Jack

Good one, Jack!