Stop words in domain name?

by 5 replies
6
Hi guys,

Here is an example I'd like to hear your opinions about:

I look in the google keywords analysis and see that 'cats' has millions of searches, and 'dogs' also has millions of searches, but 'cats and dogs' has a good amount of searches itself.

I want to pursue this niche that I think will get me hits (because ranking for the other 2 seems like a hopeless cause).

If I target 'cats and dogs' in my keyword campaigns, is it likely that I will rank faster/higher for that searched phrase than the top sites if they haven't targeted this exact phrase?

For example. A big site has great history and backlinks for the keyword 'cats'.and 'dogs' individually. If someone types in 'cats and dogs' in google, do I have a better shot at ranking high because I have targeted these 3 words together in my campaign?

Thanks in advance


edit. The subject is a bit inaccurate I'm afraid. It's more like 'stop words in keyword campaign'. However for the given example I would say cats-and-dogs.com would make sense as a url if this was not hypothetical
#search engine optimization #domain #stop #words
  • I *suspect* the word 'and' is partially discounted by the Google algorithm in some searches - depends on the nature of the search. This does seem to be true for other grammatical words.

    In this search it does not appear to the case.

    The term 'cats and dogs' though is relatively competitive so not these easiest keyword to go after.

    Owning catsanddogs.com would work well. I don't suspect cats-and-dogs.com would work as well, but its possible.

    If the main domain without the hyphens is already taken it is usually a good sign the keyword is relatively competitive, and there are easier choices out there.
  • Hi,

    Thanks for your quick and informative reply. The example given was hypothetical so as not to reveal my niche,

    "In this search it does not appear to the case". By this do you mean that if people search those exact keywords including the 'and', then google isn't discounting it in this case? If the keyword campaign with anchor links were the 3 words 'cats and dogs', then it wouldn't be ignored or affect the placement of the website for all other keywords targetted?

    (sorry if my jargon is a bit off as I'm fairly new to the art of SEO)
    • [1] reply
    • Something to keep in mind with this phrase is that a lot of searchers may be looking for the movie cats and dogs instead of information on cats and dogs. If you are targeting the movie, then it could work.

      I would guess that most web searchers would only be looking for info on either cats or dogs, not both at the same time. Not that it would be a bad name for a site that covers both topics. I just wouldn't count on a ton of targeted traffic from that exact phrase unless it is related to the movie.
      • [1] reply
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed