Are long domain names bad?

by 11 replies
15
Hello WF members,

I found a niche that I'm thinking about building a website on, but the domain name will be long.

For example the domain will be like: howtomakepaperplanes.com

Is it bad to have such a long domain name? Or is it good for SEO?

Thanks in advance!
#search engine optimization #bad #domain #long #names
  • According to Google, domain names without spaces is worst...I can prove it....
    so use how-to-make-paper-planes.com
    You can use hiphens or underscores but hiphens r best...

    Thnx
    TC and gimme a thanks plzzz....I don't have any thanks...lol
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Nothing wrong with long domain names at all.

      It simply depends on your online / business purpose.

      Here's an example of one very long domain name...

      Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch .co.uk

      PS Tried to edit this several times but it keeps on putting a space in between the o and the g. It's all one word in Welsh, the place name of a village in the country of Wales, UK.

      Btw if you separate out the village into it's higher and lower elevations, which does apply in this village, you get this...



      uchaf Welsh - higher / upper.
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    It doesn't make much difference to your SEO.

    "Howtomakepaperplanes.com" is keyword optimised for "paper planes" but not quite as well keyword optimised as - for example - "paperplanemaker.com" (in exactly the same way that if you were writing a keyword optimised article, "How To Make Paper Planes" wouldn't be as good a title as "Paper Planes - How To Make Them": one ideally wants the major keyword at the start of the title, or domain-name).

    Call me a skepchick, but I strongly suspect that in spite of this being almost universally accepted and advised, the difference isn't actually all that overwhelming. (I can't prove that: it's opinion only).

    I do think it looks a lot better with hyphens in it (and they don't affect SEO at all, according to Google and Matt Cutts).

    It wouldn't matter in the slightest, to me. (I'll be interested to see if anyone disagrees with this, and what reasons they suggest).
  • You should be OK with a long domain name. If you rank well for a term, people will still click on the first search results. If your concern is ranking in the first place, you'll want your keyword as close to the front of the domain name as possible as Alexa said.
  • They might hurt your direct traffic, but it shouldn't matter much for SEO.
  • EMD's still rank better but depending on the subject and how long will make people more like to skip over you. Something like howtobuildwhatever.com is good, not too long but it makes people quickly relate, iwouldliketoknowhowtobuildwhatever.com is going to look like crap even if it is an EMD. JMO
  • There is nothing wrong with using a long domain name if it is the name of the product, process described on the website, or relevant to the keyword. However, a long domain name that has nothing to do with anything would be a bad and hard to remember.
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