Whats in a domain name in terms of SE ranking.
-
I'm curious. Whats in a domain name in terms of search engine ranking and keyword searches.
Let me provide an example:
If I sell umbrellas in New York City and my company name is Rainy Day Umbrellas am I wise to register both rainydayumbrellas.com and newyorkumbrellas.com as a way of targeting my customers and ranking better in a single search phrase for that subject?
Second question. If it is a good idea do you just forward that domain to the primary site or have a second mirrored site? Or perhaps just a landing page?
-
Since EMD updates, we haven't dropped rank at all. I'm aware of the topics on EMD, but it's been great for a certain client in a city the size of 450k. Very competitive KWd space too. In fact, we combined two of the highest searched keywords and made a single domain. The end result: this client gets calls all day long (tracking number) another thing your not supposed to do. This sites been stuck on Spot A in maps and #1 SEO results. Beyond citation done our way and good On page...no links. Go figure....
-
I agree with Alick300 rather than having two domain names which will simply dilute your brand identity, why not simply go for local based results and implement specific landing pages for certain location you wish to market too.
maybe something like www.rainydaysumbrella.com/newyork or www.rainydaysumbrella.com/chicago etc
Since the EMD update, keyword rich domain names have had significantly less value. Concentrate on creating a rich brand experience with great content and customers at the heart and you won't go far wrong.
If, however you feel you cannot live without owning both domains there is no harm in owning them both some people simply do this as a safety net so others cannot utilise them. Before you buy one or maybe both domains, make sure you do a historical check of the domains to make sure there is no hidden negative history that you may have to tackle.
Goodluck selling your umbrellas
-
Hi Brett,
If your company name is Rainy Day Umbrellas then you should register with rainydayumbrellas.com but as you mentioned that you want to register another domain newyorkumbrellas.com just to rank for few keywords like new york umbrellas, umbrellas new york is not good idea.
I know there are still thousands of website rank for the keyword just due to keywords in domain name despite EMD update by Google.
IMO you don't need to register another domain (newyorkumbrellas.com) you can create separate landing page to target keywords or you can use city name in title and other places on webpage.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
-
For quite some time now Google and other search engines has cared way less about the domain and focused a lot more on brand integrity. That's why MOZ exists!!
Because so many of the other factors rate so much higher than your domain. I have found that with a solid brand and good content the most obscure domain can rank.
Completely drop the whole URL / mirror idea and focus on what matters most: branding / UX and content.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is there value in including a city name in my keyphrase if my target demo is searching from within that city?
If I'm located in Phoenix, and I search for "mobile app development" it automatically adds an implied "near me" to bring up local results first, right? Therefore, I would assume searching "mobile app development phoenix" would garner the same results. It seems targeting "mobile app development phoenix" as a keyphrase is only valuable if I want people outside of Phoenix to find me when searching for mobile app development. Is it correct that focusing on national keywords/phrases ("mobile app development") will improve my ranking nationally AND in my local market? Links to reputable articles support your answer are much appreciated
Local Website Optimization | | Kitely_Katie1 -
Ranking for keywords locally with multiple locations
If we have a company with multiple physical locations across multiple states, but selling the same products, what would be an optimal strategy? All local locations have been claimed, but the site is not coming up for searches with local intent. If the corporate site focuses on the "products", what is the best way to get that associated with the individual locations as well? When implementing json+ld, would we put the specific location on the specific location pages and nothing on the rest? Any other tips would be great! Thanks in advance,
Local Website Optimization | | IDMI.Net0 -
Weird SEO Problem - No Longer Ranking in Some Areas
Hi Everyone, I’ve got a weird SEO issue that I hope you’ll be able to help with. I’ve broken it down in to the key points below: Impressions for our primary and secondary keywords dropped dramatically on 02.10.17. Impressions have only dropped on non geographical keywords. “UK” variants are still ranking well. Investigation shows we’re not ranking outside of London at all for primary and secondary keywords. Primary and secondary keywords are still ranking well in London, the city where we’re based We’ve looked at our competition who do rank for the primary keyword both in and outside London. We noticed we have our “postaladdress” in our schema. The competition don’t have their address in their schema. We updated our schema 2 weeks ago and now use the Yoast schema which is the same as our competitors use. Approx 1 week after removing the schema we started showing up for primary and secondary keyword again, but very low - fluctuating between page 15 and page 24. It’s been 2 weeks now and no improvement. AHREFS and google webmaster, both incorrectly detail that we rank top 5. Which is true to a degree, but only in London. Thank you in advance!
Local Website Optimization | | rswhtn0 -
I have a client in Australia that is going to set up a website that is in Chinese to service their Asian customer base (Indonesia, Singapore, HK, China). What domain should they use?
They're website is hosted on a .com.au domain. Should they host their Chinese language pages under their current domain (.com.au) using a subdirectory (i.e. /asia) or should they use another separate domain that they own that is a regular .com? Or does it really not matter?
Local Website Optimization | | 100yards1 -
Impact of .us vs .com on SEO rankings?
Our website is hosted on www.discovered.us. I have 2 questions: 1: we have had regular feedback a .us domain is negative in SEO and in conversion (customers don't like it). We are thinking of changing domain to: www.dscvrd.com.
Local Website Optimization | | Discovered
Any insights on the impact on our rankings (if any) if we do this? 2: we are focusing our SEO global / USA first but conversions in UK are better. We currently do not have multi-language SEO setup. What would the impact be of implementing www.discovered.co.uk on SEO in UK? Thanks! Gijsbert0 -
Does having 2 separate domains with similar content always = duplicate content?
I work for a global company which is in the process of launching their US & European websites, (just re-launched Australian site, migrated from an old domain) all with separate domains with the purpose of localising. However, the US website content will essentially be the same as the Australian one with minor changes (z instead of s, slightly different service offerings etc) but the core information will be the same as the AU site. Will this be seen as duplicate content and Is there a way we can structure this so that the content won’t be seen as duplicate but is still a separate localised website? Thank you.
Local Website Optimization | | PGAUE0 -
Hosting Change & It's Impact on SERP Performance (with a Side of Domain Migration)
Hi everyone, I've read a lot on forums about the topic of hosting and it's impact on SEO, but I've seen conflicting opinions. I wanted to see if anyone might have a definitive answer for this scenario: Our parent company is based in the EU and wants to move our English domain to their site -- either as part of the main .com or potentially as a new subdomain. One of those things is going to happen; it's just a question of which one. One issue I have is that they host their .com with content targeting English speakers (mostly in the U.S.) in France, so if we moved our content to their site we'd be going from our existing domain hosted in the U.S. (with the majority of visitors coming from the U.S.) to a site that's hosted in France. I've read that folders are still usually better over subdomains in terms of passing the strength of the domain on to pages. So... would it be better to have a subdomain hosted in the U.S., or just have folders under the main domain, but that content would be hosted in France? Our existing domain and the domain we'll be moving to are about even in terms of domain authority and size. Happy to get any feedback you might have. Anyone come across any case studies on this particular topic that would be helpful? Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | SafeNet_Interactive_Marketing0 -
Rankings question
We have just taken on a client who is really struggling in the rankings, even for noncompetitive terms. Here is the URL: www.freshsmiles.co.uk they are targeting 'dentist york, dental implants york, teeth whitening york, orthdontist york' The content on the site seems very good (we have been working on ensuring that the content is duplicated and of good quality) They have also been doing blogs http://www.freshsmiles.co.uk/blog/ We've installed webmaster tools and there are no manual spam action warnings and I have checked the inbound links to the website and they don't seem spammy. Any help would be much appreciated! thanks in advance Marcus
Local Website Optimization | | dentaldesign0