SEO Test: Domain Hyphenation [Update]
-
In May I announced test results for domain hyphenation but after a 3 month followup the results have changed and the hyphenated domain now wins on what seems to be the first link instance advantage. I was unable to discover any other factors which may have influenced this test but if anyone has any ideas I would like to hear about it.
Here are the details of the SEO test and revealed URLs.
-
Yes that's my thoughts too. What's interesting is that they made a switch after a while.
-
Very nice find - thanks!
-
Maybe one of the factors why the hyphenated one ranks better is that it was indexed 1st and then the non-hyphenated one was indexed after.
Having 1 line of text that only the domain name is different could be considered duplicate content by Google thus the rankings.
-
to make a test I guess you would have to make two pages, with different gibberish on them and then place the keyphrase 2 times on the same char positions (on in the beginning of the document and one at the end.) on each page, but otherwise exactly the same (title exc..). that way we can rule duplicate content out.
I mean something like this:
page 1:
<title>key-phrase bla bla</title>
asd fgh key-phrace jhjd hjd lkd skl ælkjh ghsd sdf fsd key-phrase asdpage 2:
<title>key-phrase poi ert</title>
dsa qwe key-phrace kjhg tyu poi ert mnbvc asdf qwe tyu key-phrase qwehope I made sence
-
Hmm anyone notices ? that when i search 'Dejan Seo love' , the one without hyphenation scored better... while 'Dejan seo love_s_' gives a different result ...
And when we searched 'dejan seo testing' although the hyphenation scored better but the result for the one without hyphenation has all words BOLDED out like this 'Did you know that dejanseolovestesting.com.'
Hmm google indeed works in mysterious way xD
PS : It is too bad that your title is "Dejan Love Testing" i wonder if you have a "Dejan Loves Testing" that the result would be different?
-
Thank you. That explains it!
-
When you view the SERPs, and then click on the cache link there is a second line of text which says "These search terms are highlighted: dejan seo loves testing". In the cache results with the hyphens, all the key words are highlighted on the page. That does not happen on the result without the hyphens.
I believe that is the difference James is referring to.
-
Hi James,
No link building was done for these two domains. If they have links they would be random and automated from various places such as whois services scrapers etc.
Not sure I understand this part:
"a funny thing is if you view the cache version of the website Google notes that the hyphen domain as splitting up the text with spaces."
Are you talking about these two:
-
I was looking at the URL mentions within SERP results,
The non hyphen seems to have 126 mentions compared with the hyphen domain at 76, don't know about the quality of these links what link building tactics were employed.
Both seem to only pick up one link via OSE been on your main website.
I would also question the hosting/who is data and any other common areas for the website, a funny thing is if you view the cache version of the website Google notes that the hyphen domain as splitting up the text with spaces.
When comparing IP data from the host, seems as though they are on a similar server yet not the same correct?
IP Address 174.121.38.186
IP Address 174.121.38.162But overall very interesting test, and thank you for sharing.
-
I enjoyed reviewing the test results and this follow up. My two curiosities are:
-
what would be the result with different C blocks
-
are the two results dead even in SERP to where any factor can tip one result above the other. It could be that neither is winning but are equal, and Google has to place one ahead of the other based on a random factor such as which was crawled first.
-
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
-
Does Google giving more important to internal pages than homepage recently? Especially after the recent Major algo update?
Hi everybody, I can see the change Google brought in the SERP. Previously website homepages will be shown for primary keywords, now it's slowly and almost switched to showing most related internal pages in a website. You can check same for keyword "SEO", Most or all the results are internal pages. I can see this change for our primary keyword from last one month. So basically Google is trying to show a page explaining about the primary keywords rather than website, that's how "what is seo" pages are ranking than homepages. If there is no such pages existed or not well written, Google is just showing the website homepage. But I noticed that websites ranking with homepages are dropped compared to the websites with dedicated page about that primary keyword. Please share your thoughts. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Google Mobile Algorithm update
Hi there, On April the 21st Google seems to going to update their Mobile algorithm. I have a few questions about this one. Our current mobile website is very mobile friendly. We block all mobile pages with a noindex, so the desktop pages have been indexed on mobile devices. We use a redirect from desktop page to mobile page when someone hits a result on a mobile device. My gut tells me this is not April 21st-proof so I'm thinking about an update to make this whole thing adaptive. By making the thing adaptive, our mobile pages will be indexed instead of the desktop pages. Two questions: Will Google treat the mobile page as a 100% different page than the desktop page? Or will it match those two because everything will tell Google those belong together. In other words: will the mobile page start with a zero authority and will pages lose good organic positions because of authority or not? Which ranking factor will be stronger after April 21st for mobile pages: page authority or mobile friendliness? In other words: is it worth ignoring the 21 April update because the authority of the desktop pages is more important than making every page super mobile friendly? Hope to get some good advice! Marcel
Algorithm Updates | | MarcelMoz0 -
Yandex Algorithim Update?
I have 2 RU websites. One is my main site www.xxx.com saw big increases in rankings + visits last week. My geo-specific subsite, www.xxx.ru generally ranks better but did not change last week. Any insights about why this occurred?
Algorithm Updates | | theLotter0 -
Do Exact Match Domains Still Have Value?
I realise that there has probably been a lot said about Exact Match Domains, however, I want to know 2 things: Is this two exact match domains or one EMD: "londonfootball.com" and "footballlondon.com" so is "London Football" one EMD, and "Football London" another? Does having an EMD add a big advantage in getting ranked? Is it worth paying 2 months SEO expense to buy an EMD? To me if it still has an advantage then it probably is. However, I would like to hear the opinion of the experts. I would specially like to hear from anyone who owns or bought an EMD to rank. Thank you.
Algorithm Updates | | RyanShahed0 -
Local SEO: 1 Location Covering Multiple Surrounding Cities
I am setting up local pages on our main site for each of our dealers. Some of them cover multiple cities. For example, one dealer in Santa Rosa, CA, but also covers San Francisco (50 mile drive). While I know that with Google+ Local I can add coverage radius or zip code/cities covered, what about on that dealer's local page on our site? Should I create local pages for each city covered or cram local optimization into one? Keep in mind I only have one address to work with for each dealer (P.O. Boxes or Virtual Mail Boxes are NOT a good solutions). Looking for any white hat tips before I implement for all 100+ dealers.
Algorithm Updates | | the-coopersmith0 -
Shared Hosting - Bad for SEO? (exp. Godaddy)
There were a lot of questions and data on this a few years back and nothing terribly recent so i wanted to get the discussion going again and see if any new data has been published. Is hosting your website on a shared host like Godaddy or Network Solutions going to hurt your rankings because their holds a chance that you could be on the same IP as spammy websites? My gut feeling is no primarily because almost 90% of the worldwide web is on shared hosting but i do not have a lot of data to back it up. Id love to hear some feedback. Cheers - Kyle
Algorithm Updates | | kchandler0 -
Bigfoot Update tips
I have been seeing some ranking and traffic drops on sites I monitor corresponding with the update Dr Pete wrote about with less domain diversity in SERPs (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-bigfoot-update-aka-dr-pete-goes-crazy). Does anyone have any practical advice as to dealing with this type of update. It seems like a lot of relying on Google to change the way the domain diversity falls and obviously trying to turn your site into more of the "big brand" that Google is favoring with updates like this. Anyways, would love to hear what people think. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | Gordian0 -
Question about Local / Regional SEO
Good Morning Moz Community, I have a local SEO/regional SEO question. I apologize if this question is duplicated from another area on this forum but, a query of the term Regional SEO showed no results, as did similar queries. Please preference this entire question with "Knowing what we know about the most recent changes to local search" I know what has worked in the past, my concern is Now. Working with a heavily regulated client that is regional, mostly East Coast US. They are in Financial Services and state licensing is a requirement. They are licensed in 15 states. Obviously, it would look foolish, in this day in age, to Title Tag individual pages with local modifiers and have numerous pages covering a similar topic with not much difference than localized modifiers in front of the keyword. I've never found that SE's can understand broad regional terms such as New England or Mid Atlantic or Southeast or Northeast, if someone knows different please share. Aside from an exact match search. The client does have 7 offices in various states. Perfectly matching and consistent listings in G Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local was step one and all their locations are now in those services and there are many more smaller local citation listings are in the works. We have also successfully implemented a plan to generate great reviews from actual customers, for each location, they're receiving a few a day right now. Their local places listings, where they have physical locations, are doing very well but: 1. What would the community's suggestion be on generating more targeted traffic in the 8 states where they have no physical location? 2. The client wants to begin creating smaller blogs that are highly localized to the states and major population centers that they do not have a physical location in. There is an open check book to dedicate to this effort however, I do a lot of work in this industry so I want to offer the best possible, most up to date advice, my concern is that these efforts will have two results: a. be obscured by the ”7 pack" by companies with local brick and mortar b. would detract from the equity built in their existing blog by generating content in other domains, I would prefer to continue growing the main blog. 3. As a follow up, it has been documented that Google is now using the same algorithm for local, personal and personalized, that being the case, is there any value in building links to you Places page? Can you optimize your Places page by using the same off site techniques as you would traditionally? Sorry to kill you with such a long question on a Sunday 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | dogflog1