Domain name advice please
-
Hi i am trying to work out what is the best when it comes to domain names. What i mean is, should you go short or should you try and fit in what you need.
So as follows.
say i need a domain name that i wanted to buy which i have done research and found that these two words together are good keywords. please note that this is an example
the two keywords are manchester airport
and the next two keywords are cheap flights
should i get a domain name that say manchesterairportcheapflights or should i have a shorter domain name like manchester cheap flights
or another example
say i wanted a domain name that fitted the following two keywords in
manchester hotels
budget accomodation
should i just get a domain name that says manchester hotels or should it get the following manchesterhotelsbudgetaccomodation
I am looking at buying a number of domain names and i am trying to find out if shorter is better or if a longer domain name is better
-
I agree with Ryan, even if the domain name will be the "perfect" SEO it does'nt mean it will have a high CTR. If you take a look at this from a users perspective:
1. You dont see the words directly, just a bunch of letters
2. People will not remember the domain name
3. It looks spammy.If you use only two words, which looks better, I think you would have some good results.
-
Thanks for that, that is great advice.
-
I would never advise using more then 2 terms in a URL for a primary domain. When you think of the most successful domains, they are all one or two terms. The exceptions are when an acronym is used representing the full terms such as with att.com.
The idea behind purchasing keyword domains exists because people are always looking to take the easy way out, and they are attracted to shiny objects (i.e. rankings). Quality SEO is about building one strong site and supporting it with great content and solid SEO.
In order to be successful with the domain names you mentioned, you will need the support of both onpage and offpage SEO, along with "SEO hosting". If you spent the same time and effort on the main site instead of with this form of tactic, the site would be far better off.
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
-
History of Page or Domain Authority...how?
Hi everyone, is there a way (tools) to see the "history" of any given website in terms of Page or Domain Authority? Like if I went to Alexa and typed in www.angieslist.com it tells me the site ranks #**2,691 **Globally and #670 in the USA. But, is there a way to see how the rank has gone up over time, or where it was a year, two or more ago? Thanks
Competitive Research | | co.mc0 -
What's the value of Exact Match Keyword Domains vs. Company Name Domains?
Hey Mozers, I was in a discussion this morning about the value of Exact Match Keyword domains vs. a company name domain and wanted to get a little more clarification. Let's say we are doing a site for a company called Favored Dental, and they have had the domain favoredental.com for quite a while and have their authority built up in it. Is it better to have favored-dental.com or favoreddental.co or keep its current form? The reasoning behind the alternate domains would be they have the exact match keyterm, in this case lets say "Favored Dental" is the keyterm we were going after. To my knowledge EMDs aren't as relevant as they'd use to be as Google would rather branding of companies instead of keyterm domains? Is this correct, or do EMDs of keywords you're going after hold higher authority? Thanks for the clarification!
Competitive Research | | MonsterWeb280 -
Any Tool for Tracking Domain / Page Authority Growth?
Is there any tool available in the market where there is a ranking list of fastest growth in Domain and Page Authority? I launched a job site 8 months ago and I am curious to see what % of websites (not just job specific) have experienced faster growth in a similar time frame in Domain and Page Authority to get a sense of what may have been accomplished. thank you very much,
Competitive Research | | knielsen0 -
What's the difference between 'external links' and 'linking domains to this domain' in my report?
I'm looking at a competitor analysis report. The number provided for 'external links' is 150. The number for 'external links to this domain' is 4860 and 'linking domains to this domain' is 232. What are the differences between these numbers?
Competitive Research | | lthompsonon0 -
Can you track multiple domains with the same key words and not use up your keyword limit?
I have roughly 7 domains that I am trying to monitor with the same set of keywords. Is there a way to do this without using up your keyword limit. They are the same words just different sites.
Competitive Research | | sixthcents0 -
How come the results in Google vary with domains
Hello, How is everyone doing? My question is about the google search engine results page. How come some results have the www. in front of them and some don't. Also what are the SEO implications of having www. in front of your search results vs. not. Is this something to do with canonical? I have included a screen shot so you will see what I mean. One result is www.gearyi.com and the result without the www is ingenexdigital.com. R6GLL.png
Competitive Research | | digitalops0 -
Best Way to Consolidate Domains/Rankings After Purchase of Competitor
One of my customers is buying a competitor. The competitor has a site that usually ranks just 1-2 spots below the main site that we manage for them (our site has been up for about a year, and their's is 15-years old). I am wondering what is the best way to consolidate the rankings/websites to take advantage of the purchase of the competitor's web assets. I would love to leave both sites up and just get 2 top-25 links to our products, but with no more marketing being done under the competitor's name, I assume their rankings will degrade. Would a basic 301 re-direct on a page-by-page basis be enough to 'steal' all of the juice their domain name/site has built? Is there some other method of using an older domain to boost the rankings of a newer one (I am assuming they only rank as well as we do because of how long they've been active - all of our metrics are better than theirs across the board). Thanks for any help/advice the community here can provide!
Competitive Research | | dschapira0 -
How does this domain / page rank for this particular term?
Hi everyone, I'm wondering whether someone can enlighten me as to how a particular page / domain is ranking for a term that the page appears to be in no way optimised to receive traffic to. The search engine is Google Australia and the Search Term (albiet low volume) is "Bunbury Builders" the top organic result is the homepage for "Content Living" www.contentliving.com.au/ There is one single mention of Bunbury on the page (as a phone number in the footer of the page). I've disabled javascript, css, and spoofed my user agent as Googlebot and I can't see anything suspect going on here at all. I also ran the domain through open site explorer and I couldn't find a single anchor text reference to bunbury directing visitors back to this domain. We haven't yet begun targeting this term, but I was curious to see (for my own education as much as anything else) how they were achieving this ranking position. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Competitive Research | | NaomiC0