Domain length

[SEODinosaur]

Does Domain length matter for SEO?

[Dr-Pete]

I think there may be an important distinction here - are you talking about potentially registering dozens of domains to rank for long-tail phrases? I think we're all assuming that you mean your primary domain choice.

Registering dozens of exact-match domains to rank for long-tail phrases is a lot less effective than it used to be (and will probably get even less effecting over the next 1-3 years). People abused that tactic, for starters, but it also splits your link-juice, social signals, and typically creates either doorway pages or large-scale duplicate content. The negatives outweigh the positives in most cases.

If you're only talking about one domain, and it really is a very long-tail phrase you want to target, then that's a bit different. In the example you give, most of the keywords are very common and a bit ambiguous, so you're right - a short version might not make much sense. On the other hand, the long version is going to target one very specific phrase that probably gets a small amount of traffic. You could target that phrase through on-page cues, inbound anchor text, etc. (the domain name is just one small piece of the puzzle).

[SEODinosaur]

Ooops I read this after posting below... Sorry about that

[SEODinosaur]

"the more words in your domain, the less SEO impact each word is going to have. At some point, it may start to look a bit spammy." I think I missed a good article on this can you please provide a source?

I would not use this for over the phone lol... Only to tap into search engine traffic, lets say I found a term that is highly competitive. However, the rankers are not optimizing for that specific query. Its only highly competitive because these sites are authoritative for other relavent keywords.

Example.

I want to rank for the keywords "how can i be sure this is true"

When I type this in a search engine, lets say I get youtube/ebay/etsy/etc... for the SERP (highly authoritative according to SEOmoz but they are not targeting the long tail question)

Would I be better off buying a domain canthisbe.com? I dont see how this makes sense....

[Dr-Pete]

It's confusing, but best practice is generally no hyphen in the root domain, but hyphens in the sub-folders (so, "www.mydomain.com/my-domain"). Google is good about separating words in root domains, but not always in folder and page names (and they recommend the hyphen as the preferred separator). Traditionally, hyphens in the root domain are also a (small) negative trust signal - people tend to think you couldn't get the non-hyphenated domain.

[SEODinosaur]

I am not 100% about hyphens. However, I noticed that most sites use hyphens in all their sub pages. (Just look at the URL of this thread http://www.seomoz.org/q/domain**-**length) I think that Hyphens are bad on a root domain.

"The reason behind it is that words such as: what, is, right etc. do not really give you any keyword value. Your main keyword would be France and then something to indicate that you want to relate to the current time - like 'now'."

Are you sure about this?

I never heard of this... Can you please provide a source?

From my understanding exact domain helps (no telling how much). By exact I am implying [iwanttogetonthefirstpageofgoogle] for the term "I want to get on the first page of google"

[Dr-Pete]

I think the comments here cover the bases - I'm not aware of any kind of outright penalty, but it's always a balancing act - the more words in your domain, the less SEO impact each word is going to have. At some point, it may start to look a bit spammy.

Of course, there's the practical side, which includes the usability aspects, too. Imagine you want to give someone this URL over the phone, print it on a business card, use email addresses at it, or even post it on social media (without a shortener) - at some point, a long URL just isn't practical. It's also a negative trust signal - people aren't going to take an overly long URL seriously, IMO.

[coremediadesign]

Domain length extends your urls, and long urls are seeing as a negative factor. My recommendation would be to forget about hyphens - as these are also additional characters and are more difficult to type together with the rest of the alphanumerical characters on the keyboard.

As to the length - keep it short and do not try to put all of the words from your phrase in the domain - try to use the most important ones and no more than 3 combined together. For instance I would convert your domain : whatisgoingoninfrancerightnow.com to something like : francerightnow.com or even francenow.com

The reason behind it is that words such as: what, is, right etc. do not really give you any keyword value. Your main keyword would be France and then something to indicate that you want to relate to the current time - like 'now'.

The rest of the keywords could be easily included in the page names and that should give you a perfect structure to drive your SEO.

[ResslerMotors]

There are some minor negative correlations when it comes to length of domains.  If it's a competitive search, then it may not be worth the minor interference.  However, if it's a low competitive vertical, then go right ahead.

My opinion, though, would be to use a shorter search phrase like goingoninfrance.com.  This will give you a broader appeal to consumers by not having the "right now" part, and it is short enough to remember.  This also keeps you safe if the algorithm would change to further impact long urls.

[SEOExecutive20]

I did an additional case study.

I took a longer domain with not just 1 or 2 but 3 hyphens

http://www.high-higher-highest-rankings.com/

I located one of it's high competitive keywords that it ranks for

"increase website ranking"

I'm sure if you type this in the Google search PPC ads will fill both top and right side

Now we check to see where it's ranking for this key phrase

You will notice that it's located number 2 only losing to an article about Google by About.com

So, I guess that statistically we can't necessarily rule out that the length of the domain with hyphens constitutes a ranking factor.  Maybe only on a broader scale with other underlying issues

[SEOExecutive20]

There is a lot of mixed opinions on both of these and personally I would rather not use a domain that's long.  I rarely see websites ranking within the top 5 for long domains and I'm sure many people own these long-tail phrases and use them as domains.

According to the SEOMOZ's Google's Ranking Factors 2011
Long Titles + URLs are Still Likely Bad for SEO

You should definitely take a look at this as it breaks down some interesting facts.

This is the slide share of it: http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/ranking-factors-data-2011-smx-elite-sydney

Google's Ranking Factors

[SEODinosaur]

THis is somewhat helpful. However, it explains domain for users...

Let me give you an example..

If I want to rank for "what is going on in france right now" it is longer then 15 characters and no one will want to type it. If my domain is whatisgoingoninfrancerightnow.com it will help my SEO rankings, or do the search engines look at the length and say nonono?

The link you provided led me to another question. It recomends not using hyphens, are they talking about the main domain only www.my-domain.com, or main domain and extension www.mydomain.com/my-domain?

[SEOExecutive20]

This is an excellent resource that gives all details in accordance with domains and SEO: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain