Will buying a web domain name such as www.webdesignindevon.co.uk get me to the top of searches for web design in devon ?
-
wil this help or not thanks x
-
Like already mentioned...it won't harm you if you buy it and in some instance might help you as well, as long as you utilize it in a proper and genuine manner. Just keep up with the best practices.
And, I am still waiting for someone to answer this part of my original reply:
"BTW, I am not sure about whether there is some kind of penalty that exists if you buy domain names that closely resemble your website URL and then permanently re-direct it to your Live/ Main URL/ Website. Can someone answer this?? After all your intention is not to spam but to stop others from misusing an URL that closely resembles your brand."
-
that's a good sign. You need to be sure to maintain quality in all you do, and avoid low quality links pointing to your site especially...
-
I agree with u the webdesignindevon is the only one avaliable all my on page for my current site are a A for web design devon so will this mean it will help purchasing it x
-
okay all of my on page reports are at an a for web design devon on my current site so is this a good sign thanks for you help x
-
Not necessarily. But, it might help you partly. Having the right keyword in the URL is given some weight by Google but it does not mean that it is true in every case.
Getting the right traffic for the keywords is a combination of:
Right internal linking strategy with the right anchor text + Keywords with the right amount of density in content + Keywords in Title Tag + A well-written Meta Description (Even though it does not effect the ranking factors, it will certainly help improve the CTR, because a well-written description serves as an AD copy for your displayed result) + Search-engine friendly site architecture + unique content spread across many pages with unique title tags etc. + Social-Media Signals + External linking strategy (Links from relevant external websites/ directories, Right anchor text, Co-citation etc.) + competition for the keyword (probably your keyword is not that highly competitive) + Local listings + so many other factors.
Also since the Panda update you need to be doubly sure that you are genuine. Do not use keyword stuffing and other such factors only aimed at influencing search-engine spiders. Just be genuine and think about what value you can provide to the customers and share it and also think about providing engaging content (Videos/ Image/ Texts). Be genuine and the word of mouth will happen naturally.
Basically, (1) be genuine, (2)spread awareness (3) provide tools of engagement (4) find the right balance between pleasing your visitors as well as pleasing the search-engines (By creating a search-engine friendly (NOT search-engine fooling) site architecture).
Also, read these articles about Google's EMD (Exact Match Domains) update:
http://searchengineland.com/low-quality-exact-match-domains-are-googles-next-target-134889
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a-guide-and-best-practices-for-emds
- BTW isn't "webdesigndevon" a better option than adding "in" in it? "in" will not be given any value anyway and it might lead to a lot of typos if someone manually types the URL: "webdesignindevon" compared to "webdesigndevon" into their browser.
And, if you are worried about someone else starting a "webdesign-devon" domain, just purchase such domain names that closely resembles your website URL (it is not that expensive to buy such less sort after names, I guess) and permanently re-direct those URLs to your live website URL. That way even if someone else manually types any URL that closely resembles your website's URL, they will get re-directed to your website, instead of landing in someone else website and you can sleep happily because there will be no other websites that closely resembles your website URL. Thus you will get some brand value too.
BTW, I am not sure about whether there is some kind of penalty that exists if you buy domain names that closely resemble your website URL and then permanently re-direct it to your Live/ Main URL/ Website. Can someone answer this?? After all your intention is not to spam but to stop others from misusing an URL that closely resembles your brand.
-
An exact match or near-exact match domain name can be beneficial however it can also be detrimental. It all comes down to how much effort you put into creating a high quality site with strong topical focus, topical depth and reinforcing content relationships, then follow that up with a strong mix of off-site trust and authority signals. If you don't put in the effort in those best-practices ways, your site will be vulnerable to Google Exact Match negatives.
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
-
Why does my old brand name still show up on organic search but as my new brand name and domain?
Hello mozers! I have quite the conundrum. My client used to have the unfortunate brand name "Meetoo" - which by the way they had before the movement happened! So naturally, they rebranded to the name Vevox in March 2019 to avoid confusion to users. However, when you search for their old brand name "Meetoo" the first organic link that pops up is their domain www.vevox.com. Now, this wouldn't normally be a problem, however it is when any #MeToo news appears in the media and we get a sudden influx or wrong traffic. I've searched the HTML and content for the term "Meetoo" but can only find one trace of this name through a widget. Not enough to hold an organic spot. My only other thinking is that www.vevox.com is redirected from www.meetoo.com. So I'm assuming this is why Vevox appear under the search term "Meetoo". How can I remove the homepage www.vevox.com from appearing for the search term "meetoo"? Can anyone help? AvGGYBc
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Virginia-Girtz3 -
Http & https domain names
We currently have a site which we found SEM Rush to show that their were duplicate pages for the site. Upon further inspection we realized this was because there existed both http:// and https:// Versions of the site. Is this a problem for Google that the site appears for both http:// and https:// and that there are therefore duplicate versions of the site?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gavo0 -
How to target for misspelled Brand name searches
Hi to all the SEO experts here, I am working on SEO of my 4 months old website. For example, its 'abz.com'. We like the brand name 'abz' for the business and we are able to SEO well for keyword 'abz'. However, we would also like to target for the keyword 'abc'. There are 2 reasons for that: 'abc' is an actual word. So there is a possibility that our users may type 'abc' instead of 'abz' to reach us. For 'abc', the top result is 'abct.us', which is a site of adult in nature. Also our website doesn't feature at all in the results. This is hitting us hard in terms of or brand visibility. So the questions are: How to feature in results of keyword search of 'abc'? Will the following approach work: Buying an available domain 'abc.co.in', and use it to feature in 'abc' results and 301 redirect to 'abz.com' Having 'abc' in the page meta (title and description). This is hard for us, since we need to rethink our taglines and copyrights. 2. If we search for 'abz', Google says "Do you mean abc". Is there a way to not have this suggestion? It would helpful to have some more ideas for this problem.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | manasag0 -
Website using search term as URL brand name to cheat Google
Google has come a long way over the past 5 years, the quality updates have really helped bring top quality content to the top that is relevant for users search terms, although there is one really ANNOYING thing that still has not been fixed. Websites using brand name as service search term to manipulate Google I have got a real example but I wouldn't like to use it in case the brand mentions flags up in their tools and they spot this post, but take this search for example "Service+Location" You will get 'service+location.com' rank #1 Why? Heaven knows. They have less than 100 backlinks which are of a very low, spammy quality from directories. The content is poor compared to the competition and the competitors have amazing link profiles, great social engagement, much better website user experience and the data does not prove anything. All the competitors are targeting the same search term but yet the worst site is ranking the highest. Why on earth is Google not fixing this issue. This page we are seeing rank #1 do not even deserve to be ranking on the first 5 pages.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jseddon920 -
What is better for web ranking? A domain or subdomain?
I realise that often it is better put content in a subfolder rather than a subdomain, but I have another question that I cannot seem to find the answer to. Is there any ranking benefit to having a site on a .co.uk or .com domain rather than on a subdomain? I'm guessing that the subdomain might benefit from other content on the domain it's hosted on, but are subdomains weighted down in any way in the search results?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RG_SEO0 -
Multiple Domain Names Pointing to One URL
Hi! A company I work with has purchased several (70-something) domain names that are relevant to their business. According to their IT pro, they're currently using DNS to point those domains to our IP address, with a catch-all header on IIS for that IP address. Essentially, we have 70-something domain names that direct to the homepage. I noticed that some have been indexed by Google and are pulling in the meta of the homepage they're being directed to. Is this potentially an issue? If so, would 301 redirects fix this or are we okay with the status quo and the indexing is no big deal? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 199580 -
Domain name with a single digit
I have an existing campervan hire website which is being redesigned, rebranded and renamed (including the domain). The website allows businesses and owners to list campervans for rent to customers. There are a huge amount of campervan hire companies and so not many relevant domain names. Also many are for sale as expensive premium domains. We want something different that will standout. We're thinking of https//:camper7.com as its short and we think it would work. Is it best to avoid using a single digit in a domain if it isnt a 2 or 4 or does it not matter if we think it could work as it would stand out? Any help or advice would be appreciated. thanks James
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Curran1 -
Domain Choise
Hello, Im working a e-commerce shop, and my question is about choosing the domain. Presently the website is not performing good with the domain www.casaobjecto.com, that is the brand name of the shop. Now I have made my analysis about keywords and conclude that it would be very interesting to have a domain name with the main keyword that im targeting. The domain is available. If I choose the maintain the www.casaobjecto.com as main domain and the other keyword domain pointing to that site, whats the influence that can take in the keyword im looking for? Or should I replace the target keyword domain (becomes the main domain) by the brand domain name? Whats the best choice? Tks in advance, Pedro M Pereira
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PedroM0