Exact Keywords Domain name
-
Hello everyone!,
I would love to have your opinion on this matter.
I am working on a company e-commerce site; these guys would like to change their domain name AND their company name, so the most logical thing that came to mind was to name the domain after the company name. However, they also bought in the past a domain that have the exact keyword they would like to rank for.
I know that keywords in the URL are not as important as they used to be in the past, but nonetheless when I do a Google search for those keywords, 3 domains out of 10 on the first page are slight variations of those same keywords, meaning that they might have a really good domain name (also the other result are government, medical stuff and so on). And, no matter how many times I have read that keywords in the URL are not so important anymore, I still see a lot of sites ranking also because of their domain name (well at least outside the US)
So, my question here is: would it be better for them to use the exact match keyword-domain name or should they use their company name for their new site? Or some sort combination of the two? (the keyword-domain that in some way points also to the brand domain).
Thanks for your opinions on this; really appreciate it!
Cheers
-
Am guessing the easier way out of things is just to say build a blog, which in a sense means more content, fresh content, involvement from the company and maybe new links. It also allows you to attract new keywords.. so blog is not such a bad idea. I just hope that you could find more people that would devote their time on their content and website rather than just say "ohh I have an seo to do that, he does everything and we don't wanna get involved"
but yes there is tens of other things other than a blog that are more important..
-
eheheheh I like your thinking
-
---> SEO's often say "build a blog" blah, blah, blah. If you believe you'll have a 'following' with your blog, or if you believe you can create 'compelling' content on an ongoing basis that is related to what your site is about, and if you can create unique (no duplicate) content on a regular basis... go for it. If not; don't waste your time.
Recently I heard an SEO 'Content Representative' for an SEO company advise a small local oil pipe fabrication company to build a blog... Well, I could have advised 10+ considerably more important things they should have been doing that would have been much more important at bringing in targeted traffic than starting a blog, for almost no one who could care less
-
Hi Andy,
thanks a lot for your answers
I see what you mean, and the geo modifier thing makes sense actually. Just out of curiosity what would be the reason behind your using a blog on an ecommerce? I mean, a useful blog helps users and create brand awareness but as a consequence it brings in links, likes, retweets and all this stuff
Thanks again
Elio
-
"If they are good sites I don’t see why Google should penalize them just because of their domain name"
"If they made a really good site, would the domain name still be a problem? "
---> Google has done this to a good number of 'good sites'."a blog would make more sense on their main site because it would attract links."
---> that would not be the reason I'd create a blog.
---> I wouldn't bother using the kw rich domain name if you choose to go with a brand name domain name.- my name is Andy Kuiper, andykuiper.com ranks #1 for most (and in the top 4 for the rest) SEO related search terms in Edmonton 'and' Calgary Canada. (each city is 1 million+ population). "andykuiper" clearly isn't a commercial kw... I think you might be putting too much emphasis on the kw
* and - just reading the comment posted above, if you add a geo modifier to the KW, you're "unlikely" to have an issue with Google
It wouldn't be an EMD, and Google (so far) has been pretty good about not giving a hard time to domain names that contain KW's and 'city name' (as an example) URL's
- my name is Andy Kuiper, andykuiper.com ranks #1 for most (and in the top 4 for the rest) SEO related search terms in Edmonton 'and' Calgary Canada. (each city is 1 million+ population). "andykuiper" clearly isn't a commercial kw... I think you might be putting too much emphasis on the kw
-
I was reading a few things here and there and came across a couple of interesting things.
Here, Casey Meraz’s contribution doesn’t seem to go against EMDs…at least for local searches (but that would not be a problem since it would be a local ecommerce).
On the other hand according to the searchmetrics’ white paper ranking report, keywords in URL have a negative effect …if I’m getting it right……
-
Hello everyone and thanks for your opinions
Very much appreciated!
So, the specific keyword itself would bring a decent amount of traffic, but I totally agree that the company name should communicate something and not just be a keyword name (and it is also common sense if they want their site to be part of their overall marketing strategy). From an SEO perspective, I also sense that having exact keyword domain names might be a problem in the future, but there are two things that still puzzle me:
1) If they are good sites I don’t see why Google should penalize them just because of their domain name. And this is also true for those guys. If they made a really good site, would the domain name still be a problem? I am not saying that keyword-domain-name sites are necessarily good, but they could be….
2) If they chose to go for a unique brand name domain, would the keyword domain name (they already own it) still good for something? I mean, like a company blog, and I know that private networks are evil, but a simple link from that site would be SO bad? But then again, a blog would make more sense on their main site because it would attract links.
Baffling stuff….
Thanks again you all for your contribution
Elio
-
---> ..."dynamically generated string of random characters" instead of targeted kw's in URL's
ack! - I definitely wouldn't do that
-
Been thinking about this lately for our situation. We are revamping a major section of our site and are considering a URL structure that no longer includes a targeted keyword but rather a dynamically generated string of random characters. As much as I tell my colleagues that URLs aren't the ranking factor that they once were, I'm finding it hard to leave the old URL structure behind.
Mike
-
The 2 answers you have received are dead on - whatever you do, I wouldn't create an exact match domain name period. You're likely asking for trouble down the road if you do that. Partial match domain names are much safer. As for the company name - I wouldn't bother trying to create a company name with the intention of making it 'work'; as a domain name
Andy
-
Hi there,
This is a long disputed question in the search marketing community, the answer of which depends not only on how different search engines treat keywords in your domain name, or URL, but also the size of your advertising budget, and other factors.
While it may be true that search engines take into account keywords in your domain name, it’s important to consider how much traffic that will really get you in the long run. At the time of this writing, domain names have become quite sparse, and the odds of registering a domain name that also has high search volume for its keywords is slim.
3 tips to choosing your domain name:
- Easy to Remember – your domain name should be catchy, simple, and easy to remember. Remember that people will need to type in your domain name. You should therefore take into account potential misspellings and keep it short to avoid typos.
- Makes Sense – you want your domain name to make sense, to reflect what it is you do. Since you haven’t had the money or time to make people understand what yabaloo.com means – you will need to create a name that makes sense right off the bat without having spent money on branding. An example would be bluewidgets.com – your customer automatically expects to find blue widgets.
- **.COM – **ideally (unless you live outside the United States), you’ll want to register a .com (dot com) domain name, because that’s what people default to when typing in a domain name. Additionally, it helps to avoid hyphens if possible.
Hope it helps you.
-
They way you are thinking is something that has bothered the community for more than a decade. Yes, you are actually right that keyword based domain names are ranking higher than non-keyword based. Most likely over time this will change. Something that I always seen with Google is that they are trying to implement changes slowly (meaning that over time these keyword based domain would most likely fade away).
But if you look at the issue at a marketing prospective does this client only want to rank for one keyword? Y/N?
- Yes: then go for it! if this eCommerce will not be targeting now or in the future other keywords then stick to a keyword based domain
- No: if you have a lot of different products and you are looking to rank for different keywords, its better to build a brand name for your company by having a brand name oriented domain name!
I tend to focus to the brandability of the domain name (short,catchy, .com, etc) rather than the keyword focus, UNLESS we you are going to target an extremely competitive keyword which by it self could bring tons of traffic!
Some articles worth reading are:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-your-domain-name-will-impact-seo-social-media-marketing/
http://www.motocms.com/blog/marketing/10-tips-choosing-domain-name/
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
-
Descriptive domain vs business name domain
I originally set up my domain as "overlandparkphotographer.com" and then have my "jpshots.com" pointing to it. What I recently discovered is that even though the pages of my I set Yost SEO Title to be "JPShots Senior Pictures | Wedding Photographer" When you search "overland park photographer" the snippet tile is just "overland park photographer" which sounds super sketchy. I don't know if this is something to do with yost, or if my sneaky Domain isn't worth much, and I should simply use my regular jpshots.com domain as the primary. I know it works like a charm with yahoo, but I'm not sure how much the domain name factors google these days.
Algorithm Updates | | JPRichardson0 -
Anchor name URLs & anchor blocks: how Google sees them?
Hi guys, Anchor name URLs & anchor blocks: how Google sees them? As far as I know Google hasn't ever recommended anchor name URLs and anchor blocks, mostly when you have one page site, but I have ran into an organic result with an hyper-link to an anchor name URL. anchor name link There is a proper link and there aren't on the page and the code the words "Jump to". It means Google has put those words there and it has also taken the header of that block as anchor text. Why has Google placed that link? The query is "faqs umbrella company", so I thought that Google has seen "faqs umbrella company" like "what is the most popular faq about umbrella companies?" and therefore perhaps the correct answer could be "Is an umbrella company the only option I have? What are the alternatives?". Although, IMHO the most popular FAQ on Umbrella Companies should always be "what is an umbrella company". Unfortunately, that page is only worthy of third Google organic result page and there is no hint of rich snippet or any kind of conversational/KBT optimisation on its source code. no-rich-snippet Someone has any idea of why Google shows that link and if it's something that we can optimise in our pages? Cheers Pierpaolo IhwGwkb.jpg VWORt5F.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | madcow780 -
Duplicate content on a sub domain
I have two domains www.hairremoval.com and a sub domain www.us.hairromoval.com both sites have virtual the same content apart from around 8 pages and the sub domain is more focused to US customers so the spelling are different, it is also hosted in the states. Would this be classed as duplicate content ? (The url’s are made up for the question but the format is correct)
Algorithm Updates | | Nettitude0 -
Sharp Drop in SERP Ranking for Specific Keyword
I'm sure this happens to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. My pages http://www.cleanedison.com/leed and http://www.cleanedison.com/courses/leed-green-associate suddenly dropped off the map over the past 2 weeks for the keyword "LEED Certification" I tried to limit the number of times "LEED" was mentioned on the first URL (/leed) to try to combat an over-optimization penalty but I did not for the second (/leed-green-associate). Both of them have fallen precipitously and are no where to be found on Google. What can I do to troubleshoot this? Is there anyway to guard against this in the future?
Algorithm Updates | | CleanEdisonInc0 -
With Google's Location Based Searches, Should I Include a City Name with My Keywords?
What I mean is when you search on Google it seems to pull information by your location so would it be helpful including the city name + keyword still for SEO or would it be just as helpful using just the keyword? For example, a client is in Alexandria, VA and has a computer repair shop so would "Alexandria computer repair" be as good or better than "computer repair"? Just a little curious. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | CodyOelker-AMICreativeStudio2 -
Does Word Order Matter in Local Keywords?
We do a lot of local SEO, and we're wondering if it's better to target "keyword location" or "location keyword"? Does it affect ranking and keyword difficulty if we're trying to rank for "plumbing appleton" or "appleton plumbing"? Any insight would be great.
Algorithm Updates | | optimalwebinc0 -
Meta keywords tag?
Because Google is cracking on spammy keywords should I remove my meta keywords tag altogether? I hear they dont factor it in anyway?
Algorithm Updates | | dfwgolfer0 -
How is important domain age now?
Just as topic states, how important do you think domain age is? Do you think getting old domain for the new website will do any difference? Lets say website A used to sell apples... went out of business after 5 years of business. If I would get that domain and will star selling apples again can I expect some extra boost because of the age? Cheers
Algorithm Updates | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0