59 replies to this topic

[jsp1983]

I can't remember if I've asked this before (I don't think I have), so excuse me if you remember otherwise!

I'm wondering which is best to serve my overall objectives of getting more quality traffic - here's my situation at the moment:

I have a site where the domain includes a location name and a keyword (e.g. 'anytown-widgets.co.uk'), making it very specific to a town (and so far happens to be a phrase with a respectable exact phrase search volume). I have content on the site relevant to the particular product/ service being offered in that town.

I want to expand what I'm doing to cover other towns in the surrounding area - am I best served by continuing with the [location]-[keyword].co.uk domain, with the site containing content relevant only to that town, or should I use a domain covering a wider area (e.g. 'anyregion-widgets.co.uk), but which most likely i) has a negligible volume of searches for the exact phrase and/or is a phrase used further up the sales funnel, but with a lot more content on the one domain?

Essentially, very localised domain, but with less content vs. less specific domain, but with lots of content

If any of that makes sense?

[Michael Martinez]

Keywords in the URL help but they are just one of many factors. You don't have to have your keywords in your domain name. In fact, if you want the extra boost it makes absolutely no difference where in the URL the keyword occurs (assuming a reasonably normal URL).

Go for the content.

Don't worry about the domain name.

[sezerb]

I would stay specific with your domain name.

[SEO FF]

Adding additional domains will only add additional work to your workload. Focusing on diversifying your pages with geo-specific content under the same domain will add more authority to your main domain and allow the site to reap the benefits of additional links.

I wouldn't focus so much on the quantity as much as the quality of the content. At the end of the day, the # of articles you create are not going to get you rankings or conversions, the quality and ability to engage your visitors and draw the attention of related sites will.

[JamesJaks]

Keywords in the URL help but they are just one of many factors. You don't have to have your keywords in your domain name. In fact, if you want the extra boost it makes absolutely no difference where in the URL the keyword occurs (assuming a reasonably normal URL).

Go for the content.

Don't worry about the domain name.

Can't agree with that. Google have an extremely strong preference for urls with the name of the intended keywords.
I personally placed one website at no 1 at Google in a competitive field with an url that was the primary keyword.
Yahoo is less sensitive to this.

Of course a balance of strategies will win the day but Google seem to be making the url a King in their spidering.

[Scottie]

Google seem to be making the url a King in their spidering.



I had to check the date on this post to make sure it wasn't 5-6 years old...

[qwerty]

If the URL is the keyword phrase, and it can be parsed as such (one word or dashes between words), then you do have a decent chance of a lot of your backlinks containing the phrase in their anchor text, since you're going to get people linking to either keyword phrase or www.keyword-phrase.com.

My guess would be that you get more benefit from that (assuming you get some links) than from the search engine simply being able to parse the phrase within the domain name. That would explain why this worked better for JamesJaks on Google than on Yahoo.

[adibranch]

Keywords in the URL help but they are just one of many factors. You don't have to have your keywords in your domain name. In fact, if you want the extra boost it makes absolutely no difference where in the URL the keyword occurs (assuming a reasonably normal URL).

Go for the content.

Don't worry about the domain name.

also disagree with this. Keywords in the domain can be the ruling factor in certain sectors. Granted, they are only part of it, but they STILL (yes, scottie, still) play a massive part in rankings. Keywords in the remainder of the URL arent factored at all (or at least not much) but domain keywords can still outrank a well optimised and authoritive site.

[SEO FF]

If the URL is the keyword phrase, and it can be parsed as such (one word or dashes between words), then you do have a decent chance of a lot of your backlinks containing the phrase in their anchor text, since you're going to get people linking to either keyword phrase or www.keyword-phrase.com.

My guess would be that you get more benefit from that (assuming you get some links) than from the search engine simply being able to parse the phrase within the domain name. That would explain why this worked better for JamesJaks on Google than on Yahoo.

Can you say that this method would prove to be more beneficial than creating content for the site? While I believe certain things work for certain sites that may not work for others, I can't see keywords in your domain outweighing good content content. You may get a quick boost in the results by having KID but what are you going to do to sustain those results?

Good content will be linked too naturally and also pick up additional long tail terms for your site. So not only may you grab a little benefit from KID but you'll also grab those additional terms that you may not have intentionally targeted.

Better yet, why not do both?

[MarcP]

If the URL is the keyword phrase, and it can be parsed as such (one word or dashes between words), then you do have a decent chance of a lot of your backlinks containing the phrase in their anchor text, since you're going to get people linking to either keyword phrase or www.keyword-phrase.com.

My guess would be that you get more benefit from that (assuming you get some links) than from the search engine simply being able to parse the phrase within the domain name. That would explain why this worked better for JamesJaks on Google than on Yahoo.

Hi been reading this thread with interest.

When I picked my domain name I didn't pick it because it was an actual keyword phrase but because the name made sense.

Now that my domain name is a major keyword phrase I was wondering how this would play.

Can you elaborate more about it being parsed, one word or dashes between words with the decent chance of backlinks and the like?

(actually I have two domain names one xyz123.com and xyz-123.com)

Marc

[qwerty]

Can you say that this method would prove to be more beneficial than creating content for the site?

Nooooo. Absolutely not. I'm not even suggesting it as something you ought to be doing. I was only saying that, since most links point to a site's home page, and since the anchor text for most links to the home page is either the company name or the domain name/URL, that's one thing you can get out of having keywords in your domain name.

I'd never recommend it over good content. If you don't have content, nobody's going to link to you, so the anchor text of those non-existent links isn't going to matter much.

[qwerty]

Hi been reading this thread with interest.

When I picked my domain name I didn't pick it because it was an actual keyword phrase but because the name made sense.

Now that my domain name is a major keyword phrase I was wondering how this would play.

Can you elaborate more about it being parsed, one word or dashes between words with the decent chance of backlinks and the like?

(actually I have two domain names one xyz123.com and xyz-123.com)

Marc

It's not a question of whether having keywords in the domain name gets you links. As I wrote above, it's content that gets you links. I was just saying that if you have keywords in your domain name, and people link to you with your domain name in the anchor text, then you've got links with keywords in the anchor text.

The question of how search engines parse words out of a URL is another matter. Traditionally, they've told us that hyphens are viewed as separators between words, so they'll see mywebsite as one word, which won't be relevant to either "my" or "website" but they'll see my-website as containing those two words. More recently, they've suggested that using an underscore as a separator will also allow them to parse separate words, but I don't know if that's actually true.

Personally, I've never worked on a site with a hyphen (or an underscore, for that matter) in the domain name, so I can't tell you from personal experience that it really gives you any advantage. I've had a few clients who had their site at word1word2.com and also owned word1-word2.com, but we'd just redirect the second domain to the first. As a general rule, I'd say that domain names without hyphens are preferable just because they're easier to remember and to communicate to others.

[Randy]

Keywords in the domain can be the ruling factor in certain sectors. Granted, they are only part of it, but they STILL (yes, scottie, still) play a massive part in rankings.

Sorry adibranch, but your stated belief is simply wrong.

There's not a single market sector out there where having a keyword or two in the domain is going to cause that site to always rank number one. Or even in the top ten if there is sufficient competition.

The only time it might work out the way you believe is if there is zero competition in the market sector.

Long story short, keyword in the domain are not and never have been a (to quote you directly) massive part of the rankings equation.

Sorry if that offends you, but that's the way it is in the real world.

[adibranch]

we've been over this before randy.. you say they dont, i say they do. Your tests and research say no, mine say yes. You have a closed mind to differing opinions, i have an open one.

[Randy]

No adi, you try to use a single case where you apparently don't understand what's really happening as proof when it's neither proof nor a valid test.

I am completely open to new valid research and change on the subject, as with any subject in SEO. That said when someone tries to offer as proof a single instance where they simply don't understand what's happening, I'm not going to let it slide by without challenge. That's how misinformation gets started. I assume you're talking about your "strapping machine" example again. There are lots of reasons what you see is happening if the co.uk results I'm seeing while emulating a UK user are anything close to what you're seeing. Start with <title>s and exact phrase match. Also look at domain age.

Of course this assumes I'm looking at the same group of sites. (I didn't look at just two sites, but at the top 6 or so.) You could be seeing Personalized results based upon your previous searching habits, which of course I'm not going to see exactly the same. If you want to PM over the exact details I'd be happy to take a look at some of the specifics for you.

Seriously, I looked into only about 20 known ranking factors for your strapping machine example. Of those 20 the #1 site was the clear winner 17 or 18 times, with the other 2 or 3 factors being essentially a push. You're apparently willing to ignore all of these other factors, or don't wish to take them into account for whatever reason. You have every right to do so. However if you then use your supposed proof that isn't proof to espouse faulty information, this being that domain all by itself is a major ranking factor, expect to get called on it.