Keyword And Domain Name Options

[RIRI]

If I want to use a keyword such as screen door...

Is there any problem with using the domain name screendoor.nz if it is available and the .com, .net, .biz are all taken already? (nz really stands fot New Zealand, but there are no restrictions on it and anyone can use it for a domain if they pay Network Solutions for it)

Based purely on the domain name, will screendoor.nz get ranked in the MSN and Google the same as a screendoor.com?

Would screen-door.nz be a better then screendoor.nz if the keyword screen door is used 1000 times per day and the keyword screendoor is only used 150 times per day?


Thank You
GK

[Jill]

Welcome RIRI! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/bye1.gif)

You can get whatever domain name you want. But you should know that having keywords in it, isn't going to be what helps your site show up for those words.

You may wish to read through some of our other threads regarding keyword rich domain names when you get a chance.

[RIRI]

Thanks For Answering

Based purely on the domain name, will screendoor.nz get ranked in the MSN and Google the same as a screendoor.com?

Would screen-door.nz be a better then screendoor.nz if the keyword screen door is used 1000 times per day and the keyword screendoor is only used 150 times per day?

Thank You

[Randy]

Welcome RIRI ! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/hi.gif)

Two things. As Jill already pointed out the keyworded domain name isn't really going to help you all that much, if any at all. So to answer your question directly: No, having screendoor.nz or screen-door.nz isn't magically going to make your site rank as well as some other well established site. Regardless of whether their domain name is screendoor.com or screendoors.com or jimmyjoebobsscreendoors.com.

Bottom line is it take a lot more than a domain name to rank well.

Something else you may want to consider is going to be the whole issue of using Country domain designations, or in geek-speak ccTLDs.

If you were trying to market screen doors to New Zealanders, then your idea would make sense. It may even make your site more likely to show up for people searching from New Zealand.

On the other hand, if you're trying to attract traffic from the US or Canada or the UK or anywhere except New Zealand, you're actually making your job harder. Especially on the marketing side of things. To put it bluntly, if I'm going to order a screen door I'm not going to buy one from New Zealand because the shipping charges alone would cost me more than the door is worth!

[RIRI]

Thanks for the answer but.....


Would screen-door.com be a better then screendoor.com if the keyword screen door is used 1000 times per day and the keyword screendoor is only used 150 times per day?

[Jill]

The domain doesn't matter.

[RIRI]

I have read what you told me to read but..

when I put up www.skincare-city.com, it immediately went to the first page (approx the second listing) in MSN under skincare-city.

Nobody types in skincare-city so it didn't do me any good, but it is contrary to what you are telling me.

I would be interested in your comments on this MSN ranking. Why would it list like that if the domain name is not important in ranking?

Thank You
GK

[Jill]

If there are any links pointing to the site using the domain, then it's like keyword rich anchor text, and that's where you get the benefit.

[Randy]

Additionally, there are probably less than 100 sites that are even competing for the "skincare-city" phrase. And many of those are probably sites that link to yours!

Now, if you really believe that domain names make a huge difference, tell us how well you did out of the box for either "skincare" or "city" since both are in the domain name and both would be in any links that use the domain name as anchor text. I'd be willing to bet the site was nowhere near the top of the rankings for something a bit more competitive.

Sure you want to incorporate your keywords into your site. But by the same token you don't want to end up like a puppy dog chasing its own tail over something that really isn't going to make much if any difference.

[RIRI]

I understand and this will only be a small part of the entire SEO plan ( There were no links to the site)

I felt that skincare-city.com was the entire name and that is the reason it ranked high for the skincare-city keyword.

Are you saying that if the site name was skincare that it would not have immediately ranked high using the skincare keyword?

Also what is the significance of - in the domain name and keyword?

Thank You
GK

[torka]

When were you checking that there were no links to the site? According to Yahoo, I see one, and MSN shows two -- and both of them have got skincare-city as part of their anchor text.

Dunno how long the SuperLinks link has been in place, but the one on the ecommerce templates support forum has been up for almost a month... and since it was a forum, it's likely it was indexed within days, if not hours, of the time you posted it.

AFAIK (and as Jill says) that link anchor text would carry far more weight with the SEs than the domain name itself.

--Torka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)

[Randy]

Are you saying that if the site name was skincare that it would not have immediately ranked high using the skincare keyword?

Yep! Try it sometime. Purchase a keyworded domain name where there's at least a little competition. Don't put those keywords in the visible text or in link anchor text, so that you can get a true read on just how much they keyworded domain is affecting things. Then try to search for your keyworded domain. If there's any competition at all you won't find it anywhere near the top.

That's how we test these things. Eliminate as many factors as possible other than the one we're trying to test. If you don't do this when testing pretty much anything you can quickly end up confusing cause and effect.

Also what is the significance of - in the domain name and keyword?

To the search engines, where domain names and filenames are concerned, the dashes get treated as space characters.

[incrediblehelp]

I understand and this will only be a small part of the entire SEO plan ( There were no links to the site)

I felt that skincare-city.com was the entire name and that is the reason it ranked high for the skincare-city keyword.

Are you saying that if the site name was skincare that it would not have immediately ranked high using the skincare keyword?

Also what is the significance of    -      in the domain name and keyword?

Thank You
GK

Type in "skincare" in Google. Do you see any of those domains using the keyword "skincare? No!

[Cameron Olthuis]

What's the point of asking everyones advice if you won't accept what they're telling you. It already seems that you have an idea of what you think works in SEO, and you're not open minded enough to accept others advice, so you're wasting time.

Another think to think about with domain names is branding.

Screendoors.nz is not a very brandable company name. Take Google for example, do you think Google would be the brand they are today if the company was called Search.com? I don't!

SEO is only a small piece of the "building a successful online business" pie. You need to think of other things as well.

I'm not saying you can't use screendoors.nz as a brand name, that's your decision. I'm just saying take other things besides SEO into consideration. In fact with your domain name I wouldn't even be thinking of SEO at all.

And to repeat what others have said... Having your keywords in your domain name will not magically get you top placement, unfortunately for you it's not that easy.