SEO - site name

[steve23]

Hi all,

I've heard (or read) somewhere that your site name can be a big help when it comes to seo. So for example, if i have a site about buying spanish water, then www.buyspanishwater.com would be a good one.

But should it be : buyspanishwater or buy-spanish-water ?

Does the '-' make any difference ?

All the best

Steve

 

[thetomwhatley]

Typically, this does help with SEO, but only if a) there's good content there and b) you have good quality backlinks. Someone else may be able to chime in on this, though.

Regarding hyphens, people are used to seeing and writing domainnameslikethis.com, so try and avoid using them. It just adds more keystrokes.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

One of the main benefits of a KW rich domain is the automatic anchor text, and urls for internal linking.

As stated it does help (ignore what the nutters tell you anyone who has tested will know for sure )

but it is a small amount and the difference it makes is only really for low(ish) competition terms.

 

[quickfirerob]

There was a time when having a keyword as your TLD (top-level domain) -- also known as an Exact Match Domain (EMD) -- was a solid SEO tactic; however these days it won't make too much difference. The days of keyword densities, meta descriptions and all that jazz are kind of over. They still matter, but nowhere near as much as say ten years ago.

I'd actually suggest that you may want to focus on branding, so making your URL something memorable will pay off in the long-run more effectively than an EMD.

 

[Tom @ Click Miners]

What Old Welsh Guy said. The biggest advantage is you will be able to get away with higher percentage of keyword rich links to your domain. But Google keeps eye on exact match domains and if it lacks quality having one won't help you.

.

 

[StevePoster]

It doesn't mean that if you had targeted keyword within your domain it will give you an advantage but viewing it as a direct intent for the users.

 

[fisicx]

As stated it does help (ignore what the nutters tell you anyone who has tested will know for sure )

Indeed, but while a very highly targeted domain name can give a small boost it restricts the website/business to that very niche operation. If you have 'buyspanishwater' then you are stuffed if you want to diversify into to new markets. A generic domain name gives you more scope to change direction.

Be amazon.com not books.com

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Agree with the above. I would only really use an EMD for a local site that isn't likely to change.

 

[Optimise-u]

I wrote a entry on this last week. For less used search terms it a well thought out URL/business name can be very useful. With competitive URLs there is only so far your URL will take you. Check my guide though. I am mid way through a study on how optimising URLs can give (near) instant rankings - I am avoiding off page factors to help my rankings and started with what I considered a bad copy. For 'optimise URL' with a irrelevant copy I was on page 1 within a week, but this isn't a very competitive search term.

It is worth pointing out SEO terms are often harder to target than the terms other businesses might use, and if you know what you want to charge a well laid out website and URL are a very good start for on page optimisation.

 

[fisicx]

Just read your article and it's meaningless twaddle. Sorry to burst your bubble but it wasn't the URL that gave you #1 spot for a non-competitive term, it was the (wait for it) ... page title.

You also say: "Your domain name gives most weight to your page rank on Google". This is so wrong on every level. Read OWG's post.

 

[Optimise-u]

I have been looking for internal factors to edit and see what sort of effect it will have on my positioning. The page title is obviously a strong indicator for on page SEO so I have edited the URL and all internal links to /on-page. I have reindexed the site using the fetch as google tool - if I am correct I should see my positioning fall within the next couple of days.

Thank you - in the name of keeping this a fair test this was something I definitely should have thought to check - currently the organic listings aren't something I am to concerned about as my website is so new. I am trying to make good relevant case studies and input like yours really is greatly appreciated (even though you clearly don't approve of what I am saying). We live and learn, lets see who is right here.

 

[fisicx]

It's not so much I don't approve, it's just that saying the domain name gives most weight to ranking is very wrong.

 

[seomentor]

I had 2 older domains with an exact match to my chosen search terms. Then some time ago (sorry cant remember exact dates) 18 months or so, Google not only removed the benefits, but in fact added negative weight to both URLs. I them moved sites to a similar but not exact domain. Then around 9 months ago (sorry dates may not be exact again), there seemed to a reversal of that decision or at least some backward steps, and EMD seemed to make a return.

Because of this I wouldn't now go down that route again just in case Google got tough with EMDs. I would create a brand name and then name the pages with my chosen terms, or if there are many pages with the same theme, put them into a subfolder with a suitable name.

I also have a second worry. Exact anchor text links are a "no no", so if someone uses your url to link to you, I worry this could be seen as exact anchor text, even if the www and ,com.co.uk etc is there too. Just an opinion on this point, no hard facts.

If you are still unsure, do a search for your chosen keywords and see who ranks the highest. How many of the 10 results are home pages with keywords within and how many are subfolders or pages.

 

[altonroot]

Yes it helps to some extent. But having only domain doesn't help, you do need good website with great content. If you make any mess in optimisation (even in link building) I reckon, such kind of domain names are more vulnerable to penalty then brand names. This is what my assessment is.

 

[Optimise-u]

Objectively domain names and URL suffixes are still a ranking factor. Year on year they have become less of a ranking factor but they are still there. The point made about anchor text is a very good one - I wanted to start a case study rather than rehash old information. Page title is one of the strongest on page ranking factors but when you start a study URL is the one thing that you don't want to change.

Now I have settled at possition 7 I can play about with other on page factors. For startups I have to say a well chosen URL really does seem to have a strong effect on the initial position you are placed which is one thing search engine metrics which do huge case studies don't seem to have analysed. Altonroot also makes a good point - large brands often don't have keyword related domains and certainly Bing gives far more weight to a big brand than it does to smaller companies. Google hasn't seemed to have followed that trend just yet.

The year on year decline of URL strength is ominous though - http://www.searchmetrics.com/knowledge-base/ranking-factors/

 

[splashweb]

What I've seen recently, from an SEO point of view, there is still a ranking boost to be had from using keyword rich domains, but as an earlier contributior said, there needs to be some good content with it or it'll be dismissed along with all the others. The degree of assistance this gives seems to reduce along with the competitivity of the keywords.

More significantly perhaps is the inherant performance boost a well chosen keyword domain can give you, in terms of better click-though and conversions rates, due to the perceived relevance by any eyeballs that see it. You've still got to get it seen, but once it has been it may well out perform surrounding domains in the SERPS which have less relevant addresses.

 

[EpicWebs]

You have to be careful with keyword rich domains, you have to make sure that it's seen as a brand with the accidental side affect of being keyword rich. For example:

Good example
Business name: Fire Security Norfolk
Domain: www.firesecuritynorfolk.co.uk

Bad example
Business name: Dave's Fire Security
Domain: www.firesecuritynorfolk.co.uk

I would recommend trying to make your brand strong and if it has a side affect of being keyword rich, then great.

 

[Matthew1983]

There was a time it used to make a big difference on google, now not so much.. you just have to google certain keyword terms to see that brand name domains can out rank EMD. SEO is about so many different factors.. the best advice is keep your constant good, unique and interactive.

 

[Karl B]

Exact match domains do not hold the SEO power they once did. Read the article from Search Engine Land titled "Google: EMD Update" (sorry, wasn't allowed to post the actual link as I'm new to the forum) and you will see that there are actually websites being penalised for having EMD'D (exact match domains). From a user point of view they also scream spam and there will be no brand recognition because you've just called your website 3 words.

As a couple of people have said, create a brand that people can associate with and look to build content that can be shared. That's a good place to start.

 

[SMR Locksmiths]

no one has actually answered the original question. so to say it -> hyphens in your domain name don't matter . google will pick up and phrase match your keywords in domain name anyway... not that it matters so much anymore...

 

[MASSEY]

no one has actually answered the original question. so to say it -> hyphens in your domain name don't matter . google will pick up and phrase match your keywords in domain name anyway... not that it matters so much anymore...

Opening a can of worms here.

Going back in time when EMD's were a bit stronger than they are now, hyphens in the domain were not as strong as the un hyphened version.

Another misconception at the time was that too many hyphens was seen as bad and spammy, my own spam told me otherwise, they were treated fairly, but not as powerful as the straight EMD.

I know it is only weak competition but the one page website in my signature (advertising hire) ranks page one beating larger sites targeting the term, so EMD benefit is still there.

I don't think they can lower EMD benefit too much or people will be outspamming each other for brand names.

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

It does help SEO. Hyphens don't matter but it's better to have no hyphen. There's an argument that users can view the two separate words in a url when hyphens are used. But hyphens certainly make it more difficult for users to type in a web address from, say, a business card.

 

[InternetMarketingPlatinum]

Opening a can of worms here.

Going back in time when EMD's were a bit stronger than they are now, hyphens in the domain were not as strong as the un hyphened version.

Another misconception at the time was that too many hyphens was seen as bad and spammy, my own spam told me otherwise, they were treated fairly, but not as powerful as the straight EMD.

I know it is only weak competition but the one page website in my signature (advertising hire) ranks page one beating larger sites targeting the term, so EMD benefit is still there.

I don't think they can lower EMD benefit too much or people will be outspamming each other for brand names.

Well my testing back then showed no difference between hyphen and non-hyphen EMDs but oh well.

 

[MASSEY]

Well my testing back then showed no difference between hyphen and non-hyphen EMDs but oh well.

Yep, oh well. I will never agree with you

What was especially funny was when a new member joined the forum trying to rank an EMD that wasn't indexed. In the serps when people googled there was a hyphen version of the guys domain on page 1. As soon as his site was crawled by google from a link on here it went straight in above the hyphen.