advice Google’s John Mueller Cautions Against Keyword-Rich Domains

[News]

Keyword-rich domains may harm a website's long-term success, warns Google Search Advocate John Mueller. Here are five reasons why.

Keyword-rich domain names were once thought to be an effective way to increase a website’s visibility and improve search engine rankings.

However, there are several reasons why keyword-rich domain names can be detrimental to a website’s success.

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[StartupsBrandsCom]

What point are you trying to make here? And giving you the benefit of a doubt:

Brand	Domain	Founded	PMD	EMD
Virgin Galactic	virgingalactic.com	2004	No	No
SpaceX	spacex.com	2002	Yes	No
Blue Origin	blueorigin.com	2000	No	No
Origin Span	-	-	-	-
Boeing Space	boeing.com/space	2015	No	No
Space Adventures	spaceadventures.com	1998	-	Yes
Zero 2 Infinity	zero2infinity.space	2009	No	No

Where's explorespace.com? Where's spacetourism.com? Where's spacetrip.com? Where's spacetravel.com? They're not in use...and I don't think they ever will be.

There are as many PMD:s and EMD:s as there are .space domains with numbers in them on this list.

And considering how Space Adventures was founded the same year as Google, I don't think they chose their brand for its Search Engine potential.


From what I could find:

Your data for PMD column is inaccurate.

Thank you for more thorough information, yet the point is as also the message of this thread that, while trends changed the companies already knew of it and took the advantage of the partial matching domain keywords for their business despite EMD opportunities - as is also well established pratice in traditional business naming (example, 'Eat at Joe's' and not fully descriptive as 'Eat a Snack'). And that doesn't necessary was/should standing for the internet marketers where EMD was a fair chance to get into competition - for a market share(redistribution). Regards

 

[Astner]

Your data for PMD column is inaccurate.

No it's not. But if you think it is, then it's a good idea to explain why you think it. Because I can't read your mind.

It could be that you consider the word "galactic" to be a partial match for space travel, it could be that you consider the directory "/space" to make the domain a partial match, or it could be that you think the extension ".space" makes it a partial match. Either way it's wrong, but you need to clarify your position.

Thank you for more thorough information, yet the point is as also the message of this thread that, while trends changed the companies already knew of it and took the advantage of the partial matching domain keywords for their business despite EMD opportunities - as is also well established pratice in traditional business naming (example, 'Eat at Joe's' and not fully descriptive as 'Eat a Snack'). And that doesn't necessary was/should standing for the internet marketers where EMD was a fair chance to get into competition - for a market share(redistribution). Regards

You're confusing correlation for causation.

Businesses like "Joe's Diner" have been around for longer than the Internet, let alone search engines. So even though joesdiner.com is technically a PMD, it likely wasn't chosen for SERP bonus.

This is why people tend to stick to EMD:s in these arguments, because it's very difficult to discern the intent and purpose of a PMD. Even with spaceadventures.com you could argue that it isn't an exact match in the same sense as spacetrip.com. Because people looking to travel to space are more likely to look for [trip to space] or [space trip] than they are for something seemingly arbitrary like [space adventures].

At the end of the day this thread is about Mueller's comments, and these aren't new. He's been communicating these ideas to developers for years.

Some domainers are resistant to it because they've invested money into these kind of domains, and in this case they rather not have the truth getting in the way of future deals. But as the old saying goes, "the truth doesn't mind being questioned, a lie doesn't like being challenged."

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Facebook gave the name to represent exactly as the name suggests - book of faces.

Those words don't add up to what might be classed as a keyword rich domain in my eyes. I'm pretty sure it's a brand name that's a play on the term "yearbook".

The main reason being that "face book" wasn't a common phrase to begin with. People aren't searching it to find books of faces, they're typing it in to find that specific business with that name.

 

[Astner]

I think another point to highlight is that people here aren't going for long EMD:s like they did in the past. They go for two-word, borderline-brandable EMD:s. They're also very picky: if it contains hyphens or isn't a .com then it's out, even though these things wouldn't affect their placement in the SERP.

So I do think it's more a matter of "these domains have always been perceived as premium domains, and they're very rarely used for spam-sites, therefore they are valuable" rather than "use this easy hack to boost your SEO!"

 

[StartupsBrandsCom]

"it could be that you consider the word "galactic" to be a partial match for space travel"
"or it could be that you think the extension ".space" makes it a partial match. Either way it's wrong, but you need to clarify your position."

Although the space keyword brand domains overview is example you've posted, it should be clear to you that although search engines are aiming to serve as information systems they are still serving people and taking on commonly present opinions as with compatible terminology even not necessary being exactly interchangeable.

Still, the business goal/purpose on the market could be contained in the brand name as descriptive, colluding ideals or stylistic symbolism, as the supportive logic in the public opinion.

 

[topdom]

Build a ppc site on mesothelioma-insurance-casino.com and make 50 USD profit for each click? Of course it won't work, and even if you are at the top for many searches, you will get $ 0,00 per click.

And then get a great domain, build a great site with great content, and get legitimate clicks, you will still get
$ 0,00 per click.
Adsense is dead. It was great from 2003-2010. Now they own operating systems, browsers (adreno and chrome),
why should they give you anything. Also they will be bankrupt for different reasons (and can be purchased by Elon (fake or real). )

 

[Astner]

Although the space keyword brand domains overview is example you've posted, it should be clear to you that although search engines are aiming to serve as information systems they are still serving people and taking on commonly present opinions as with compatible terminology even not necessary being exactly interchangeable.

No, it's not clear to me nor it shouldn't be, because it's wrong. We're not talking about vaguely related words, we're talking about keywords, and by blurring the line you're blurring the definition for what a PMD is.

Still, the business goal/purpose on the market could be contained in the brand name as descriptive, colluding ideals or stylistic symbolism, as the supportive logic in the public opinion.

Right. But that's different. Because now we're not talking about branding.

franksbbq.com is a great domain, not because it's a PMD, but because Frank's BBQ is a great brand.

 

[TRY]

In many case when the keyword is in the domain name and is directly relative to the search terms it will list higher on search engines not because of preferential treatment but because people are clicking on it. OF course if it's a Spammy looking URL people wont click. The way he used hyphens in the example reminds me of how the new gtlds tried comparing themselves to .com with similar low quality examples. It's obvious they can't compare apples to apples so they use apples to oranges or in this case lemons.