Question about a search term w/ .com available

[Dockers]

Hi guys,

I've read these forums for a while but just finally got around to registering an account.

I've got a question about a search term that gets 12,000+ searches in the USA and 9,900 outside the US per month. It is a term that has a period "." in it. Let's say the search term is "apple 3.14". The domain name "apple314.com" is available. Will google penalize me for not having the "." in the domain name, or will "apple314.com" be the best domain name I can register for this term?

Thank ya'll! Have a great weekend.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

If you plan to use an Apple domain to squat on Apple's TM, you are flirting with danger.

Apple is aggressive in protecting its TM.

My advice: Avoid all TM domains like the plague.

(I see that your example is already regged, so I will assume that your prospective domain has no TM issues.)

If your search term has no TM issues, then the domain without hyphens would be best, but you could reg both and redirect the hyphenated version to your site.


*

 

[Dockers]

Hi Ms. Domainer,

The search term is for a generic product. There is no hyphen in the domain at all.

My question boils down to: will Google rank a domain name _that does not have a period_ highly in regards to a search term that _is the exact same as the domain name, with the addition of a period_?

To restate the original example, if there was a search term with good traffic, ex. "17.5 inch TV", would the domain name "175inchTV.com" rank highly for this search term, or would the absence of the period kill it in the SERPs?

Does that make sense? There's not a very concise way to ask this question.

 

[RevolutionaryDomains]

It is our understanding names can not be registered with a period in them, as periods are reserved for domain extensions and domain sub extensions only. To use your example: 175inchtv.com.co or 175inchtv.net.co, etc. Notice the period placement in the .com.co. Therefore, your name example of 17.5inchtv would not be allowed by registrars because of the period.

However, in place of a period one may choose to use a hyphen in the name, such as: 17-5inchtv. Or nothing at all, such as: 175inchtv.

Another example of these types of names are Biblical names. Take Matthew18:19 for example. No colon or period can be used in registrations, so the best name would be Matthew1819. If taken, others may try to register Matthew18-19. Some try to get both and use the lesser of the two, which is the hyphenate, as merely a portal pointed to the main site.

In short, as previously posted, register the non-hyphenate first, if taken go for the hyphenate option, or both if available.

Our apologies for the lengthy post and if this is somewhat confusing. Tougher to articulate than anticipated. All the same, we hope you will find it helpful. Best of luck and keep us posted.

-Regards

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

I see what you're saying.

This is a tough question. Typically, Google will read a period or a hyphen as a space. so, in this case, I would reg the pure domain (no hyphens) and the hyphenated version (17-5inchTV.com--looks ugly, though, but Google will parse the other terms in the domain), and redirect the hyphenated version to the main site. Google will likely interpret "175" as 175 and not 17.5.

17.5inchTV.com would involve creating a subdomain for 5inchTV.com. I don't know how that would work out, though, in terms of SEO.

Don't take my word as gospel; maybe others should weigh in before you decide anything.

*

 

[enlytend]

To restate the original example, if there was a search term with good traffic, ex. "17.5 inch TV", would the domain name "175inchTV.com" rank highly for this search term, or would the absence of the period kill it in the SERPs?

What would hurt it more is an actual person looking at the URL in the search results and thinking it's some really big-a** TV!

The domain name is not the only way you get a site to rank for a keyword. (Sorry for stating the obvious, but domainers in general tend to forget that!)

You could go with 17inchTV - Then use 17.5 in your page title, use 17.5 in your filename, use 17.5, 17 1/2 and even "seventeen and a half" in your content - Googlebot will figure it out. It's smart like that.

I guess you could use the subdomain like Ms Domainer suggested - might help, wouldn't hurt - then you could also have other half-inch screen sizes (although that's a kind of strange concept for a site.)

 

[Dockers]

Thank ya'll for the help!

I think I'll go with the "175inchTV.com" domain name, and 301 the "17-5inchTV.com" domain name (you can 301 a whole domain, not just a page, correct?).

I've used DynaDot's Data Analyzer Tool, and there will be a few type-ins, so I'm hoping one or the other picks those up.

- Note - I just found this thingie, DynaDot's DAT, it's pretty nifty. You submit a list of ".com" domains, and it queries the database of that company that controls the root ".com" server. 24-36 hours later you'll get the results back of what kind of type-in traffic any domain name submitted gets. It's not nearly 100% accurate, but it's much better than guessing. You've gotta spend at least $2 with them to use it, I just regged a domain there for (I believe) 9.79 and I've got access to it now.

Anyways, I'll let ya'll know how it turns out. I'm planning on developing it into a micro niche for the search term, since there's not much competition in the category (most of the first page of google is there due to the authority of the host site) and the bid per click in AdWords is a healthy ~1.75.

Again, thanks for the help with this difficult question. I know a bit about webmastering, but not much about domain-eering. If I can turn a profit of a few bucks a day with this domain, I'm going to be hooked

No one caught the "apple 3.14 (pi)" reference in the first post? :P