SEO - Domain name importance

[allendesign]

Found a new SEO site with quality info. There is a section about DN importance about half way down that was pretty interesting. Thought I'd share. http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f41

 

[Spade]

Wow, this is definetly some great information. Good find!

 

[gazzip]

Nice link - thanks

I'm not sure I agree with this part though

Keyword Use in Domain Name

Using a keyword in the domain name is only helpful if you separate the words with hyphens.

General speculation is that too many hyphens might trigger a trust issue with the domain, so more than one or two hyphens is not recommended. I agree with that one

A good brand name is always better than a keyword-filled domain.

Any thoughts ?

.

 

[Spade]

Although im no specialist in SEO - I do agree with Gazzip, that was one statement that caught me off guard, but you'll notice its only one of the "gurus" who says this... I hate hyphens... I cant imagine they would help.

 

[allendesign]

I agree. The hyphen part kind of goes against the domaining rules a bit. I thought some of the other info was interesting though. I always thought a keyword filled domain was best. It's the only way get listed as "premium". :hehe:

 

[Sameh]

very usful article for newbies in SEO

 

[Jeff]

very usful article for newbies in SEO

Agreed. :tu:

This is important, IMHO. :gl:

Christine Churchill: If you have time to do only one SEO action on your site, take the time to create good titles.

Though by no means an SEO Guru™ ... I've noticed that sites with good, strategic, keyword-rich, and above all, relevant TITLES are typically right up there in related Google searches, IMHO. :music:
Best of Luck.
-Jeff

 

[shockie]

good find... i've had search engine reoptimization on my to do list for a while, lol

 

[gazzip]

Agreed. :tu:
and above all, relevant TITLES are typically right up there in related Google searches, IMHO. :music:

Yeah, Google loves good page titles for sure, along as its not too many words/letters.

Its amazing how many people fail to put decent page titles on their sites, even big companies.


.

 

[allendesign]

My new theory is:
If your going to develop a site and want to get indexed in the first page...

- Choose a name with the highest ovt search possible with the lowest yahoo frequency possible. I'll explain why at the end...
- Have a title tag that includes your search phrase.(150 char or less)
- Write the longest meta description possible (must be under 200 char)
Use complete sentences!
- Use other good ovt keywords in your content and keywords list. These words must appear in your content or you'll be flagged as spammy!!! (300 - 500 char max)

This should get you indexed at the top.
Why the lowest yahoo freq you ask? I thought high freq was a good in choosing a name. Well, if you find a name with an ovt of let's say 1000 - and a yahoo return of 300,000,000. Sounds good right? No. I'd rather find a name with an ovt of 500 and a yahoo freq of 7. You'll only be competing with 7 other sites for top placement rather that 300,000,000. First page placement virtually guaranteed!

:imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho:
anybody agree with me on this one?

 

[Damion]

In regards to Page Titles the indication of 150 char is way to much.
The maximum amount of characters is 63 since everything above that will be in most cases truncated anyways and is too much to be concise.

If you see a page Title in the SERPs ending with ... it's truncated and happens in most cases around 63-65 chars.
My personal opinion based on seeing SERP results is not to exceed 63 characters, you could push it a little more and who knows you may fall through but 63 is a safe number and I'll rather be safe to have a nice clean alluring Page Title that is very important in optimizing your click through rate as well.

Page titles are not only important for the search engines but for people as well since this catches their eye and will be a factor to distinguish yourself from the others below and or on top of you in the SERPs.

Why the lowest yahoo freq you ask? I thought high freq was a good in choosing a name. Well, if you find a name with an ovt of let's say 1000 - and a yahoo return of 300,000,000. Sounds good right? No. I'd rather find a name with an ovt of 500 and a yahoo freq of 7. You'll only be competing with 7 other sites for top placement rather that 300,000,000. First page placement virtually guaranteed!

I would have to disagree with you here, the in your example of 300,000,000 pages you mentioned are references found but are not actual competing pages.

Too give yourself an estimate how many pages can be regarded as competition you can do various advanced operator searches to find out which pages have an indication of being a competitor. Applicable to Google.

Advanced operators as:

intitle:"insert keyword here"
inanchor:"insert keyword here"

and a combo of the two,

intitle:"insert keyword here" inanchor:"insert keyword here"

gives you a better understanding how many site owners SEO wise try to tweak their pages with optimized page titles and building anchor backlinks.

It's not an exact estimate but it filters what you're up against to a more accurate overview then just a regular search.

BTW, doesn't this thread belong in Search Engines instead of Domain Discussion? *Cough* Mods *Cough*

 

[whitebark]

"Using a keyword in the domain name is only helpful if you separate the words with hyphens."

Ten years ago maybe. Unless your domain has some confusing letters in it or is made up of a long series of keywords (freecreditunionbanknorthamerica or some such silly thing) to trip up the search engine - hyphens are not necessary.

Google, Yahoo, MSN etc all know antivirusprotection.ca means antivirus protection. It will also bring it up for anti virus protection.

Overall a good article but not perfect imho.

 

[allendesign]

okay- I said it was my new theory. I didn't claim that it was my best new theory. I came up with this one before I finished my coffee. :hehe:
Damion is right about Page Titles. I said 150 MAX. It is true that no more than 63 is ideal (although not mandatory). Thought I had solved the worlds problems... Oh well... back to the drawing board!

 

[Damion]

Let me know when you cracked the formula

Wouldn't that be something?
Getting sites ranked for all the competitive keywords/phrases you can think of with sites that are fully prepared for the traffic to come with affiliate links and PPC ads?

*sigh*.....

 

[cybertonic]

I also confirm there is no need to use hyphen for G/Y/M recognize the terms in the domain name.
We have a lot of good generic domains based in 2 terms without hyphen top ranked for their domain search term.

...


In the past having a keyword in the domain name was a real plus to get top ranked for this term. After Google started to fight index spamming and this parameter was no longer of importance. I noticed that lately Google is giving again some preference to this.

Did you notice the same?

...

By the way if you have some home and garden sites you want to get a serious ranking push PM me. We have a site doing miracles.

 

[gl3nnx]

yeah too much hyphens is not easy to remember, and i hate it too, but search engines specially MSN loves keywords in domain.

Although im no specialist in SEO - I do agree with Gazzip, that was one statement that caught me off guard, but you'll notice its only one of the "gurus" who says this... I hate hyphens... I cant imagine they would help.

 

[cache]

in some degree this is true. You need both "supply" and "demand". The
supply is the yahoo freq and the demand is the ovt. But this is not a linear
relationship, the first and the highest factor is ovt, if ovt is higher, then
regardless the freq, you should choose the higher ovt one. If the ovt being
equal, the you can look at freq.

...
This should get you indexed at the top.
Why the lowest yahoo freq you ask? I thought high freq was a good in choosing a name. Well, if you find a name with an ovt of let's say 1000 - and a yahoo return of 300,000,000. Sounds good right? No. I'd rather find a name with an ovt of 500 and a yahoo freq of 7. You'll only be competing with 7 other sites for top placement rather that 300,000,000. First page placement virtually guaranteed!

:imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho: :imho:
anybody agree with me on this one?

 

[gazzip]

yeah too much hyphens is not easy to remember, and i hate it too, but search engines specially MSN loves keywords in domain.

It seems MSN just loves keywords, anywhere & everywhere :hehe:

Google seemed to be that way too a couple of years ago, now it seems much more weighted on quality content and incoming links from what I can tell.
(although it does like keyword domains too)

I have got a few websites ranked very high in Google for lots of different keywords/search phrases but it seems much much harder to do lately.

JMO


.

 

[allendesign]

I agree with Gazzip... Some of my sites are in the top 4 on MSN and just buried in google.

 

[Name Trader]

Does G stop indexing after 63 chars in the title, or does it index the whole 150 chars? Oftentimes I've done my best description to 63 chars but gone beyond that to get more keywords in the title.