How effective is a keyword in the domain name ?

[harv]

If you build a site around one or two
topics (keywords) is it a good tactic
to create a domain name based on these
keywords ?

In other words how useful, for the purpose of
search engine rankings, is it to include a
keyword in your domain name ?

[ihelpyou]

Welcome to the forums harv! :hi:

It can help to have your phrase in the domain name, but I would not worry about it so as to buy other domain names as well. If you do that, you would have to make sure the domains are on separate servers and have Very different content, etc. Not worth it in my opinion.

[Advisor]

If you're creating a brand new site, brand new company, etc., then sure, if possible, purchase a domain name that utilizes your important keyphrase. However, if you currently have a site and company that is already named, simply creating a mirror site at a new keyphrase-rich domain won't help you that much. The engines don't like mirror sites, nor do the directories. They see it as the obvious trick that it is, as there's usually no other purpose to the other domain name, except to try and get high rankings.

Create great keyphrase-rich copy, with Titles and tags to match, and you'll do well with the engines, even if your domain name does not reflect your keyphrases.

Jill

[harv]

Hi Jill,

What I am trying to do is take advantage
of the cheap cost of minisites. I have a
variety of unrelated items that I sell
at my main site so there is an option
of creating domain name sites geared
to these products.

To take an example.

Subliminal message tapes are popular at my
(old) site so I have recently created
www.subliminal-messages.com
hoping that it will score well for the
keyword "subliminal messages"

Plus of course I have "great keyphrase-rich
copy, with Titles and tags" as you mention.


Harvey

[ihelpyou]

Now I am confused Harv. That Url above redirects to a page on another domain. The engines do not like them either. If you are going to use different domains, they must be in their own space on the server and be a separate site. The front page must be a .com and not a subpage, unless all pages are on the same site and are different from each other.

[Sharon & Roy]

Originally posted by harv

In other words how useful, for the purpose of search engine rankings, is it to include a keyword in your domain name ?

Hello harv and welcome to the forums,

The Short Answer:

It is EXTREMELY useful to include your keyword(s) in your domain name.

The Long Answer:

Although our research is primarily connected with Google.com and the fact that we are answering you only in light of Google.com, we will also say that other search engines may currently apply or may eventually apply this particular SEO Techique to their algorithms.

In our humble opinion, the amount of emphesis or weight that Google applies to the words in the domain name are either equal to the HTML Title Tag or else just slightly less than the HTML Title Tag, but more than the <H1> Heading Tag. (Please Note: This is simply our opinion based on our extensive research and not based on any facts that may have been disclosed by Google.)

Also we'll be quick to add how you should create your keyword(s) domain name to take advantage of the boost in ranking consideration that Google currently gives.

Use ...

keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com

Do not use ...

keyword1keyword2keyword3.com

Hyphens must be used to distinguish between the various keywords.

Originally posted by harv

Subliminal message tapes are popular at my (old) site so I have recently created www.subliminal-messages.com hoping that it will score well for the keyword "subliminal messages"

harv, subliminal-messages.com (as opposed to subliminalmessages.com) is perfect, and it will do very well in the rankings, assuming that your page has been optimized and that you get a few links from related pages with your keywords "subliminal messages" in the "Anchor Tag text."

harv, we recommend that you do not submit your new Site to Google.com but that you rather let Google find your new page via a link from a page or pages already in their index.

[harv]

Doug,

=======================================
Now I am confused Harv. That Url above redirects to a page on another domain. The engines do not like them either. If you are going to use different domains, they must be in their own space on the server and be a separate site. The front page must be a .com and not a subpage, unless all pages are on the same site and are different from each other.
=======================================


I don't know the technical details but this is a special "minisite" set-up.

See http://www.bizminisites.com/partners/harv/sales.html
(That's an affiliate link but I am only showing it
to help explain the situation)

Harvey

[harv]

Sharon and Roy,

If I were to design rules for ranking
search engine pages it would make sense
- to me - to put a high value on
keywords in domain names.

So I absolutely agree with everything you say.


>we recommend that you do not submit your
>new Site to Google.com but that you rather
>let Google find your new page via a link
>from a page or pages already in their index

I did a mixture. I linked from my two
main sites which are already in Google
but also submitted the new site. Hope
that won't upset things too much.

I understand that the next Google index
is coming within a few day so it will be
interesting to see how this fares,

Thanks for your advice,

Harvey

[MsSearch]

Having your keywords in your domain name does give you a slight boost in your ranking but it is not 100% necessary. I have had success getting great rankings for some keywords without them appearing in my domain name.

Just my .02 cents