"buy+keyword" good or bad domain name?

[john5000]

I'm thinking of starting an online shop, and the domain could be in the form of "buy+keyword".

The keyword is highly searched and very relevant as it is the name of the general category of products I'd be offering.

Do you think this type of domain starting with the word "buy" is tacky?
Would shoppers feel its over-commercialized and impersonal?
Or would shoppers not care as long as the site is good with good products and prices?

[Webwork]

Ever hear of BestBuy.com? ;)

Likely a small but memorable part of the user experience.

If the WWW keeps chugging along and getting bigger each year it might prove to be a wise move 5 years out, when everyone and their 2 sisters and a brother are practicing the fine and dark arts of SEO.

[john5000]

Best Buy is great because it's alliterated and very short. In my case, I wonder if a more brandable name would be better. Then again, my "best+keyword" name might become brand-recognizable in the long-term, especially since this market has few big players.

Webwork, just curious, do you have any prediction for the importance of domain names five years from now. Will people still be searching the web in similar fashion as today?

[draggar]

To answer your own question, just look back 5 years. Is what we're doing today the same as we did 5 years ago? Nope. Everything changes, and it won't stop changing. The rule is if you can get onto the change train fast enough, you're set. If not, you'll have to try to catch the next train.

[AlchemyV]

I think it depends on your exit strategy. I spoke to a domainer earlier today about buying his domain name and he refused on the grounds that his "country+topic" domain was a good brand name. He wanted £12K for it which was absolutely laughable given the search engines barely new about it. he was earning no income off it and he clearly had no SEO skills given what done to date on it - nothing.

So to conclude, if you're going to buy that domain with the hope of selling big, then good luck - a fool and their money are soon parted - you just have to find the fool or someone who has too much cash.

Otherwise I would just buy a domain name for your shops brand because that kind of on page SEO is just a very small part for what it takes to rank, and thats before we address converting using your backend development.

[john5000]

Ok, never mind, I just came up with a better more brandable name. After three days of spewing out atleast a couple hundred potential names, I finally had one pop into my head that is descriptive, short memorable, and available... basically its perfect. Now maybe I should get "buy+keyword" anyway just to block the competition :-)