Using a domain name comprising a popular keyword

[RionM]

Hello everyone,

I have two questions:
nr 1. How great is the effect of turning a populair keyword into a domainname?
nr 2. What's the effect of turning a populair keyword into a dommainname in relation to search engine Google?
Like jobs -> jobs.com

Tnx.

Leon

[buckworks]

Keywords in the domain name can have positive effects on ranking. However, that's no automatic ticket to the top, it's only one factor among many that could affect your ranking.

Keyword-phrase domain names based on phrases that people actually look for tend to be very expensive these days, if they're for sale at all.

Another problem is that a keyword-based domain name could create major limitations for the business ideas that would make sense for the domain in the future. In many cases, it would be better forward thinking to use keywords in directory or file names rather than tying your hands with a keyword-based domain name.

Every case will be different, but compare carefully whether it would be a more productive use of your resources to acquire a keyword-phrase domain name, or to invest in savvy marketing for a domain name that would give you more flexibility in the future.

[IanTurner]

Personally I would always go for the short term gain associated with a good keyword domain over longer term considerations.

[buckworks]

I'd agree with that IF the keyword domain could be obtained cheaply enough.

[IanTurner]

I had assumed that RionM already had a good keyword domain, from his original qustion, and was wondering what to do with it.

[RionM]

First of all, thank you all for your respones so far.

So to sum it all up:
- Go for the keyword combination if it's cheap (when it's populair to some degree)
- Realise the limits, but would actually work best with a niche market.

These are good examples of the keywordcombination that i talk about:
1. example widget, broad: 12.100 a month & exact: 4400 a month.
2. widget example, broad: 2900 a month & exact: 140 a month.
Let's say the 2nd keywordcombination is still open/free and i'm considering to buy a domainname for it: examplewidget.com.
How succesfull would my website, ads ->revenue perform?
Are there minimum requirements for these kind of things?

Thank you,

RionM

[edited by: Webwork at 12:46 pm (utc) on Oct. 3, 2009]
[edit reason] No domain specifics please, per Charter [/edit]

[HuskyPup]

Realise the limits, but would actually work best with a niche market

Yep, a generic name works well for an established or an authority site but for a keyword name I keep that keyword specifically for that widget and as much as I can that purports to it.

Trying to guess revenue performance is extremely difficult however if you are referring to AdSense I'll give you a rough idea of what three of my small keyword domain sites have done so far in 2009:

Site 1 - Just over 23,000 page impressions, just over 360 clicks and earnings of almost $70.00

Site 2 - Just under 23,000 page impressions, just over 500 clicks and earnings of almost $120.00

Site 3 - Just over 18,000 page impressions, just over 450 clicks and earnings of just over $130.00

So you can see the variations can be extremely wide and these earnings are for sites all about the same basic subject matter.

Get a couple of hundred niche sites like these and you're up and running and especially so if the information is evergreen and realistically only need checking every now and again.

[buckworks]

Get a couple of hundred niche sites like these

I prefer the approach of building a limited number of sites and developing them to become authoritative.

I target niches by means of optimized directories / categories / pages within the main site, rather than a swarm of "little" sites.

[usedagain]

Grab one keyword based domain for the application you are interested in using google keyword tool. [adwords.google.com] Build a basic site on this with some content and get it indexed, add it to webmaster tools etc. If it actually goes somewhere, you've perhaps found a good place to enter. Buy more keyword domains until such time as revenue allows you to buy higher priced domains. If you look at all the big corps, they own the top names for their business because they can afford to purchase those names (after the fact).