Does Domain Name Matter?

Is it really Important?

[DeCal]

Is there really any benefit of having a domain name that may be related to you site/product other that the easy that people could remember the address?

Thanks All

Dean

[robertito62]

I just spotted two sites whose domain was:
number#number#.com

PR6 on both.
page one results on many KW searches.
Homepage is mainly links with little content.

Do domain names relate to product? no
Do domain names include keywords? no

Successfull? yes.

[DeCal]

So the ONLY benefit to having a good domain name is that your users would remember your site easier?

Dean

[hayluke]

'So the ONLY benefit to having a good domain name is that your users would remember your site easier?'

probably but it can be a BIG benefit depending on what sort of site it is..

[DeCal]

i was only interested in general.
As a rule though, the domain is only an advantage for this reason, nothing at all to do with it getting found easier on search engines then?

Dean

[petertdavis]

What you chose for your domain is absolutely an important thing to consider. But, your strategy in selecting a domain is dependant on your overall marketing strategy for your site. If you're going for keyword positioning, and expect to get all of your traffic from search engines, you should select your domain name to this consideration. Make your domain keyword1-keyword2.com or something of the sort. However, if you're running a local restuarant, or something of that sort, you want to have a domain name that people will relate to your business. Restuarantname.com would be ideal.

It's also important to get a .com, if you expect much type in traffic. I have lost a lot of traffic on a site that I have the .org, and a cyber squatter has the .com. I'll get emails from people asking what happened to my site, that it redirects to some affiliate site. It's also important if you use a hyphen in your domain, to get the un-hyphenated version too. I'm stuck in a dilemma with another site that I have a perfect hyphenated name for keyword optimization, but some crappy affiliate site has the un-hyphenated version.

[DeCal]

The problem i suffer is the company is a web based information site. I dont make money from the users but from the companies that i list information for. The domain i have is for example: www.companyuk.com, i cant get www.company.com or either in .co.uk format, what would you suggest for this?

Will it be worth buying www.company-uk.com even though i want to market www.companyuk.com?

[petertdavis]

Is company-uk the keyword that your customers use at search engines? If not, then why bother?

[DeCal]

company is the word they would search on, but i couldn't get it so i had to settle for companyuk.com

[petertdavis]

If your company name is trademarked, and it's a cyber squatter that has the domain, it maybe would be worth it to extract the domain from them.

[DeCal]

is this easily done though?

[petertdavis]

Maybe. How do you define 'easily'? :)

[sun818]

Inbound link text is important [webmasterworld.com]. One benefit is that any time your URL is converted to a clickable link, the link text will contain the keywords you want.

[Crazy_Fool]

decal - if you have registered company as a trademark and someone else has company.co.uk and is not using it (reserved / for sale etc) you may be able to get it through the nominet dispute resolution service. if they can demonstrate use prior to yours or prior to your trademark registration, you may not be entitled to the domain name. be very careful as the other registrant may be entitled to your domain. it's a complicated area.

check www.nic.uk for more information about nominet's dispute resolution service.
check www.patent.gov.uk for more information about uk trademarks.
if in doubt, go see a trademark lawyer.

[John_Caius]

Keywords in the domain name remain a very important ranking factor in Google, partly also because they then turn up in the link text of incoming links. Search on Google for 'hotels paris france' and you'll see what I mean. Most or all of those sites are just affiliates for established online booking companies. The actual online bookers themselves typically have less spammy names and don't have a hope of ranking highly for this kind of term. No matter of course, as it's their affiliates ranking high with the spammy domain names.

If you want to get high ranking for your keywords in SEs then register www.keyword1-keyword2.com. If you want to cultivate a reputation as a quality site then register www.classyname.com - then you'll get traffic from people remembering your classyname. Who needs to find Google or Amazon in a search engine? One problem with the first approach is that people might not click on you because the domain name makes you look like a spammer. Also you're pretty vulnerable to changes in the Google algorithm for your future success.

[DeCal]

would companynameuk.com be just as effective as companyname.com?

Does the uk part really matter?

Regards

Dean

[Brett_Tabke]

I think it depends upon the type of site. If you are affiliate an ecom based where you are going to have to get on your knees with credit card in hand to get quality targeted traffic, then the domain name as kw is pretty important. If you are building a long term viable user based repeat visitor high quality content site, then only worry about the domain name as it relates to branding.

[DeCal]

great info, thanks

Regards

Dean

[txbakers]

So the moral of the story is....... if I buy:

kw1-kw2-kw3.com I look foolish, but will show up higher in the SE.

kw1kw2kw3.com looks more professional and better reflects the business name.

Is that right? Are those my choices?

And, either way, I should probably buy both for protection.

[dazz]

i have a kw1kw2kw3.com domain and it ranks great on the SE's. Its all in the content and inbound links. Try to get the inbound links like "kw1 kw2 kw3" and your site will rank great. Dont bother with the ' - '

[hakre]

i can only underline what dazz said.

but often, there are more then 3 or 4 keywords you're interested in. the most it makes i think are links with the keywords in it. and keyworded pages at all. most people forget that the meta keyword and description are fabulous for search engine ranking. with domain, keywords, description, page content and links i think you can figure this out within a week.

you need to site which is also ranked good and which links you, too. that will push you up in google, too.

[tennismaster]

Hi,

I have a new site (3 months) with a PR5 in Google.

I am now in the top 5 for many of the less competitive
keywords, but I am struggling with the more competitive keywords.
All of the top 50 sites in Google for this keyword have
the keyword in their domain name, and I am starting
to think that it may not be possible to rank any higher
without a domain name change. A lot of these sites have
few or no links,their keyword density is low, title
and description do not contain the keyword, yet they are
ranked much higher than me. It seems the domain name
must be the cause.

Any ideas?

Also please could you clarify what the `anchor` text is?
Is it the hyperlink part of a text link, or the description
in the text link, or both?

[DeCal]

Hmmm, i thought i had understood that domain name for search engine usability wasn't important until i read this at spiderhelp.com:

Having your primary keyword phrase or two in your domain name certainly helps with your search engine ranking. Certain search engine or directory algorithmns may factor in the occurence of a keyword in your domain name.

Can someone advise?