Keyword domain or brandability?

Which matters most?

[ptaylor]

I have a multi-site and my strategy has been to use keyword domains when developing sites. <snip>

I am beginning to slightly rethink my strategy.

<edit>How importand are keywords in your websites domain?</edit>

[edited by: Webwork at 3:37 am (utc) on May 8, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[ptaylor]

Lets try this again, my original post got edited because I used examples of real domain names.

I have a multi-site strategy in a niche area <snip> and my strategy has been to use perfect keyword domains when developing sites. While there is an SEO advantage of having the domain name perfectly match (may include hyphens or sometimes even jumpled) what someone is searching for, this can often come at the expense of having a domain name that is brandable.

I am beginning to slightly rethink my strategy and am trying to weigh the pros/cons of having a brandable domain that is keyword rich, vs. a perfect keyword domain at the sacrifice of its brandability.

I would be curious to get peoples insights on how others view this issue. In particular, how much more effective is a perfect keyword domain than a keyword rich domain? If getting a perfect keyword domain comes at the expense of a hyphen, tld other than a .com does the seo benefits of this justify using a domain that is brandable?

[edited by: Webwork at 1:17 pm (utc) on May 8, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Webwork]

IF your strategy is based upon gaming the search engines with your "keyword domains" then you are at the mercy of the latest search engine algo tweak. There's a fairly broad consensus that you need to carefully manage other factors - besides keywords in your URL - to gain search engine traction.

IF your strategy is to gain whatever additional traffic subject matter domains may gain by virtue of type-in traffic then that's a good idea.

You might take a look at this thread concerning SEO and design: [webmasterworld.com...]

[cerebrum]

Go for a branding domain.

[JollyK]

I went for branding with one keyword included. It made the name of the site both memorable, and gave me a little "boost" for the presence of the keyword. Think "WidgetMeister.com" where the site is about widgets. It's that sort of domain name. It's short, sweet, and to the point, and just unusual enough (with the "Meister" instead of, say, "WidgetWorld" or "WidgetWeb") that it will stick out a bit more in people's minds.

If I could get widgets.com, I would, but barring that, I've managed to rank number one, or at least on page 1, for around 200+ searches with the word "widget" in it, based on the page title, URL, and, of course, contents.

Personally, I go for having hundreds of searches bring me up on page 1 for "blue widgets" and "red widgets" than having me come up on page 3 for "widgets."

Plus, at this point, there are quite a lot of searches specifically for "widgetmeister" which I think shows that the brand has "taken." If that makes any sense. :-) Anyway, that's worked pretty well for me.

For my next site, I'm actually considering a bizarre, pronounceable, not-a-real-word for the domain name to see how that works brandability wise. I think there are more aspects to ranking than just the domain name, and with so many buy-online-phentermine-widgets-poker-naked-chicks.com domains out there, the domain name has got to be at least somewhat devalued, or on the way there.

JK

[edit to say actually none of my sites contain the word "Meister." That was just an example of a kind of unusual word coupled with a keyword. ]

[Lobo]

I like keyword domains that are brandable...

if you have to hyphon a name then go for pure new brand.

[cerebrum]

I have a weird domain and so I choosed branding route. Now I can see many people searching for this BS domain in overture tool.