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For all intensive purposes, right now, I don't want to register both with Yahoo. So for the first go, I have to pick one of the other. They will be separate and distinct sites, hosted on different servers with different IP addresses, they will just share a shopping cart back-end.
I'd like opinions on which domain should be submitted to yahoo.
Thanks
Get www.your-best-keyword-phrase.com and make that your root url.
Redirect your other url to that one.
Submit www.your-best-keyword-phrase.com to Yahoo!
Question about companyname.com: Is the keyword used at all in the company name, aside from the domain name? You will want the keyword in the title, and you'll possibly also be submitting to DMOZ when promoting the site, especially if you're only promoting one of them right now, as well as search engines, for sure. So you will want the keyword in the page title someplace, aside from the Yahoo listing.
For something like decorstuff.com or 20candles.com, if the company name is Decor Stuff Candles and it's reflected on the site, including the graphics, it's OK, imho. Otherwise my personal choice would be 20 Candles as the name of the site. If the site is selling candles, "decor stuff" might not be the most helpul if you're only promoting one site for now.
Also, I end up with little hassles occasionally with running them together, as in when on a site they keep using wordwordkeyword.com - I break it down to refer to "We at Word Word Keyword..." instead of "We at "wordwordkeyword.com..." and that's in the title also.
Think of all the keywords you will be targetting (including expanding on this over the long term) and determine which of the sites is most applicable. If you feel its an either/or, perhaps you could consolidate it all into the single URL as suggested
It can somewhat depend on whether branding is wanted for the company name itself, and how it's handled, should there end up being links pointing to the different domains.
The simple solution is to have your brand-building domain name permanently redirected to your keyword domain.
Chuladi, definitely read around before doing anything.
Absolutely, there are several factors, particularly when it comes to the branding issue. No doubt keywords in the domain can factor in, plus rememberability and hyphenation. Some are pro, some are con. Especially where there are double hypens. Sometimes it's a family name and reputation that's being branded, then there's typing into the address bar and telling it by phone. There's one flower site with a really good URL with keywords that's promoted, but it's confused with another that's similar, and the actual name of the site that's redirected is all but forgotten. I think it depends on the individual case.
It's a big decision with lots to consider, and I'm interested personally. There are two domain names (totally different type of products) I love - no keywords unless they're added on, either with our without hyphens. Both are incredibly catchy and would be easily remembered without a doubt and both are also very good for branding, as well as marketing-enhancing. They would be easy to remember on their own, but that recognition would be diluted if other words were added on. It's a very tough decision, they couldn't be better for the product lines they'd promote. BUT no keywords. One existing site has ONE only keyword rich possible domain name available, but while the actual site name could be easily remembered, the one with the keywords wouldn't be.
While keyword in the domain factors into it, it might not be 100% primary in some cases. I doublechecked under 4 categories at Yahoo, deliberately different - candles, baby clothing, data recovery and free personals. It's a mixture that comes back for the first page on all four, but without doubt that main keyword MUST be in the title, whether it's in the domain name or not.
Question about companyname.com: Is the keyword used at all in the company name, aside from the domain name?
No, the keyword is not in the company name. My company name is rather generic and I used a variant of that for the domain name.
If the site is selling candles, "decor stuff" might not be the most helpul if you're only promoting one site for now.
yes, you are right, and this is a close analogy, it would be like chosing between acmedecor (or acmehome) and 20lamps. Because Acme is the name of the company, it was used in the domain, and because lamps are not all inclusive of the product line, lamps was not a keyword in the domain name.
perhaps you could consolidate it all into the single URL as suggested
And also, the entire focus of the second site is the price. If you went to $20 Lamps.com, you'd expect to see $20 lamps, not $40 lamps and $50 tables and $5 candles and so on.
Get www.your-best-keyword-phrase.com and make that your root url. Redirect your other url to that one.
Many people use that strategy. I have mixed feelings about hyphenated keyword rich domain names just for the sake of search engine rankings.
I don't know whether the traffic gained by having such an advantage would outweigh the loss of branding and the difficulty of having a domain name like that-- spelling it, ease of remembering, hyphenated domains are difficult to convey when speaking to someone, because most forget the hyphen.
And I think it has other concerns, because it's not the name that's going to show up on the credit card statement-- a potential can of worms, because the domain name is difficult to remember.
I can control Acmedecor and 20lamps, but I can't control lamps-clocks-candles-decor.com.
I think that strategy works really well for affiliate sites, since they are not selling the product at all and do not have those concerns.
It can somewhat depend on whether branding is wanted for the company name itself, and how it's handled, should there end up being links pointing to the different domains.
Yes, branding is definitely wanted. I think branding is crucial. And both domains are brandable.
The simple solution is to have your brand-building domain name permanently redirected to your keyword domain.
I didn't get that one. Because if you redirect brand.com to keyword.com, didn't you just lose the branding?
They would be easy to remember on their own, but that recognition would be diluted if other words were added on...but while the actual site name could be easily remembered, the one with the keywords wouldn't be.
this is exactly why I came here, because you guys have such a thorough understanding of the issues involved.
