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The main example on display was GO.com spit-canning years of branding for the Overture brand and business model.
After this stuck in my mind for a while, I started to disagree more and more - but there's something else to the matter as well - something we may have overlooked.
Let us not forget that, without the foundation of the BUSINESS World, the SEO World would not exist. Having said this, 70% of us are aware of how important it is to have a strong brand and 98% if us are aware of how important it is to have keyword-relevant inbound links.
Recip. links are often the name of a company (like in the case of Yahoo! or DMOZ), not necessarily the keywords that the company is targeting... UNLESS, the keywords are part of the company's brand name.
This brings me to the conclusion that a keyword-relevant BUSINESS NAME would lead to a keyword-relevant DOMAIN NAME - and finally, keyword-relevant inbound links.
Just a thought.
This brings me to the conclusion that a keyword-relevant BUSINESS NAME would lead to a keyword-relevant DOMAIN NAME - and finally, keyword-relevant inbound links.
That's pretty much on the money from what I have seen in my industry. I cannot beat my competitors for love nor money due to the fact that their business name is keyword loaded and is also their domain name. Anyone who says its a passe practice is overlooking a very important fact ... it works on Google in particular and I can show you several examples.
When I buy a domain name I think 'readability'. I think of it on the side of a lorry. I think of it on a billboard. I think 'How will Joe Public remember it? In short I think REAL world.
If I have a site describing the rise and fall of Napoleon I have a number of choices. I could go for something like
- 'historystuff.com', or maybe
- 'riseandfallofnapoleon.com, or,
- 'rise-and-fall-of-napoleon.com'.
Guess what? I ALWAYS go for the latter. It's obvious why... descriptive of what the site is AND easy to remember. Punter friendly.
Yes - I have had half a dozen people crying 'spam technique', 'too many hyphens', etc. Rubbish! That's transfixion with SEO.
I would always recommend going for the domain name that best describes the site and is most easily remembered.
keywords
easy to remember
brandable
Say you have a major new section of a site. Which is better?
rise-and-fall-of-napoleon.historystuff.com
or
historystuff.com/rise-and-fall-of-napoleon.htm
or
create a whole new site) rise-and-fall-of-napoleon.com and link to it from historystuff.com?
I don't think the URL is a huge factor in SE ranking, but it does have to do with the way people link to you AND what you have named the site / company.
One domain as a hub, such as "world-history-world.com" which could house general info (quality content - at least 25 pages deep) - and then link out to "rise-and-fall-of-napoleon.com" which hosts the 15-??? pages of that subject-specific information.
The reasoning behind this is:
*** Both the hub site, "world-history-world", and the subject-specific domains will have keywords that match the Directory's category that it's placed in making it rank higher than ones that don't.
*** You might be able to squeeze more than one inbound from DMOZ from several history categories.
*** Relevant in-bound links from the hub site.
*** You can target searches through the subject-specific domains while covering general searches through the hub.
*** You can also gain a bigger overall presence and brand each specific site with the hub's logo.
This is an interesting topic… How do you think sub.domains will be filtered or what is your definition in this case. Excluded – I don’t think this will happen. Many sites use sub.domains for content management.
I agree with JamesR <--what he said :)
In addition and in my own words - I think it all comes down to content and the site alone. A domain name that is theme based in my view just adds to the frosting on the cake – where points matter ever one counts.
Equally though, the art of SEO/SEP (and I am new at this) theme based domain names don’t provide that much more. Content is king so I’ve come to engrave in my mind… You can have a plainname.com site but if your content rings bells – Engines will index you and the traffic will come.
It is a tough call… To theme a domain name or not?
eboda
<Sorry Scott. Including content from other sites is a violation of our TOS [webmasterworld.com]>
[edited by: WebGuerrilla at 12:07 am (utc) on Aug. 3, 2002]
If these issues are at odds, I'd go with the keywords in the Company name, and a unique domain name.
Just like in print, radio, or television, until you have unique brand and recognition or at least awareness, a descriptive company name is quite helpful.
How do you think sub.domains will be filtered or what is your definition in this case.
Sub-domains won't be excluded, but filtered to the point of just being another page. Having numerous sub-domains, in my experience, is like having more than one site - it even gives you more physical listings on Google, as well, instead of indexing them under "Similar Pages". This, I predict, will be a thing of the past and sub-domains will eventually be worth less than they are now.
On the other hand, targeting features of various search engines would be a smart way to use sub-domains. For example, upon noticing that Google was testing the Glossary arena - I made 27 page glossaries for all of my sites and linked them as "glossary.domain.com" pages. This is beneficial to me because I feel it helps guide the spider/bot in finding content that caters to a special feature on that spider/bots search engine.
I think it all comes down to content and the site alone. A domain name that is theme based in my view just adds to the frosting on the cake
"Covering all bases" visibilty-wise in a business plan is what it is. It'll make a lot of things easier for you in the long run, and will also help the client/customer immediately identify your products or services (which is very important).
Content is king so I’ve come to engrave in my mind…
True to an extent - this is how you would make your site sticky after the user finds it - but content takes on a lesser meaning if the users cannot find you under 20 sites that "over-content" you - or worse, have more inbound links with relevant keywords within them than you.
It is a tough call… To theme a domain name or not?
IMHO, gotta be done to get the most out of your other SEO efforts. It's not a stand alone tactic - but then again - nothing in SEO is stand alone... it takes a successful collaboration of keyword-relevant content, links, ect. to get those top positions... reinforcing keyword relevancy with your actual domain, and/or brand, name can do nothing but help your campaign.
Name the company ABC big blue water widgets (Assumng some the important keyword phrases are in there) and make the domain name abcwidgets.com.
That way the name of the company is descriptive, you get the anchor text in incoming links and someone can easily remember the url from a print ad.
If it will only be promoted in the engines I'd consider a keyword dashed domain but if there is going to be any money spent on online branding an simple easy to remember domain has its benefits.
You might be able to squeeze more than one inbound from DMOZ from several history categories
<side note>
I thought you could only get one link from DMOZ? Is that not true?
</side note>
