Domain names only sites in search terms

Are domain names playing a more important role?

[Rx Recruiters]

Do anybody think that domain names are playing a larger role in the search results than they have been? I've started noticing several sites ranked in the top 5 for very competitive terms - just because of their domain names. For example, when searching for "blue widgets", the site "blue widgets dot com" is in the top five, although it is just a parking page. I've searched several "hot" terms in the past few weeks, and this seems to be the trend (or at least much more than it has been).

Not that I am complaining - I registered a name (new registration) a couple of months ago, and just left it at the register's parking page, and it is has been showing up #5 for a highly competitive search phrase for the past month. However, if I were one of the sites that actually cared about ranking for that term, I wouldn't be happy with the results, esp. since it is ranking over several sites that have million dollar marketing budgets, and advertise heavily for the search term. As it is, it is just a domain I thought sounded cool - I have no interest in building a site.

I believe that this makes domain names much more valuable, esp. if this trend hold true - although it makes you question tha validity of the results.

[sagerock]

"I've started noticing several sites ranked in the top 5 for very competitive terms - just because of their domain names."

I'm not certain you can make that claim absolutely. There could be many factors that contribute to that ranking.

One possibility could be that the links to the site use the key phrase as the hypertext link. That actually might be the main contributing factor.

I'm sure it helps having the key phrase in the domain. But there are probably other things adding to the ranking.

[Rx Recruiters]

"I'm not certain you can make that claim absolutely. There could be many factors that contribute to that ranking."

Oh, I definitely know that, in most cases, the domain name may only be a small part of the ranking parameters. My point was that I am seeing this more often now in the results than I had previously. In some cases, small amateur sites with great domain names (or parked only pages), are out-ranking the more established authority sites, and the only thing that I can see that would cause this is the domain name.

My example was the new domain I had registered myself. I know it has no inbound links (a new name), no content (a registrar parked page), but it has ranked in the top five ever since Google spidered it for a very competitive search term. (Where the search phrase might be "blue widgets", the domain I registered is something like "awesome blue widgets".)

Just an observation.

If only it that easy for the site that I actually devote my time to! LOL : )

[edited by: Rx_Recruiters at 8:05 pm (utc) on Feb. 19, 2007]

[sagerock]

I hear ya. Maybe you should get into the "blue widget" industry if a domain name by itself is sufficient to out rank actual sites that have content.