Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
What I mean unbeatable is that you will need 10 good links to rank first on google on your keyword whereas your competitor that doesn'y have the keyword in the web adress will need around 50 or more to be positionned just after you ?
Has anybody noticed that too ?
Do you believe all are as effective? (.com, .net, .org)
I see no evidence that the domain extension (the TLD) is a direct factor in Google's ranking algorithm - at least for the big three international TLDs. Also, Google reps have consistently said that over the years.
I imagine dashes are still preferred, but do underscores work?
Underscore are working better than they used to, but dashes are still best for separating keywords in the filepath.
Do you believe all are as effective? (.com, .net, .org)
Yes, but if an exact match .com is already #1 and .net or .org will be hard pressed to move it aside. You rarely see the .com, .net and .org exact match versions rank 1-2-3 which leads me to believe they compete directly against each other to be listed at all.
I've recently seen an exact match .info that had been entrenched at #1 for at least 6 years begin to fall, down to 15th and falling still.
I've also seen many brand names take 1st spot away from exact match keyword urls. I don't recommend having a copyright protected word in your domain name, the internet seems to be getting more strict on people who "borrow" brand names in their domain names.
Keywords in the TLD is only one element - dont forget the other 75 :)
I see no evidence that the domain extension (the TLD) is a direct factor in Google's ranking algorithm - at least for the big three international TLDs.
Country specific domains do help. (e.g. .co.uk will beat an exact match .com site no problem in Google.co.uk)
Also, .org still gets preference on Google.co.uk searches. There seems to be an automatic trustrank attachment to that TLD (especially .org.uk!). I bought a few and had no problems jumping past much better sites.
Yes, but if an exact match .com is already #1 and .net or .org will be hard pressed to move it aside. You rarely see the .com, .net and .org exact match versions rank 1-2-3 which leads me to believe they compete directly against each other to be listed at all.
Interesting observation. I am curious how that might extend to genres where none of the domains are top ten. Would your theory hold that the first guy to get into the top positions takes the throne of sorts?
However, if you have FuzzyWidgets.com, that makes a BIG difference to ranking - it's all about having the exact phrase match.
This is a timely thread, as I'm just about to buy a new domain.
Should I go for fuzzywidgets.com? Or fuzzy-widgets.com?
There is no issue with word confusion in may case (balls-hopping or ball-shopping), and my whole domain isn't very long (1st word 4 letters, 2nd word 5 letters) so this isn't an issue either. It's just a question of which will help most with my rankings.
Any preference?
Bek.
It used to be that underscores were a major problem and did not count as separators at all. This is because they need to be seen as characters in some technical searches, such as [ _vti_cnf ]. You can see the difference in Google's treatment by doing a search on [ - ] which gets ZERO results, and [ _ ], which has over 1 billion results.
A while ago Google added some extra logic to support the many URLs that use underscores as keyword separators, but hyphens (dashes) are still the most straightforward and least likely to cause a site unseen complications.
By the way, it is not a major difference today. It's definitely not worth going through the ranking agony of changing all your existing URLs just to change underscores to dashes.
By the way, it is not a major difference today. It's definitely not worth going through the ranking agony of changing all your existing URLs just to change underscores to dashes.
I'd say there was enough of a difference to still take into consideration changing NOW and NOT later. The number one flaw with underscores in file paths? The underscore is invisible in many instances when linked. For some, it looks like a space. That would be one reason.
For me, I would always recommend changing from underscores to hyphens. It's a simple on site 301 that should sort itself out in a week or two after changing. I personally would NOT promote a site that utilized underscores in file paths.
Ya, I know, WebmasterWorld uses underscores. That doesn't make it right! ;)
From what I have read, it is better not to separate words if you do not have to as Google is pretty good in figuring them out, but others may have different opinion. In any case, for the user it is easier to type in the domain name in the address bar without hyphen.
And if you decide to use hyphen in the domain name, I would buy the non-hyphenated domain as well.
I think what Bali_Freak is asking is not whether he should use underscore or hyphen, but whether he should string the words together with no separator or should he separate the words with a hyphen. From what I have read, it is better not to separate words <snip>
That is what I meant, thanks.
And you have answerd my question clearly too. I should have mentioned previously that one of the words is a proper noun (a place name) but I guess this doesn't make any difference.
Unfortunately for us, we didn't have the keywords in our domain name, and we fell anywhere from 3-10. All the top ones have the keywords in their domain names -- even though we've got more quality backlinks than them.
The only 1 that gets into the top 3 (though never #1 - ranking jumps from 2-5) is the site of the most popular print magazine in our broader segment, which has an insane amount of links. They too doesn't have the exact keyword in their domain name
The #1 in the segment since after Big Daddy (I think) is the site with the exact keyword in their domain name, even though their links are only 1/8 of what we have, and not that many quality links
Another of our site in the slightly more specialized niche, but still competitive with 123 million pages, is ranked #1 since the site basically launched. Primarily because it uses the exact term in its domain name. So even if the #2 downwards get more links than us -- even more authoritative ones -- they've never been able to topple us (knock on wood)
Cheers
Sid
From what I have read, it is better not to separate words if you do not have to as Google is pretty good in figuring them out, but others may have different opinion. In any case, for the user it is easier to type in the domain name in the address bar without hyphen.
I agree that it is easier for the user to type in the domain name without a hyhen but I have also read that Google does not separate words that are together. They have to be separated by an underscore or hyphen for Google to see them as keywords.
It seems that most agree that keywords in the domain name are helpful but I was hoping to get more feedback from people who have experience with the keywords not being separated and with the keywords being separated. Trying to determine if links to a site using the domain name (no hyphens or underscores) is going to be helpful or not.
I was hoping to get more feedback from people who have experience with the keywords not being separated
I'm one of those who have never used hyphens or underscores, and I have no plans to start using them. The search engines seem to have no problem that I can detect finding the words searched for. I also get plenty of visitors that search with words run together although I've no idea why they do that. I suspect that I'd miss out on those folks if I used a separator.
In my case, not using separators goes back to the years when names of files on the computers that I used were restricted in length. I'm remembering the days of only 6 characters before the extension and how hard it was to name anything. Thankfully things have changed over the 35+ years of my experience.
