Too much weight on the Domain Name?

[surfgatinho]

I just did a search for a competitive term. My 2002 site with 10,000+ pages which is highly related, but not optimised for this term isn't even in the top 100.

Anyway, the sites name is the 3 keywords plus .co.uk. It is sitting in position 38 out of 600,000. The keywords are the region name and the type of industry

The site's title is a colour and a shape. It has a PR of 0. It was registered one month ago. The site is one page which is empty except for a flash animation.

Sorry, but this is the worst search result I have ever seen!

What's more I just told a client it would be very difficult and expensive to get there site to rank for this term!

[Receptional Andy]

I think you could be making an assumption about cause and effect that may not stand up to closer examination. The toolbar PR is no measure of the links coming in, and links are probably contributing strongly to performance.

For a three word phrase/600,000 total results, that isn't ultra-competitive, so it wouldn't require that many of the "right" links to get this working, particularly if that matches the domain name.

[surfgatinho]

You may have a point Andy

Having done a spot of research there are a few back links from about 15 bought up expired related domains.

Maybe the correct title would have been onsite optimisation not needed anymore!

[tedster]

Note - I edited the title for this thread. It originally read "Too much weight on the URL?" It can be important to use technical words precisely sometimes, and in this case it's clear you are asking about just the domain name, and not the complete URL.

[kidder]

I own a few three word domains in very very competitve areas, recent purchases for testing. I can tell you from experience that the domain name alone is not enough to get you inside the top 10 if there is money involved. I have one sitting at #1 in our country and #5 on google.com (I gave it some link juice) and the other two dont even make the first page on Google.com, they got 1 link each. I used wordpress for all 3 and the content of each site is good quality.

[trader]

Sometimes, the words in the domain are sufficent by itself at least imo (relying on a few other issues too), and some other factors can help.

It can be surprisingly easy to get listed on Pg-1 of search results, or even #1 based on the exact targeted keywords being in the domain name (real important), and also in the title and description tag plus a few other issues. With that said, the keywords in the domain are extremely significant, imo.

[buckworks]

the domain name alone is not enough to get you inside the top 10 if there is money involved

That is my experience too.

Keywords in the domain name can look like a big advantage to the uneducated eye, but a keyword-perfect domain name is no automatic ticket to the top. You'll need to do a lot of other things right to go along with that.

The flip side of the above: you can get ahead of the competitor with the keyword-perfect domain name if you do enough other things better than he does.

[Simsi]

I've had a lot of success with kw domains but it depends on the niche - or more accurately, how much tlc the sites in that niche are getting from their owners.

A good kw domain may be worth 100 "google love points" but if the top sites have over 1,000 glp's already from various SEO methods, then you're not going to hit them without nurturing your site some more. I've had kw domains go straight in at the top on Day 1, others that flounder around the Top 20 mark. Depends.

A kw domain is a good head start IMO unless you are trying to build brand loyalty where kw domains aren't always the best way.

[CainIV]

I would agree with Simsi. In the less populated arenas, a good exact keyword domain plus promotion can provide the 'flight gear' to build a website out, and establish authority over the genre, before others can fully pursue you. If the business model is right, then a percentage of the earnings that goes back towards promotion will make it very difficult for someone without large pockets to overtake you.

[surfgatinho]

In retrospect I was just firing off an annoyed response to a site I didn't think should be where it was. Then again I still don't think it should be - 1 month old, zero content...
But I didn't check the inbound links.

The fact that Google might give any credit to a domain name is a big annoyance of mine. If domain names were not a finite resource fine, but it is yet another penalty on those who weren't starting in 199x!

[Simsi]

The fact that Google might give any credit to a domain name is a big annoyance of mine.

LOL. I feel exactly the same about Google giving weight to inbound links :)