Keywords in the domain. Good for a company?

[frank72]

A relative of mine is going to open a medium-size shop (real shop along a busy street) selling "blue widgets". The name of his company is " nice company". He would also like to establish his presence on the web by selling his goods all over the world, online.

He asked me for some advice. Now, I know pretty well that it is good to have the keywords in the domain (www.bluewidgets.com) but since the competition is pretty tough for those keywords (and a lot of domains with those keywords are already taken) I was wondering if it is ok to have a domain with the name of the company (www.nicecompany.com) and add keywords inside the website (meta tags, add keywords to the images, respect keyword density for the description of goods etc.). Might I have some advice? thanks!

[tedster]

Some of the biggest and best online companies do not have keywords in their domain name. This was true even when they were small start-up websites that a lot of people laughed about - for example, Zappos.

Many of my smaller clients are also thriving without keywords in their domain name - and people now know and remember their brand. I think keyword-in-domain is not nearly as big a deal as some people feel it is. I much prefer giving a business a memorable brand.

[deadsea]

Matt Cutts recently said in a video that his team was planning to work on reducing the ranking boost for generic keyword domain names this year.

I'd take that with a grain of salt, but even in keyword rich domain name works well now, it may not tomorrow.

[walkman]

They will have a boost, maybe not as big but still.
However, unless you have a top generic name, I'd go with a brand

[frank72]

Thanks guys for your replies and insights. I will follow it and I will go for "www.nicecompany.com".

However, as I guess, keywords in tags , images, descriptions are still important...obviously. Any raccomandation?

[wheel]

Domains cost $8 a year. You should do both. Have your main domain on the corporate domain, and have a variety of secondary sites.

[jecasc]

I went for a keyword domain when I started about 10 years ago. I regret it every day. Sure, it was good for ranking at times. But branding is more important.

[walkman]

Now all the ad spots are taken with my "generic name" in Google search, so in reality I'm #4, making my name less valuable. Or maybe more valuable since they are ads, but only if I sell it. But for now traffic is down

[Leosghost]

Agree with Wheel ..get both, and think seriously about getting ( if you are eligible ) some of the foreign ones ..such a .co.uk ( no eligibility required for that one )...fr, .de etc .us ( those 3 do have eligibility criteria )..You can usually cover most bases for less than the yearly cost of a PO box.

[netmeg]

Um, I get the keywords and make them a brand.

[wheel]

I went for a keyword domain when I started about 10 years ago.

I went for a brand 10 years ago. Now I have a stupid brand name and it's too late to change :). Seriously, I win the award for the stupidest brand name eva'. But it is a brand - folks know it.