Forum Moderators: open
Anyone has any experience with this?
Unless, of course, you happen to sell some esoteric product called "zarpatax": in such a case, a domain name like zarpatax.com should help. ;)
Google's success shows us (at least) 2 things:
1. "All the good domain names are already taken" is false.
2. Make it short, nice-sounding, and brandable: would you open a wine store called "Fine-Wine-Store-Shop-Here-For-Top-Wines"? :)
Some people take it to insane degrees: keyword-keyword-net.net, to differentiate it from the bloke who has keyword-keyword.com and keyword-keyword-net.com. All three being different people. It gets hilarious.
I try to keep the surfer in mind. I hate to type in the hyphens. I can't think of the last time I typed a hypen. It's easier to type: "easyname.com" and check out the web site. It's also easier to remember the name.
What I believe happened is that the keyword became integrated into the Link Structure, as anchor text.
However, the relevant results that come after it have one term as part of the directory (i.e. domainname.com/keyword), with the same result that the keyword becomes part of the Link Structure of the web site. It's the anchor text effect that is making the impact.
I prefer moderation in the way I optimize so that everything looks natural. In my view, Keyword-keyword-keyword-net.net is too heavy handed, lacking in any elegance, and just plain ugly.
But hey, people are free to do what they want them to do. :) Y
<a href="http://www.blue-widgets.com/>Blue-Widgets.com</a>
Link text is matched against search keywords; URLs are not IMO.
In meatspace, if Joe were to open a wine store he might call it "Joe's Fine Wines" or such. It is all kinds of common to have the product sold as part of the business name.
I'd register both on the theory if I was keyword-phrase.com, the competition might try to steal my business at keywordphrase.com.
>would you open a wine store called "Fine-Wine-Store-Shop-Here-For-Top-Wines"? :)In meatspace, if Joe were to open a wine store he might call it "Joe's Fine Wines" or such. It is all kinds of common to have the product sold as part of the business name.
OK, I'll rephrase that: Would you open a web site named fine-wine-store-shop-here-for-top-wines.com? :)
I'd call it opencork.com, optimize it and crush all those silly folks with many hyphens.
No, but I would fine-wine-sales.com.
Another perfect example - for kicks and Giggles - do a search for "hosting" on the Google and look at the PR of the first site that comes up and their KW density. Then look down the list at their (higher) page ranks and greater KW density..
Irrelevant. I wouldn't put up a website selling blue widgets at blue-widgets.com UNLESS bluewidgets.com was also available for me to register. The concern would be a competitor would buy bluewidgets.com to steal away traffic intended for my site from those who forgot the hyphen. I'll just then set bluewidgets.com to redirect to blue-widgets.com.
Have you checked out the inbound anchor text of links to them and compare it to yours? This might be what is doing it. And, now that I look at the original post, since he doesn't want branding, but a domain name with a keyword phrase, I can't imagine not buying both just in case someone can't remember if there were hyphens or not.
Post#6: What I believe happened is that the keyword became integrated into the Link Structure, as anchor text.
Okay, already. We're repeating ourselves.
I already said that the value of the keyword in the domain is in the anchor text.
Also, to make explicit what was implicit, a light touch with the keywords makes a bigger difference than the door busting approach of multiple keywords in the domain name. I often see that one keyword making the difference in combination with words on the individual pages, and this is from the cumulative anchor text effect from all those inbound links from all of those inner pages.
As I said in post#3, It's a personal decision, and people are free to do it any old way they want to do it. Like how you wear your baseball hat. Some people think it looks real cool wearing it sideways, and some people think it makes you look...
The easiest way to check is to do a search in google for the domain name in the same way you would search for any word. If it has been used before, there is bound to be at least 1 or 2 pages that have the domain name on them.
