Domain Name

[MrTDude]

I am promoting a history website and when I type my key terms into Google my site currently rests on page 29 (hence me seeking advice!). In the returned google search page, the words in my url are highlighted which suggests to me that Google recognises that these words are relevant to the search. However, I have seen information -including on this site- that says the contrary: that the words when placed together in the url would not give the site any advantage in its ranking on a world history search as there is no space between the words. Could anyone clarify that my url is giving me no advantage, or ideally vice versa. It is important for me to know this as the url is a subdomain (wanting to keep both the branding and a relevant url) and therefore makes the title long and possibly needs a re-think.

Thanks

[edited by: mack at 9:07 pm (utc) on Nov. 11, 2008]
[edit reason] Examplefied [/edit]

[MrTDude]

I am replying to my own post in-case anyone is interested. On a website by Matt Cutts I found the answer although I have to admit it still makes no sense to me.

"A simple way of seeing that underscores are not treated as spaces is to type a phrase into the searchbox, but with 2 words joined together by an underscore. Do the search and look at the “Results 1 - 10 of about …” bit. Each identified, non-stopword, word is linked to a definition, but not the pair that are joined by an underscore."

This worked for me. I typed Mattcutts, matt_cutts, and matt-cutts into Google and for 'matt_cutts' i did not find his self named website.

I think I have broken a lot of rules with my posts and am very sorry.

[mack]

Hi MrTDude,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld :)

Keywords within a domain can help, but there are a of other factors that weigh a lot more, for example inbound links. The more IBL's you get the better your chances are of ranking well.

Here's where it gets interesting. Having keywords within your domain make it more likely to gain good anchor text. Lets imagine two websites, one is example.com the other is keyword1-keyword2.com

In bother cases you send out link request emails and some links are out in place. Some websites will link to you using good anchor text, other will simple link to you using your domain name as the clickable link. In the later case you still end up with good anchor due to thur domain name being your keywords.

To be honest this doesn't work as well as it used to, but can still have a bit of an effect.

Mack.

[callivert]

Don't pay any attention to the highlighting you see in the search result. Google does the highlighting after the algo has retrieved the page. It does not have any implications for the search process.

[MrTDude]

Thanks for your responses guys. It is seeming to me like the most important factor in SEO is links which are achievable by good content.

[mack]

It is seeming to me like the most important factor in SEO is links which are achievable by good content.

You hit the nail on the head with that one. Honestly, content it king, both for your users and for gettign ranked vie good inbound links!.

Mack.

[wolfadeus]

Links and good content = 80% of SEO

However, another 15 percent are technical rules and guidelines that are easy to follow and thus, should not be ignored. The remaining 5 percent are experience in tinkering with the individual factors and combining them.

Happy webbing!