domain name choice and google

craptakular · 9 Mar 2011 at 07:34

I have a situation where I can buy a domain name that comprises of 3 top keywords, the trouble is to me, being a human, I would assume the site is a dodgy/bordering on spam/ not reputable type site.

I can buy another domain with one keyword in and surround it with nice words to make it sound lovely. For example:

comparethemarket.com sounds better than say carinsurancequotes.com

This is similar to my situation, but does google add a lot of weight to keywords in urls when determining page rank?

I assume if I had a decent page title for me home page would this be ok? or would carinsurancequotes.com rank higher as it has 3 keywords in the url?

Berserker · 9 Mar 2011 at 08:34

I don't think PageRank cares a damn about domain names. Humans, on the other hand, absolutely do. You can of course search on domain names, and people do that, but that only works if your domain name is either (a) memorable, or (b) relevant.

In short, don't contrive a domain name just because you think it's a neat SEO trick - because it almost certainly isn't. If there's other things going in that domain's favour, then by all means.

daz · 9 Mar 2011 at 08:58

Keyword specific domains do have significant SEO benefits - it's why some domains go for ridiculous prices. A good keyword based domain can be worth a lot in specific niches.

craptakular · 9 Mar 2011 at 09:54

I might go for both, but use the more human friendly one. I suppose overclockers and its competitors don't have keyword driven domains but are human friendly.

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Mar 2011 at 10:34

Oxy said:
I might go for both, but use the more human friendly one. I suppose overclockers and its competitors don't have keyword driven domains but are human friendly.

It doesn't really matter what the URL is called to get results. It depends on what your website contains and what people are searching for but Google webmaster tools can provide you with some nifty tools to check this.

Normally if it's a forum or wordpress type of site it get's spam bots easy. What is the site going to be based around?

craptakular · 9 Mar 2011 at 11:59

Its going to be wordpress, dealing with one product.

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Mar 2011 at 12:25

Oxy said:
Its going to be wordpress, dealing with one product.

Wordpress is a doddle to get into hits, not a problem at all even if you have the most crappy URL ever. Add the XML Sitemap plugin and use webmaster tools to analyze the results to add more keywords.

AJK · 9 Mar 2011 at 14:20

Berserker said:
I don't think PageRank cares a damn about domain names. Humans, on the other hand, absolutely do. You can of course search on domain names, and people do that, but that only works if your domain name is either (a) memorable, or (b) relevant.

In short, don't contrive a domain name just because you think it's a neat SEO trick - because it almost certainly isn't. If there's other things going in that domain's favour, then by all means.

iDroid84 said:
It doesn't really matter what the URL is called to get results.

Keywords in domain names and URL structures certainly are taken into account for search engine placement. Content is also -of course- very important, but links to your site with relevant keywords in the anchor text are probably the most important factor of all. Don't assume that one factor has no effect just because another one seems like it will have "more" value.

Regardless though, Berserker is right - don't think up a contrived domain name just to try and get higher placement. The search engines may fall for it, but if humans perceive "keyword-keyword-keyword.com" to be spammy, they won't click it and they won't link to it - and that's your SEO killer right there.

BaJ · 9 Mar 2011 at 20:45

Interesting video from the horse's mouth.

craptakular · 9 Mar 2011 at 22:01

BaJ said:
Interesting video from the horse's mouth.

very interesting. Thats made my mind up.

I'm going one keyword with a sideorder of memorability.