Comment posted on Search Engine Ranking Tip: Keyword.com or MrSmith.com? by Sheila Atwood
Ana,
I have a domain that is in the same keyword situation as yours is with “trafficgeneration.com.” There are two old static sites using exact keyworded.com and keyworded.net on top.
I think any changes that Google brings in will make those domains drop down I will rise to the top because my site is not static, it has valuable keyworded content, back links and the keywords in my domain name.
I would like to see that happen for you too. Hopefully the change will work in favor of those who are providing the best.
Recent comments by Sheila Atwood
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Ana,It always kills me when someone complains that they do not have the money to spend on starting their online business. I even hear complaints about having to pay for hosting.
Like you said, an online education really is cheap in comparison and so is an online piece of real estate.
Love those guarantees and paying with a credit card, just in case. You never know. I have even purchased things through someone I trusted and it was not the product I thought it would be.
Early on I purchased a service through a well known and trusted person and did not get what was promised. But since then I have had some courses and services that have over delivered. Including ebooks and optin courses.
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Ana,I have been watching this challenge also. Especially since I have not used article spinners. The challenge that Robert and Alex have taken is a big undertaking and getting their honest take on what is happening makes is worth keeping an eye on.
I found your summary of the challenge a great addition. Thanks Ana.
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Ana,Thank you, for this very comprehensive article. I can see a couple of things I need to check. Good thing I have someone that can help me look at some of the deeper issues like, robots.
I do think that most of the issues are generally taken care of when you use WordPress. They do make it easy to change things like using excerpts for your categories.
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Eric,Very impressive.
Ana is a fountain of information when it comes to traffic generation and I love her blog audits. What I like best is her easy to follow directions for putting what she teaches into action.
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Ana,I does take finding a balance, I have had to test out different things in different areas. There is no one size fits all.
We can gather ideas from each other but when your feet hit the floor in the morning, how you put it into action is up to you. Then it comes to testing out the things you put into action.
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Pretty solid arguments, but only working for international or US websites. If you live in France, PoolChlorinator.fr will always top PoolChlorinator.com
Well, the example is not perfect since Pool Chlorinator are not french words, but you get my point.
I know you’re not talking here about the TLD, but more about the form of the title, still i believe some would benefit from my point of view.
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Hi Ana,
I’m a relatively new visitor to your site; stumbled on it a few weeks ago and have been doing a lot of reading. As a small business owner, I’m trying to use a wordpress blog to generate traffic to our main site. My question is, is there more value having a blog located on wordpress.com, with links back to our main site, or is it more useful to host the blog in a subdomain on our main site?
Thanks for all the good info; I’ve learned a lot already, and have tried several of the tools you list.
cheers,
Charles
Definitely, host it on your main site, Charles.
That way you’ll beef up the size of your site and show Google that you have fresh content coming in - both big pluses.
Ana
Ana | Traffic Generation invites you to read: How Many Unindexed Posts Does Your Blog Have
For myself, when I can’t buy a domain which is rich regarding Keywords, I try to find something close on Godaddy auctions or other places. You can really find some slick domains for juste 5$, if you are patient and know how to search.
bob invites you to read: Recette des muffins aux myrtilles
I’ve read a few posts on that, Bob, and know it’s a realistic possibility. Never had a need to do it for myself, but thanks for reminding me of that.
Ana
Hey Ana,
I understand why keyword rich domains are so valued and important, but My question is, What about subdomains? My site is ian-belanger.com as you know.
Say I wanted to promote sneakers. How much weight would sneakers.ian-belanger.com hold in googles eyes, because my site has a good ranking (about 350,000 in alexa) but if I went out and bought a new domain it would take a longer time to get it’s ranking up.
Thanks for sharing Ana and have a great day!
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Subdomains don’t do as well as top-tier domains, Ian.
What I would do is get sneakers.com and then 301 redirect sneakers.ian-belanger.com to it, thus passing all the authority to the new domain.
Makes sense?
Hey Ana,
Yes it absolutely makes sense. Thanks for answering my question.
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The one good thing about Sub-domains as I understand them Ian, is it can be anything you wish, regardless of whether the corresponding TLD is taken or not….keyword away! lol
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I perceive keyword-rich domains as spam sites. Go through the comments Akismet catches and look at the domains. They are nothing but keywords!
However, if your domain is a brand — something clever and memorable that incorporates part of your niche — you gain credibility and some instant SEO juice.
Most domains that are in the top five spots of SERPs are quite old. For example, if I search for “book reviews” on Google, the NYT book reviews section comes up as #1. The domain name has nothing at all to do with the keyword “book reviews,” but because of the age and trust level of the domain, it holds the #1 spot. I doubt my tiny little book review blog will ever beat NYT!
I see a lot of concerned comments from people who now think that their branded domains are never going to get any juice. I highly recommend that people focus less on their domain name and more on building their brand and credibility. Most keyword-rich domains are already scooped up, anyway, either by early birds or spammy content farms. Decide what your niche is going to be, choose a name that works for you, your personality, and your products, and work on building that name as a trusted brand — even if you’re just blogging for fun.
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Interesting points, Elizabeth.
Akismet actually doesn’t catch keyword-rich domain per se; only if you deem it to be spam and send it to your spam folder, is when Akismet will take a note.
For some people, it is beneficial to have keyword-oriented domains for many reasons, including search engine rankings.
For instance, if I search for “traffic generation” and see TrafficGenerationCafe.com and ElizaWhat.com, I will click on the former because it is related to my search clearly.
Hello Ana,
This video of Matt Cutts where he actually recognizes that google does give a lot more weight to keyword domain names, only makes me want to buy this kind of domains everytime I make a niche website.
Now a brandable domain is good, but it might take a while to take it to first spot in google, so why bother making a brandable domain when you know you will only use that domain to sell a product or two and you wont be starting a company based on its name.
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Not everyone will become a Twitter.com, Alex, that’s for sure.
You know people “flip” domains all the time.
Good business, from what I know.
It was back in the day, multi-millions were made. I wouldn’t seriously go after it now unless you have some serious mojo.
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Hey Ana,
I think people get way too concerned about having the perfect keyword rich domain name. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea and logically it makes sense to have your best keywords in your domain but it’s not necessary, my site is proof of that.
There are tons of sites that rank well for their keywords without having those words in their URL but there are also sites that do have keyword rich domains and they don’t rank at all.
The more weighted value is in effectively using your keywords in your content and in the links pointing to your website and of course provide good, relevant content. If you can do that first, it doesn’t matter what your domain name is.
I agree. My personal blog gets traffic coming in for all kinds of things, mainly because I tag my posts properly, even though the domain name is elizawhat.com.
I’d much rather have a fun, memorable domain name that reflects me or my company than go crazy trying to pick the perfect keyword string. If I did that for my personal blog, it would be mysteryautoimmunediseaseandrantsandlifeandshortstories.com.
Elizabeth Kaylene invites you to read: An update on Noni- Tests tomorrow
Ladies, I didn’t mean to imply it’s a must.
However, with all things equal, a keyword-rich domain will rank over mrssmith.com every time.
More valuable and useful information for me to digest. If I ever start another website I will use this when choosing my domain name.
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I’m somewhat old-school. Easy to remember via word of mouth is #1, brandable is 1.5, and if you can find your keyword, go for it!
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I think I did!
Hi Ana,
More the question is how the heck does one even find a .com domain that is short, keyword specfic and not overly competitive these days… without paying a fortune to someone hoping you will of course?
Appreciate the tips Ana, thank you.
~Marcus
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You are right, Marcus.
Have to settle for a second tier domain, like mine.
This is an interesting video, in my opinion having the keyword in the domain name is very important and always helped me to rank more higher in Google.
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Keyword in domain name is not really important…the importance of keywords in domain names has been lowered as many are just buying keyword rich domains for manipulating search results.
You can rank for keywords using domain names which are not keyword rich as well.. it’s alla about how you play the game
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Wow, Sandeep, many statements here to talk about.
You are right, they are not as important, but a keyword rich domain will win over MrSmith.com every time - with all other things being equal.
If you don’t mind I would like to share a link of my older post - http://curiouslittleperson.com/importance-of-keywords-in-domain-name/
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Excellent tips Ana, nice to see the clear distinction described between ‘buying traffic’ and ‘browsing traffic’.
I have an ongoing debate with myself (not schizophrenic, we just have a lot to think about) about whether or not to change my domain name.
As you may know I use jymtarrant.com which is useful for branding purposes and links up nicely with my social media accounts, but it certainly doesn’t help with the rankings.
What do you think about the Social branding aspect? I noticed you making this change in the early days of TGC…
All the best (and many happy returns again!)
Jym
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Yes, indeed I did, Jym.
Social branding goes hand-in-hand with your domain name - whatever it is, that’s what you brand. Of course, I changed all that as well, when I changed my domain name.
It comes down to what you want your blog to be, Jym.
I’d like my blog to be #1 traffic generation blog in the world - I always dream big.
That’s why I did what I did.
What’s your blog purpose? There lies your answer.
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Using a keyword rich domain is definitely a great tip, although I can see why Mr. Cutts wants to downplay the importance of keyword domains. Many Google searches result in a keyword rich domain near the top of the SERPs with absolutely no content.
Do you really think the .com performs significantly better than the .net or .org? Obviously it’s easier for people to remember a .com address, but I have yet to see any evidence that a .org or .net ranks lower.
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I think .com is more user oriented, Mark.
You might loose some possible visitors with the other extensions.
Lower rankings? Probably not so much.
Thanks Ana, that’s what I thought you meant but wasn’t sure if you meant it for ranking purposes or from a usability standpoint. I think .com is definitely more user friendly.
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Ana,
I have a domain that is in the same keyword situation as yours is with “trafficgeneration.com.” There are two old static sites using exact keyworded.com and keyworded.net on top.
I think any changes that Google brings in will make those domains drop down I will rise to the top because my site is not static, it has valuable keyworded content, back links and the keywords in my domain name.
I would like to see that happen for you too. Hopefully the change will work in favor of those who are providing the best.
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I thought it was supposed to have happened in the Farmers update, but I suppose it didn’t hit the SERPs yet, Sheila - I am with you though, we need this change.
My pleasure, Ana
I’ll hear from you then…
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I’ll go with the commercial intent domain name straight off. What? What’s the purpose of setting it up if not to sell stuffs and attracts readers who want to buy.
Depending on my niche though, sometimes I go into market without deciding to sell anything straight off but to develope relationship…if this is the purpose, then commercial intent keyword will not work well.
That’s my opinion though!
Tim
N-B- I love your reverting to mobile theme for mobile users but it’s annoying that you can’t revert to full site if you want. At least my opera mini is not showing your full site again after clicking full site button at the bottom.
It’s kinda frustrating…I feel readers should be able to read either your mobile version or your full site…
Tim Again!
Hey Tim! Great to see you here. Did you get my email?
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Hello Mavis,
Good to see you too!
I didn’t get your email, I must have missed it. Can you send it again?
Tim
I just did, Tim
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RE: my mobile version.
I haven’t given it much thought yet, Tim - just added a plugin that let’s you see a simplified version. Will have to see why it doesn’t show the full one when you tell it to.
I’ll go with commercial intent every single time!
Hi Ana,
Totally agreed with you. I have a site related to discount coupons and my domain is couponseasy.com. This is the best domain available for me at that time and it has suffix with keyword, I think it’s a good decision by me.
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Talking about keyword rich domains.. well, they are recommended. However, I don’t feel a domain with no keywords in it, resulting to disasters. Take for instance, the same Matt Cutts, based on whose speech you had written an article a couple of weeks ago; he writes at mattcutts.com .. but what’s wrong with it? It is having enough presence despite of the format of MrSmith.com .. In fact, he has inspired you to write a blog post
I’d like to add, I would never even bother about the domain as far as it has got good content in it
The problem is we are no Matt Cutts. Building your name as a brand is a very tough thing to do and tougher to get ranked in search engines.
After all this post is all about how to get ranked faster and higher.
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Hi Ana,
This is what I have been missing from my domain. When I first selected it, I was a novoice, so I just gone for it and I started working on it. After certain time, when I understood the basics of SEO, I came to know that I have done a blunder mistake in selecting the domain name, but now I can’t do anything with it. I will keep sticking with it and I will do my best to build backlinks to rank it better for all my most important keywords. Anyways, Thanks for this great advice.
Sathish
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Hello Sathish,
If I were you and made mistakes while starting up, depending on how bad, I’ll just turn the mistake around and just change it into a brand.
Viperchill didn’t know the meaning or reason why he choice that name. He just did it and now, it’s already a brand name. Very few people know he’s actually Glen by name. So, change the disadvantage around and just brand it instead if it’s brandable!
My blog internetincomerant dot com doesn’t make too much ‘good seo’ but I’m turning it into a brand gradually and building my slow but consistent backlinks to it. Hope that helps.
Tim
Tim’s got a point!
However, making your domain into a brand is exceptionally hard. Not everyone will become Glen Allsopp.
On the other hand (not that I am suggesting you do it just because I did it), Traffic Generation Cafe wasn’t always TGC. It used to be something different and once I knew better, I picked a name that could become a brand, plus have my keywords in it.
So it’s possible to make that change, Sathish!
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Thanks, Ana.
I did not know that about prefix vs. suffix, but it makes sense… now that you’ve explained it to me.
And your point about hyphens in the domain name is well taken.
Thanks for having my back!
Peggy
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You know it, Peggy.
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Ana-
I wish I had this post before I picked my domain name.
Are you saying that the more keyword rich domain name, the more Google is likely to rank the site higher? Do you believe Google places higher priority on domain name, than say, meta keywords?
I love the way you ranked the examples. Many people, including myself, learn more from example than just explanation.
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Hi, Allie:
To answer your question, I’ll give you an example.
The number #1 spot on Google for “traffic generation” is taken by trafficgeneration.com.
It’s an old and stale squeeze page with no new or useful content, yet it’s sitting in #1 spot mostly because of the domain name (and age - nothing I can do about that).
So yes, it’s very important.
By the way, depending on how serious you are about developing your blog you can switch your domain name to something more keyword-oriented - I did it with TraffciGenerationCafe.com (it used to be something different).
Ana | Traffic Generation invites you to read: Content Writing vs Link Building- Chicken or the Egg
I couldn’t agree with you more, Ana. Keyword-rich domain name is the way to go. Thanks for sharing the useful tips to make choosing one easier.
Not sure how I missed your post on domain suggestion tools - I thought I read pretty much everything here
.
All the best,
Mavis
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That post is an oldie, but a goodie.
By the way, thanks on tipping me off on publishing 2 posts in one day - wasn’t my intention. Thanks to you, it was quickly changed and my heart rate is back to normal.
Saw your guest post submission - look forward to reading it. Will publish next week.
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