How To Choose Domain Names For SEO

Is it only necessary to test whether a domain name has been penalized before if y ou buy the domain from somebody else or should you do that when registering ab rand new domain, too? Never thought about that until now, but technically couldn't somebody get their domain penalized and then abandon it and not use it again. Then you register it and got a domain name that got penalized before? Sounds very unlikely of course, but maybe this is something to look out for if you're registering a domain name and are happy that genericnameDOTcom is still available?

Yes domain names can have long lasting penalties associated with them. But if you put up a quality value add site AND file for re-inclusion with Google you should be fine.

It is still hard for me to understand.

Thanks. I'd kind of distilled this from your book... but had to read between the lines. In the end, I went for keyword + generic in a .com and I'm killing on the SERP's. This pieces puts everything in one place, so I'm grateful to see I went with the right advice. Other 'experts' were saying other things. You the Man : )

Hi Peter. You asked for other good domainer blogs. Here are a few I like, particularly the first one:

http://domainnamewire.com/
http://conceptualist.com/
http://blog.domaintools.com/

HTH

I disagree with the statement that I see posted here and on several other SEO blogs "Google tends to give weight to keywords in the domain name". I've yet to find any evidence that supports this.

It is my finding that domain names themselves do not pull much weight in Google, the domain just creates a “halo effect”, boosting the ranking indirectly. Google provides keyword highlighting of the domain name in the SERPs, thereby increasing clicks. A keyword in the domain name also forces web managers to use the keyword in their copy. This also ensures that all link backs contain the keyword.

With that being said I do agree that it’s good practice to use a keyword in the domain.

For all who can't get enough:
http://www.domainbits.com/domainersphere/ a list of domaining blogs.

somerandomseoguy

Search for SEObook

First page of results seobook.org.uk and seobook.name

I think it would also be very beneficial if keyword traffic volumes were taken into account when considering a domain name purchase. If you came across two domains that you liked, all else equal, the keywords with the higher search volumes might be a better choice.

Agreed. I look at both keyword volume and click value when looking at domain names, as well as...

• how deep the site can be made
• how easy it will be for me to market the site

Aron is absolutely right, and as a domainer/ light SEO guy. I changed my business name from vague to specific. Now search me on google, i come up first for the term. Infact i rank well for most terms with new york and dating .

You can see web site here: www.NewYorkDatingCoach.com

Now try new york dating coach and give a shot to nyc dating coach as well

also google: new york dating, i come up on first page as well
Infact just type in, dating coach

That never happened with my old name.

Here is an experiment, i have a comepetitor. Search in google NY Dating Coach, and she comes up first and i come up second, except my site is PR 4 and her is 1. She ranks higher ONLY because of domain name exact match.

Any other question, disbelievers?

Hi Motion,

Surely that's an over-simplification of the situation. Remember Page Rank is not the be all and end all...I agree with the point made, but in this instance I'm not sure you can guarantee a like-for-like comparison by comparing the sites performance in this way.

Aaron / Peter, I've just tried posting a comment to the 'buying links' post and I kept being directed to:

http://www.seobook.com/user/login?destination=does-buying-links-make-you...

...which failed to allow me to login...am I being dumb here?

I see the following words being used in the article above:

1: domineers
2: domaineers
3: domineering

How the heck could that have made it into the article?

It's completely spelled wrong and it looks like it's not a innocent typo either.

Domineering isn't even a word being used by domainers <-- the correct reference used for someone involved in the domain name business.

Domineers is also a ridiculous word that is mentioned in the above post.

When you speak of domainers, say/write domainers and not domineers, when you speak of the act of domaining you say domaining and not domineering.

other blogs to look at:

elliotsblog.com
ricklatona.com
directnavigation.com

Aaron,

Thank you for the thoughtful post.

You mention "Generic + term" as a reasonable approach. Is "Term + Generic" just as good? Any data to support one way or the other?

Either can be effective. The one biggest thing that makes term + generic better in my mind is how Google search suggest currently functions. Though if they change to being more like Yahoo!'s Search Suggest that would put it back at nearly even.

Aaron, I'm sorry to say it but this article is probably the worst I saw on SEOBook and I read the blog for about two years. First like E mentioned those terms are not used in the domaining sphere. Second it looks like a cheap rewrite because all these facts are things most of the people already knows.

As for the importance of keywords in a domain I completely agree that it helps.

There are stories of people doing a search for a keyword phrase and seeing a site come up with a domain that has the same keywords, but in most of these cases that I have seen there is either NO competition to speak of, the page is also optimized for what the person is looking for, or there are links pointing to the page that contain the phrase. In SEO there is a REAL LACK of scientific method. People look at an effect and think they know the cause when in reality there are many factors that can be at work...!

But, we have over 1,600 domain names and I can assure you that the keywords in a domain name DOES have a positive effect on SEO. HOWEVER, keywords that are embedded in the domain, such as keyword1keyword2.com, will not get any benefit after the first keyword UNLESS both keywords are searched for.

What I am saying is that Google is not going to try and figure out if they should do a match for keyword2 since they don't know where the words stop and start. But if you want a small boost from large numbers of searches for a specific exact phrase in a specific order, it can help to have one.

But if you want more of a boost, then get an ugly domain such as Best-Free-Search-Engine-List.com. You will you get some benefit from not only the main phrase, but also the sub-phrases in the domain. The hyphens are treated like spaces and therefore can provide a match.

Now I know Aaron is rising to his feet and so are other SEOs out there, so I have to add that the effect gained by keywords in the domain IS SMALL, and can easily be overshadowed by on-page and off-page optimization. So there is NO NEED for the world to be flooded with ugly domain names.

But I can tell you that with over 1,500 parked domain names that many of the long, ugly, hyphen-infested, .info domains that we have, generate nice traffic and income. And in my opinion that justifies their existance.

Aaron, in your article, you mention the economical use of buying a .net or .org keyword domain. Do you think any of the search engines or Google rank foreign Keyword + .me or .bz or .tv extensions (or any of the 60+ others) any diffently than more common .com, net or .org?

You can still find some "killer" keywords in these small abstract domain extensions.

Thanks and I enjoyed the article. I have dovehunting.us that ranks #1 in Yahoo for the key word "dove hunting" so I know key word domains rock!

I think the obscure extensions do not have the same pull that the lead extensions do.

Okay, before I had mostly used the following article to help choose a domain..

guidetostart.com/?page_id=4

I never would have thaught about the issues with buying a previously used domain that may have been penalized. I very much appreciate your help and will continue to research into this and some of your other ideas to consider before purchasing my next several domain names. THANK YOU!!!

Actually, I am confused with the words used in the article, @E has his point. Anyway, using or buying a domain that has your target keyword is a good technique in SEO. There are lots of strategies accessible online in conducting SEO. Knowing the basic step and answers of all the Questions Commonly Asked About Search Engine Optimisation would be the best start.

This is an excellent post. I have tried this on my .com website and it really works. Just few high-quality backlinks my website ranks on page one of google in our country.

Aaron, have you tried to implement this on cctld? like realestate + suffix .uk, .com.au, ie

Which would you choose between realestate + suffix. com and realestate +hub . com.au, .uk, ie why?

I''m getting a domain name for a real estate website that will target a local market and still undecided if I have to get a .com or a shorter cctld.

I hope you will answer this comment. This is my first post on your great website. I just signed-up few days ago.

Thanks.

I am having the same trouble at first in choosing the right domain names for my business. I recently got my high pr domains from domainka.com and I never thought they have a wide variety of domain names to choose from. Thanks for the tips.