Keyword rich or brandable & made-up domains?

[SiLvER]

What would you settle for? a keyword rich domain name or one that is brandable / a word you made up and sounds catchy?

I want to get some good rankings to get good organic traffic but my niche is big in competition and all the good keyword rich domain names are taken. Should I settle for a word that I made up?

Let's see,
Van Silver.

[probably_not]

what's the niche?

p.s. i prefer KEYWORD RICH.

[Random Guy]

Why not try both? Stick the keyword in your brand name :)

[SiLvER]

what's the niche?

p.s. i prefer KEYWORD RICH.

The niche's movie streaming/watch movies online type site.

I actually like more madeup domains but if it's not good for my SEO it's a big downer.

Why not try both? Stick the keyword in your brand name :)

That's kind of hard if you make up words.. isn't it?

[hmansfield]

Made up domains that are gibberish suck. Unless you have the money to force the brand into the mind of consumers or your customer base, you end up with a domain that doesn't make any sense to anyone and that is hardly remembered.

You have to think in more than 2 directions. I'll bet there is a word, or group of words that are significant in your niche, that will go a lot further with branding than making something up.

I'll give you an example...when i made my first blog, any and every "com" domain about Dance Music was gone. Trance, House, Techno all gone. I could have made up some gibberish, but it wouldn't have made any sense and Dance Music fans are loyal, and they know the niche, and the history of the niche.

In the beginning of Chicago house and Detroit techno, Technics invented a new turntable called the "1200"...it was the first time that DJ's could adjust the speed of a record to mix with. The speed measurements on the Technic 1200 turntable were/are in Beats Per Minute (bpms).

Since then, Dance Music is traditionally described by it's rhythym...and the standard is 124 Beats Per Minute

That's how I got my first domain ! 124bpms.com, or 124 Beats Per Minute. and now it is a brand.

You need to think with your brain, and not with keyword tools and search results. Get something that makes sense so there will be no question what your site is about when your target audience hears the domain.

[SiLvER]

Made up domains that are gibberish suck. Unless you have the money to force the brand into the mind of consumers or your customer base, you end up with a domain that doesn't make any sense to anyone and that is hardly remembered.

You have to think in more than 2 directions. I'll bet there is a word, or group of words that are significant in your niche, that will go a lot further with branding than making something up.

I'll give you an example...when i made my first blog, any and every "com" domain about Dance Music was gone. Trance, House, Techno all gone. I could have made up some gibberish, but it wouldn't have made any sense and Dance Music fans are loyal, and they know the niche, and the history of the niche.

In the beginning of Chicago house and Detroit techno, Technics invented a new turntable called the "1200"...it was the first time that DJ's could adjust the speed of a record to mix with. The speed measurements on the Technic 1200 turntable were/are in Beats Per Minute (bpms).

Since then, Dance Music is traditionally described by it's rhythym...and the standard is 124 Beats Per Minute

That's how I got my first domain ! 124bpms.com, or 124 Beats Per Minute. and now it is a brand.

You need to think with your brain, and not with keyword tools and search results. Get something that makes sense so there will be no question what your site is about when your target audience hears the domain.

That's some good solid advice mate, thanks a lot :). I will try remember this when I am about to register a domain name for a new site.

[aloksharma]

Both niche and brand.

Examples... RuchieDomains.com, RuchieDomains.in, RuchieDomainReseller.com

[Nosfer]

I would go for a brandable domain. You can get great rankings if you know SEO even without having keywords in your domain name... and keyword rich domains with 2-3 keywords are hard to type and ugly in my opnion.

[usa666]

depending on the niche & your plans. You can go with a keyword rich .net or .org if the .coms are taken

or you could go with the brandable .com

it boils down to it being easier w/ the keyword rich to rank higher w/ the same amount of work. But with a good brandable .com you keep trust & might get more residual type ins over time imho. Example is I am more likely going to type in Yahoo.com for a search engine rather than SearchEngine.org or SearchEngine.net

[hmansfield]

depending on the niche & your plans. You can go with a keyword rich .net or .org if the .coms are taken

or you could go with the brandable .com

it boils down to it being easier w/ the keyword rich to rank higher w/ the same amount of work. But with a good brandable .com you keep trust & might get more residual type ins over time imho. Example is I am more likely going to type in Yahoo.com for a search engine rather than SearchEngine.org or SearchEngine.net

Of course Yahoo spent hundreds of millions in world wide advertising revenue to get it to that point...it didn't spread by "word of mouth" or bum marketing..

[Oranges]

I always prefer a Mix And Match combination of Keywords and Brandable name.
Because in case if the brand name becomes a flop show, so atleast domain will still be good for SERPs because of keywords presence in it.