We have a few websites and we sell homeschooling stuff (current website http://www.lovetolearn.net). We are currently thinking about building a website with a better URL. Ideally, we would like a URL that is an exact keyword match because then every time people link to us (even if they didn't link to us using our keyword in the anchor text), it would help our ranking. So we are trying to pick between these: happyhomeschool.com happyhomeschooling.com http://homeschooling.net/ The first two seem the most brandable. The last one is a .net but it is also the exact keyword match. The only problem I have with the last one is that it is a .net. I tend to think homeschooling.net would be better for SEO but I'm not sure if the long-term benefit of having a .com would be a wiser route to take. The keyword "homeschooling" gets 500,000 searches a month and the keyword "homeschool" gets 1,000,000. I think going after the keyword "homeschooling" might be easier because the niche doesn't seem quite as competitive.
I would go with the exact match based on your question. You will also want to 301 redirect the old site to the new address assuming its been up for a while. It will make seo much easier for you. Lovetolearn is actually a pretty sound domain name but on its face does not help your seo efforts. hope that helps, Nigel
in terms of seo, homeschooling.net is better than the first 2. dont worry about the .net as the domain extension doesn't have anything to do with ranking. a .net domain is just as much brandable as the .com domians.
Actually, you're slightly off. I don't hink you had 'exact' search type selected. Here's the actual traffic from Google for those serps. [home schooling] 60,500 [home school] 40,500 However, both of these terms will be very difficult to get on the first page of, as they are both highly competitive. Your going to need a very strong budget to compete on those SERPs. I would recommend going after more realistic key words, where you have a realistic shot of getting in the top 3 results. For example... [home schooled] [home school supplies] [home school software] [homeschooler] [home schooling requirements] .. all of these have some traffic, and aren't as hyper-competitive as the first two keywords you selected. Remember that in general, 65% of all of the traffic from a key phrase goes to the top 3 resutls on the SERP, and only 1 percent of the traffic makes it past the first page. So if you can't get on the first page, and if you don't have a shot at the top 3 positions, you're not looking at getting much traffic. Also, a .com provides no additional benefit over a .net in terms of SEO, however it does make a difference in traffic, and visitors are much more likely to remember that your site is a .com .
I would recommend you go with homeschooling.net instead of the first 2, even it is dot net. You would gain SEO benefits by having keyword in domain by using this domain more than the first two. Another advice - You should do more on keyword research and create a group of them. Do not rely and focus too much on one keyword for homepage. It could be a lost later.
It's your choice. However, I'd go with the exact match. Nonetheless, you don't really need keyphrases or exact keyphrases in a domain to rank well. However, it can help because it is one of the many ranking factors. However, remember that .net TLD's might be harder to remember. Therefore, you should emphasize the .net in ads.
Your current domain is nice. there will be a lot of complexities with domain redirection. If you still want to set it to new domain, prefer .com and if it is not available still prefer .com ( a variation of keyword of course ) .net should be the next priority if no good .com is available.
homeschooling.net is your best bet but your SEO and LSI is the most important in regards to the specific keywords you want to focus on.
I would say as long as your keywords are in the URL you are good to go.....I like .net websites......but many people only want a .com site
I would use a "-" in between home and school or whatever combination you choose. It will make it easier for the search engine to determine the individual words. Just my opinion though.
I disagree. Hyphens in domain names make the domain look "cheap"... like a copycat domain. It generally means the non-hyphenated domain was not available and you're trying to piggy back on some other site's success. IMO you want a domain name that is as short as possible, easy to remember, easy to type... and adding hyphens violates all of those goals. The best chance you have of someone remembering your site is for them to remember your domain (and exactly how to spell it). And search engines have been identifying keywords in non-hyphenated domain names since the beginning of time. They have NO problem doing so. The rare cases where they might not know how you intend to break up a domain name into keyword - experts exchange vs expert sex change for example - are just that... VERY rare... 1 in a billion. Adding hyphens doesn't really help enough to warrant making your domain name longer, harder to remember the exact spelling, and harder to type. I do recommend hyphenating keywords in the path portion of your URLs (folder and file names). Very few people are going to remember a URL like example.com/somefolder/pagename.html. They "might" remember your domain, but that is generally about it. So having hyphens in the path doesn't detract from the usuability of the site... In fact it makes the folder and page names (which are generally longer than domain names) easier to read. Of the three you listed, homeschooling.net is best from an SEO perspective. Regardless of how competitive the phrase "home schooling" is, having an exact match domain gives you a HUGE boost in ranking for that phrase. Personally, I avoid any TLDs except .com and .org. But of the 3 you listed I'd have to go with the .net. The other two have "happy" in them and NO ONE is going to search for "happy home schooling" so you will never get any type of exact match boost in rankings. Those domains will be as hard to rank for home schooling related terms as zipiddydodah.com would be.
although, search engines are much better at parsing keywords than they used to be it is still a possibility that they will not parse it or will not parse it correctly. unless, you've read something from forrester research, SEOmoz, or someone with credibility and case studies behind them I think that spouting off that "1 in a billion" number is speculation at best. i think you make great points about the perception of the target demo and the possibility of misspellings but if the majority of the clients traffic comes via search and their is little to gain in copycatting such a well known brand as homeschooling.com - i think you'd be pretty safe. but, as they say - to each there own.