How valuable is having a relevant domain title in relation to SEO? Say you were targeting the keywords multifunction printers, would multifunctionprinters.com etc. give you a better ranking than another name if the content of the site was the same? Thanks, Julian
Keyword domains are very helpful for SEO. Most of the links you get to the site will include your site name, which is very targeted anchor text.
In answer to the OP, yes it would. Keywords in a domain are pretty vital, unless your shooting for the branding option in which case your relying on a unique twist, word of mouth and heavy promotion.
Unless something has changed recently, the bots cannot see keywords when all the words run together. They will only see them if they are separated by dashes. I would be more concerned about the domain describing the site and keeping it short and easy to remember.
Bots do just fine at seeing keywords in URLs, even when their not seperated by hyphens. I'm not sure where you're getting that from, but I know for a fact I rank better on a keyword that's in my URL, and not hypenated, so yes, it does help. Keywords in the domain of your site do help, but only so much. You'll have to create value for your domain, by getting backlinked, working on on-page seo and just doing general promotion. Without that, the keyword in the domain won't help at all. With proper promotion, seo techniques and backlinking, you'll do just fine, and benefit from the keyword in the domain. Good luck!
Reality Check - all good keyword rich domains (including hyphenated) are gone, so unless you are looking for non .com, kw1-kw2-kw3.com kind of domain (which I feels are way too spammy) or thekw1.com or kw1999.com than you can do it but really you won't get too much advantage from it. So in short, I don't think focussing too much on domain name for SEO advantage is going to help you much. If you have deep pockets than yes, you can get a good domain name, otherwise don't bother with 2 hyphens or .info's. You won't get much help
Fair enough, cheers for the input. I realise most of the good domains are gone, but why are .info's and other suffixes bad?
Great, I'd like to see the pages of data you have accumulated after months of detailed testing and analysis, which is the ONLY way you would no for a fact that it makes a difference. Would you mind posting a link?
I'm confused -- can someone point out for me the URL where Google says dashes can rank higher than non-dashes domain? I thought they were referring only to single pages instead of domain names? This is a good thread, keep 'em coming.
Choosing a domain name for a website is tricky business. The value of that domain name will be placed squarely upon the results you get in traffic from it.
Yes it helps definitely. But some times if your products and services are too good and have extreme high quality which are enough to create famous brand name in industries than it is not a big deal whatever your domain name is. For example one of the transport company named Britz, Backpacker and etc... For some services it is not proper to get such domain. For example my website sales web site development, designing and SEO services. How can i include all these things in domain name? If i try to add then my domain name will be too lengthy and it is also not preferable because long domain name Visitors can not remember easily.