How important is domain choice? In SEO terms

I got a new blog, which I'm using quite random domain with. It doesn't have any keywords or anything. Just like a random brandable domain kind of thing.

I was wondering how important is having keywords in your domain in terms of SEO. Like in realistically is it really that important?

Any advice from SEO experts?

 

1.Domain name can be a BRAND name
(or)
2.It must be a targeted Keyword Domain Name...

But you cannot write about "weight loss" in ford.com .. Just an example.. ;-)

 

In SEO we try to use keywords wherever it is possible and therefore URL is a good place for it but having keywords in URL is not necessary. In case if you are using keyword phrases then use '-' between keywords and domain must look like http://www.abc-xyz.com/.

 

As per me domain name is one of the important factors for SEO

 

well it's not that random lol.

what about like cool numbers like 88884.com?

 

It helps a lot to have a good keyword...if the keyword you want is taken, try using hyphens because I have heard from experts that SEs see hyphens as spaces.

 

Ya, Hyphens hmm.

The only reason I don't use them is because not only does it look longer but I've heard that it's a huge disadvantage. Because it doesn't look that professional and also it can cause lots of confusion when trying to tell people the URL via phone or face to face, especially if they are not computer proficient.

 

yes using keywords in domain name helps you lot geeting good rank in google not in domain but also in content in meta tags and also in links.

 

In SEO content is king but keywords are knights,if you have keyword oriented domain then your keyword will rank quickly in search listings.

 

yes its true. if u can use your main keyword in the link. its an advantage.. but i also seen some websites that ranked good in se i mean it ranks before the ones that had the main keyword in the link.. so how jopsons said, content is king.

 

Do you know about SEF URLs? What is their importance? If you know that than you also know the answer of your question.

 

SEO is purely based on target keywords so if you select the keyword as your domain name means you will get more priority than your competitors.

 

SEF URL is a Search Engine Friendly URLS.

This is same as what we discussed before here...

 

i wouldn't say having the keywords in the domain is that important, google someday might penalize

 

In my experience, the domain name having keywords within seems to be more important with Yahoo!. I don't know of the specific level of importance in Google, as we have not had the same amount of organic ranking success with Google, but I would say they definitely seem to value the domain less than Yahoo!. That said, I would theorize that it can't hurt to have keywords in your domain.

Unlike MasterKool, I do not think Google would ever penalize a site because it has keywords in the domain. Google can devalue it, but they wouldn't penalize for it. That would punish far more legitimate web sites than spam sites, in my opinion.

 

Keywords in the domain name are important in the short term.
In the long term it tends to make no difference whatsoever.
Quality content and decent backlinks are much more important.

 

I disagree, keywords in the domain name DO matter. You will find it far easier to rank a keyword rich domain name than a random number-letter combination.

With that said however, non-keyword domains can rank very well with the right efforts. If you were to ask me what I prefer, then I'd say buy a domain name (not a dropped domain either) with your keyword in it.

Yes, search engines think hyphens as spaces. No, it's not difficult to tell your customers your URL with hyphens in it. Ever hear of email? Or business cards? Back in the day, the ease of remembering an url was important for people to find you on the internet. Now the search engines decide what shows up, or not. So what you do, and how you do it is more important than the name of your domain.

Food for thought there, and always up to opinion (read - debate).

 

For myself , i love to have keywords on domain. it's easier to do seo that branded domain.

 

I find domains to be very important, especially for Yahoo. Several of my sites rank automatically well for the keyword phrase that was in their domain. Google gives you a pretty big boost as well. The problem is, you only get one domain name, so the amount of traffic it yields compared to backlinking is small.

 

An anecdotal illustration — I used a certain keyword in the domain name. It wasn't very competitive, I'll admit (about 120 searches a month). This keyword in the domain name scored #1 in all the major search engine SERPs from the get-go.