Choosing a domain for SEO

Having an exact match domain, or a domain with your websites keywords in it will help improve your rankings with Google.

When choosing your domain, unless you have a big budget, you should try and search for "long tailed" keyword domains for your niche. If your niche is "USED CARS" you should try and get a domain name that has those keywords in it, if those are the keywords you wish to rank.

 

Yeap you are right, it really helps a lot for ranking. By time it's obviously seen that you are getting higher rankings in search result pages. You move faster to upper pages. Even you have the chance to rank on first place by time. It really affects a lot if your domain name consists the keywords you want.

 

I don't think that domain name have too much value in seo since google panda update. Domain name value in seo is about 10% and rest comes from relevant content, quality backlinks etc. It's much better to select your company's name as a domain name and branding in the domain.

 

The most important thing to look in a domain is the availability of the brand in it. Google has lowered the importance of the exact match domains a year ago and it is one of the most obvious footprints that can result in Google penalty for overoptimisation.
brand.com/long-tail-keyword looks way more natural than long-keyword.com/long-tail-keyword.

 

Exact match domains no longer carry any weight in the SERPs. Google did this to combat spammy sites like buyviagraonline.com, etc. So buy a domain with BRANDING in mind and that is EASY TO REMEMBER.

 

I'm seeing WAY better performance on branded domains over exact match domains (EMD) or even partial match domains (PMD). If you want incredibly powerful ranking power, purchase an aged, branded domain from auction with a super clean link profile (mostly branded and URL anchors). Here's a comparison of performance between two sites of mine. One is a branded auctioned domain, the other is an aged EMD. Both have about the same amount of links going to them. Neither are penguin penalized (good anchor text distribution, according to each type). Each are targeting the same keyword.

Branded Domain: Hit #12 in 4 days



EMD: Never hit #14 in 1.5 months



Of course, I'm sending the same high powered, relevant backlinks towards each, but the EMD has required many more of them and its still under performing.

 

Nope, not any longer. Google doesn't give an advantage to EMD for quite some time now.

 

Agree exact match domains on their own are not important for off page seo, however having your targeted keywords in your domain/URL are an important piece of the puzzle for on page seo

 

I partially disagree with the common view here. Let's suppose I need to promote a "dog training product" with CB affiliate program. How I would obtain some results by using the form brandname.com/dog-training-program? It can work only if I already have an established presence as a dog trainer, but if I am an internet marketer would not be better to use the EMD form to get quicker exposure? Well maybe I am wrong...

 

You can disagree as much as you can, but it is Google who calls the shots. And Google called that EMD doesn't get the advantage any longer.

 

There was a EMD Algo change in Google when the websites were doing great in affiliate marketing but since then the domains easy to remember got visited again by the web visitors.

 

Yes... Well, not totally right because your keyword could become less popular for example after 3-6 months... I would go with a popular keyword instead and ONLY if possible a short phrase for exact match!

 

Choose a domain that is within your brand and memorable. It would be easier for your visitor to remember your site if you use such thus bringing more traffic to your site.

 

i have multiple keywords for my website. then how to select my domain name as same as my keyword.

 

Generally although there are many keywords a site name should tell users what the site is about. Example. There are hundreds of keywords for godaddy coupons but look at the name of this domain webmasterpromotions.com

 

Entirely accurate. Good post.
Nigel

 

It has to be related to the main content of your site and easy to remember. It has to be catchy... It does not matter if it is .com or .biz or .fr, search engines don't privilege any extension. I would not focus only on keywords and think about users too. Keywords are best put in the title meta tag and in a <h1> tag.

 

I try and keep my keywords in the domains I buy where I can but it's not the be all and end all in SEO. It does help though, every little helps, right?

 

I wouldn't recommend EMD's. Try go for a brandable domain but has 1 or 2 keywords that you are targeting.

 

Totally agree with your point. Go for phrase match while choosing the domain name if exact match is not there. As per current policies these are likely to do well with less effort as compared to brand domain.