Does presence of popular keyword in domain name affect?

Hi guys,
I am going to register a new domain. And domain name that I have in my is available. But I am in a dilemma.
1. The domain name contains a keyword which conveys the theme of my site. ( I liked this )
2. But the keyword is a pretty common keyword. And a search for it leads to well known companies that deal with the theme.
I don't know if point 2 is a good thing or bad thing. One way of looking at is since its one of the most commonly searched keywords, at least people will find site after the 2nd or 3rd page. But at the same time, I know that my ranking will never up
Please let me know if i can go ahead.
Analogies if this is a repeat. I already did some search. couldn't find any match.

 

Because that keyword is popular, you are not likely to get high search rankings for that specific keyword, whatever it is.

But my sense of it is that having your primary keyword in your domain name will help you rank for some long-tail variations of that keyword. For a hypothetical example, you might never rank for "real estate." But you might rank for "real estate in Pleasant Hill, Oregon" (if, for example, Pleasant Hill was your focus). Having "real estate" in your domain, it seems to me, could help for the various longer-tail searches, and I can't see how it could possibly hurt.

 

I'd actually recommend not having you main keyword in your domain name. Google unleashed a penalty awhile back to try to stop people from buying a keyword domain name, building a low quality site, and ranking. My recommendation is to go for a brandable domain name instead. People will still learn what you do as soon as they visit your site.

Then build great content and foster relationships to attract natural backlinks. This is what will lead to rankings.

 

I do think that keywords in the domain help. My experience is the opposite of findearnings', but I probably don't have as much experience as him. I'd nevertheless love to do some further research on that, because, if true, it would upset a lot of agencies' current SEO strategies. Findearnings, if you'd be kind enough to point me towards what I should look at, I'd really appreciate it!

I hate to use it as an example, because I've let it go by the wayside recently, but if you do a Google search for "economic thought" you should see http://www.economicthought.net/blog/ as the first result. Unfortunately, I can't check adwords now and I'm sure that term is not as highly valued as the one you're thinking of, but at the same time it does provide some evidence in favor of having the key term in the domain. At the same time, while that site is not really SEO optimized (not intentionally, at any rate), it does have a lot of high quality back links, a lot of content (although not as much in recent months), and a moderate social media presence. So, how much of it is really the domain? I don't know.

Like in the above case, there's other SEO factors that go into this site, but it has the key word in the domain. And, in this case, the keyword gets a global traffic of about 90,000 searches per month on average and they are high competition. It's just optimized for a local search. It comes up #6 on Google in a local search for "dental implants dentist." To be fair, not all sites that use similar strategies are that successful -- most require that the whole long-tail term is used ([product] [city]). But, none of the sites that I've worked on that have used that strategy have ever been penalized, and they are typically relatively highly ranked.

Edit: It apparently did not save my links when I posted. The second site I refer to is dentalimplantsinalbany.com

Also, the doctor's main site is not ranked on the first page at all for that term. Just the site I optimized for him, using that keyword in the domain.

 

Thanks for the response Jon! I did not mean to imply that you can't rank a domain that has an exact match keyword in the name. What I'm saying is that ranking has way more to do with the quality of the content on that domain. Exact match domains used to be a key ranking factor. You'd have really low quality sites ranking above others, just because of the keyword in the domain name. That doesn't work anymore.

Here are a couple of resources to check out on the topic:
http://www.nichepursuits.com/goodbye-exact-match-domains-hello-brandable-websites/
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-emd-update-15776.html

You can view Matt Cutt's video explaining that Google no longer gives much value to exact match domains. That was a couple of years ago that he created that video explaining the devaluation of EMDs. What I'm trying to advocate is staying ahead of Google's updates so that you don't have any concern about future algorithm updates. One way to do that is by going for a brandable name and letting the content attract links that lead to rankings.

Another concern to consider is your anchor tags. It's well known by now that Google doesn't like a bunch of targeted anchor tags. That being said, when people link to a site, they often use the domain name as the anchor text. So if your domain is full of the keywords you want to rank for, you could be accidentally creating an unnatural looking anchor text profile in Google's eyes. This could have the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve, even if the links were created naturally.

Apologies if it sounded like all keyword based domains would be slapped down. That is definitely not the case. If you build an authoritative site, you can definitely rank with whatever domain you want. It's just not a key beneficial ranking factor these days, which is why I'd say go for brand.

That being said, let me know your thoughts! Cheers!

Quick update: I did take a look at your site. It has quite a few high quality pieces of content. Google can use domains to try to get an indication of what a site is about. However, that is not the same thing as determining where it ranks. I'd think of it as this. Google can tell that your site is about economic thoughts (which you have in the text on your blog as well). Then they see the high quality content and choose to rank you for that keyword. If your site was low quality, you wouldn't be up there.

 

Keywords domain names still help but not as they used to be before.

 

I think what it can help with is giving one more indicator to Google on the topic of your website. It won't be much of a factor in ranking your site by itself though, which used to be the case. You still need high quality content and natural links. So in my opinion it's not that you'll automatically screw yourself by going with an EMD, it's that I think you'll get more benefit by working on building a brand.

 

I agree with what you said.

But some neglect keywords domains completely and this is not wise. Keywords domains are just one factor that can help when combined with SEO and SEM. They are not effective as they used to be but still they are effective.

 

Sure. I should have mentioned in my initial post that they can be used as an indicator of your website's topic. This combined with high quality content and natural links can lead to rankings for that term.

One question to consider is how long that will remain to be the case. It's already been devalued once. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being totally devalued. That's why I'd go for a brand name that people remember.

Now, a brand name could include some keywords. That alone won't hurt you. If the keywords sound reputable (and are easy to spell and not too long), then you can go for it. If it's alabama-business-liability-insurance.com, then please, please, just don't

You also have to consider how the domain will appear to users, social media influencer's and potential partners. Will the big cheese in the industry want to link to supercheapautoinsurancenow.com? Probably won't go over nearly as well on Facebook and in email outreach campaigns as something more brandable.

Using economicthoughts.com from Jon's message: that's a brandable keyword right there. Still sounds legitimate. So that's a situation where I'd say go for it. But in general, it's hard for me to recommend EMDs.

Thanks for all these comments guys. This thread has really grown in value from the initial comment I made. Hopefully it's helpful.

 

thanks a lot, jim, findearnings, jon, maddenitros. that was very helpful. some high quality discussion there.
anyway, i have decided to go ahead with my plan. ( i am not looking at ad sense revenue. not worried about page rank. but my site shouldn't go unnoticed. i want to write quality content, connect to people. dont want to be a me too player. i don't have any plan of monetizing it for at least 2 years..eventually i want to convert to a subscription based service with money back option.. even if it doesn't succeed, i wont lose anything as i am not dependent on this income. lets see how it goes)

 

Regardless of SEO benefits, in my opinion, it is more important to have a brandable and memorable domain name. Organic traffic is great but you should never rely solely on it. Meaning, if your brand gets big, you will actually want your users to go directly to your website . You want your website to be a brand. Example: Where would you more likely buy shoes? Asos.com or buy-great-shoes.com? Build a brand, a name and a reputation.

Also, Let's say that you are ranking on first page of Google. Now let's say that tomorrow Google launches a major update and everything changes? If you are relying solely on organic traffic, see what happens there? Well, this is my personal opinion.

Anyway good luck with your site Glenn.

 

Great input and advise, building a brand name for your business is where we should be focused. But, people keep comparing the worst type of keyword domains with a nice short brandbale domain, this not the real case. There are some good keyword that can be used to build a brand example: greatshoes.com.

Your example was of a long 3 keywords domain with dashes (Long hyphen domains) with a short 4 chars domain. It is not a fair comparison.

 

It is not a good idea because you will never be able to get the required rankings.

 

Jim4767 ive been in this same situation" using the word handyman in generalized location meaning the state name such as "Idaho Handyman" or "South Idaho Handyman" in which case ide be trying to get the searches for me city in Alabama such as "Boise Idaho Handyman" ...... ..... the main highest term of course to reflect would be Idaho Handyman while the city" Boise" am i on the right track???

 

findearnings.... my question to yoyu is if im in the construction trade which i am ,and i want people to know i am a handyman in idaho" How would you lable that domain to target traffic in which for examole I live i n South Idaho. I want South Idaho traffic. Do you have any good ideas of how to lable a domain as you mentioned above statement.

 

If I were a handyman in Boise, and if Boise-Idaho-handyman.html were not already taken, that's the one I would go for personally, or something like it.

 

In my opinion, you should not keep the main keyword in your domain name. You can take the help of long tail keyword to rank your site.

 

Keywords in domain do not help at all and it has nothing to do with ranking. So better don’t consider such domain names. Instead, try to buy a domain name for your brand. Build your brand not keyword-driven website.

 

Presence of keyword in domain name will not going to do anything with your ranking so it doesn’t matter whether it is a common word or not. Competition is not analyzed on the basis of domain names.

 

I suggest to choose your target keyword in your domain that has to resemble your either services or products. If not choosing,with out related doesn't helps you any more