I am about to launch a site targeted to a specific online industry. Since I'd rather not tip my hat, let's say for arguments sake it's a site about where to find coupon codes for certain airlines, so I want to target "jetblue coupons" and "spirit coupons" (all hypothetical). I've noticed that when the keywords are in the domain name of the site, they seem to rank much higher in search rankings, even if there is a higher quality site with a different name sometimes. Based on this, I thought it might be a good idea to acquire the domain names "jetbluecoupons.com" and "spiritcoupons.com". I've found that these .com domain names are not available though, but their .net counterparts are -- "jetbluecoupons.net" and "spiritcoupons.net". Questions: 1. Does it make sense to acquire these? Would I get significant SEO benefits from them? 2. What about if my primary domain name was "airlinecoupons.com" and I either redirected "jetbluecoupons.net" and "spiritcoupons.net" there, or just put up a simple page on those and then redirected to airlinecoupons.com? Would this change the answer to #1? Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
1. It depends on how you plan on getting traffic for your site. If you see it coming mostly from search engines (i.e. people typing in specific keywords and clicking on the top results), then most definitely a domain name with the keywords people search certainly improves your SE ranking. Saying that, it is important that you choose the right keywords. The 'right' keywords being those that people actually search on for your theme. I'd suggest a good keyword tool like Google Keyword Search for this purpose. If, however, you are trying to build a brand name, then a domain with generic keywords is not a good idea. 2. I wouldn't necessarily do redirects, as they dilute the quality of your site. Better like you say to just have a link on those sites to the new one, or to turn those sites into sub-niche sites. In that way you capture as many keyword searches as possible. Hope that helps.
I totally agree with video surfer. Put a blog on the URLs with a review of your site add 3-4 extra posts. backlink it all. If you can find 4 extra keywords with the URL keyword inside use those on the site for extra traffic.
Also, naming a subfolder with your keywords counts as having them in the domain. Such as: airlinecoupons.com/jet-blue-coupons/ (with or without the hyphens). Then you can make a separate page for each keyword. The only downside to doing this instead of building several related "satellite sites" is you don't get the backlink value. But it's a little safer in terms of following the Webmaster guidelines.
But I guess the the main domain name of the site like airlinecoupons.com has more weight than boobies.com/articles/more-articles/trash-bin/airlinecoupons
I think its good to have keyword in the domain name but again in that case you will have only specific visitors and you will not be able to create a brand value in long run... good for short term but not for long term approach
Google most certainly does pay more attention to sites with the keyword phrase in the domain itself. However... If you put a company/trademark name in the domain you will always have to worry about corporate lawyers sending you a C&D letter. My advice is to buy the generic domain that is at least somewhat related to the company/trademark names and add posts targeting those companies. Then go out and get lots of keyword anchored backlinks to your site using the keyword phrases you wish to rank for.
As far as domains go, by frontloading your keywords, you are in most cases going to get better treatment in the search engines. That is from my experience anyway, but try to steer clear of those extremely long domain names and the such. Keep it simple and catchy, and always go for a keyword rich domain.
I prefer to use .com domain, if there wasn't, I'll choose .net or .org. "Do not add any dashes in your domain because only 4% of top ranking domains contain dashes." (Google Best Practices Guide by Jerry West)