I am about to start a painting dropshipping business and am wondering if I should buy (blank) paintings.com for 5k. Basically I am wondering is it worth it to get a good domain like this or should I buy a cheap domain and spend 5k on seo, backlinks, reviews, etc? The domain is 10 years old and has the main targeted keyword phrase I am looking for. I want the site to rank very high in the search engines for numerous keywords.
It is all part of the algorithm, no one knows how much it accounts for but yes they do matter. I think you should still budget something for SEO even if you get this good domain name. I should also qualify it by saying that to the best of my knowledge I have not seen any case study that shows keywords in the domain help ranking but I do know it can help when you acquire certain backlinks because some directories and organic links will use your domain name, so they will write a blog post about something they saw over at (blank) painting and that will give you a link.
Does the domain have existing backlinks? Are they any good? Does the domain appear in any related business directories or off site publications? Is the domain brandable? Keywords in a domain are one of many ranking factors. It's logical for a search engine to give some credit to a domain that contains a related keyword. It has ALWAYS worked for me. Do a search yourself for any term and look at the top 30 results. How many times do you see keywords in a domain. And you are on target with your assessment that having keywords in your domain helps with backlinks. Many times people will use your domain name as your back link anchor text. In a world where the vast majority of good names are already registered, if 5K makes sense to your branding proposition then you should buy it. And spending 5K on SEO, etc. may actually be harder to rank.. because you can't just stop SEO campaigns you have to keep at them. It might be a whole lot easier just to spend a few less dollars advertising a really good domain name. It's kind of like opening up a new Burger King or a Joe's Burgers. Same idea... one has built in marketability.
I suggest that you go with the second option (I buy a cheap domain and spend 5k on seo, backlinks, reviews, etc". The first option would be good if only the domain has a lot of good targeted traffic. 5K is a lot of money for a single website. You can use PPC to drive traffic and build a newsletter of loyal customers or potential customers. Keywords matter more than age. New websites rank lower, but after a while it is less meaningful. The backlinks you will get will make a bigger difference. With 5K, you can get a lot of good backlinks.
It still plays a role. But having an old domain only doesn't mean that you can get a good ranking on the SEs instantly. And one factor is not enough to get on top. SEO is combination of different techinques. And PR, is just a part of the whole process.
the domain does have merits. people will be typing that into their browsers. however as for google, its a bit unpredictable. usually they love domains that old. however, remember they take account whole bunch of crap like how often that site is updated, who links to you, and etc. i'd say you can spend 5k, and get targetted traffic through some SEO, like directory/article submissions to high PR sites and etc.
also i find paints for 5k a little too cheap. are you sure this is the going amount? if so you can buy it and flip it for a higher price.
Yes, age and keyword domain name is really matter! Its so hard to compete with this kind of website particularly when this site well optimize and have a lot of backlinks.