Quote:
Originally Posted by moredial
Domain name is maybe less than 1% of SEO. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kate Lennon
Rubbish. It is demonstrably the case that the domain name is more important to search engine positioning than any other factor. Where do you get your "1%"? Did you pluck it out of thin air?
A strong domain name will almost always appear on page 1 or 2 of Google search results (usually the former) REGARDLESS of any other factors, including inbound links, meta descriptions, keywords etc.
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Not sure about the exact percentage, but moredial is more right than wrong. Keyword rich domain names are a fairly low
SEO factor, despite what Kate maintains. She seems to have reasons to believe otherwise, but there are precious few industry experts or observers who agree with her - if any.
At least I couldn't find one...
Jill Whelan, for example, says,
"The myth of using keyword-rich domains for SEO purposes has been
perpetuated for way too long, and quite frankly I'm tired of seeing it written about as if it's an all-important SEO factor.that keywords in domains." From:
High Rankings' Advisor - Keyword-Rich Domain Names - Issue No. 016
SEO Pundit Bruce Clay seems to think your TLD is more important than keyword richness in the name:
"Even though keywords in the URL may give some boost, this should merely be factored into your decision, not rule it." From:
bruceclay.com - How to Select a Domain; Top Level Domains
However, there are some reasons why it might seem as though the keywords in the domain name are a heavier factor than it actually is. Keywords in your domain will often help get your keywords into the anchor text of incoming links.
Many SEOs do agree that keywords in domains will give you a boost in Google, but not a great degree.
Danny Sullivan says,
"Keywords in URLs have commonly been consider to provide at best a very slight ranking boost, so I suppose one of those three choices makes sense."
So, let's go back to
Jill Whelan's quote for a moment to help Kate understand why it seems like keywords in domains have a greater influence:
The myth of using keyword-rich domains for SEO purposes has been
perpetuated for way too long, and quite frankly I'm tired of seeing it
written about as if it's an all-important SEO factor.
See for Yourself
Perform some searches in any spidering search engine and sure, you may
very well find keyword-rich domains in the top spots. But upon closer
inspection, you'll see that the same keywords are also in the Title
tags of those sites. Title tags *are* very important to high
rankings; I daresay that they're as important as body copy. Many see
the keyword-rich domain name, and assume that's what is causing the
high ranking. Yet it's much more likely that the high ranking is a
direct result of the Title tag and/or the body text, along with the
other usual SEO suspects.
If Kate or anyone can find three experts of equal reputation to agree that domain names in keywords are a major
SEO factor, please let us know ...
Cheers, MJ