Is keyword in domain important for se ranking?

[Robban]

Let's say I have two identical websites a) mortgageRefinancingHQ.com and b) MRheadQuarters.com.

Both sites would be identically optimized for "mortgage and Refinancing" and have same content !!!!

Would a) rank higher for the search term: "mortgage refinancing" and all "mortgage" and "refinancing" searches just because the Keyword also exists in the url.

Simply; is keyword in domain important for se ranking? If so how important?

[SEOforGoogle]

First off, if you have the same content on both sites, one of them will get nailed with a duplicate content penalty and not see any results at all.

The domain name does not factor into the ranking, but it does factor into the branding of your site, so choose the one that people are more likely to select.

[Robban]

The scenario of 2 identical sites was hypothetical only to illustrate the focus of my question. I thought that was clear... So in your opinion a keyword in the domain does not factor into the search engines whatsoever. I am not interested in the domain quality for any other reason than for SE ranking in this TOTALLY MADE UP SCENARIO. -- If anybody have any other opinions regarding keyword in domain please let me know. Possible differences between search engines?? Are there any search engines that do focus on domain only is an interesting question. (wouldnt be all that bad of an engine - especially if it factored in a few other things)

[bhartzer]

Having the keywords in the domain name really doesn't have much effect at all on rankings. In fact, the keyword in the domain name has the same effect as having the keyword in the directory or filename.

If I were to pick a domain name, I would pick mortgageRefinancingHQ because it tells the visitors that the site is about mortgage refinancing.

What also helps, though, is that when other sites link to your site they would be more likely to use your site's name in their link text, which would be 'mortage refinancing headquarters'.

[Miki]

Keywords in the domain will definately plus point... Its gonna help you in having better ranks.

About your query, your domain mortgageRefinancingHQ.com will get advantage over the other as it has both the mortgage and refinanace keyword.
It the urls of your site are optmized i.e you design theme based website then it can help you get high in SERPs( provided you make use of both onpage and offpage factors)....


BUT IF THE WEBSITES ARE IDENTICAL IN NATURE i.e content is same then search engines may drop both of the sites from SERPs or it can become the case of Page jaking.. so i cant recommend you do adopt this strategy .. instead you must design and develop KEYWORD RICH WEBSITES but there must not be keyword stuffing ..... try to target 2-3 keywords for a single webpage.. make use of h1,[b],[i],<a>.. the basic elements of SEO.. draft some articles on the targetted keywords and put them in your website as well post these articles to various websites then will provide youe inboubd links

[seo learner]

Originally Posted by Robban

Let's say I have two identical websites a) mortgageRefinancingHQ.com and b) MRheadQuarters.com.

Both sites would be identically optimized for "mortgage and Refinancing" and have same content !!!!

Would a) rank higher for the search term: "mortgage refinancing" and all "mortgage" and "refinancing" searches just because the Keyword also exists in the url.

Simply; is keyword in domain important for se ranking? If so how important?

Yes keyword(s) are really helpful in a domain....it will really help you if the keyword appears in the url, but that is not all... is the keyword having any ocuurance in your text also???

[Eliyahu]

Originally Posted by SEOforGoogle

The domain name does not factor into the ranking, but it does factor into the branding of your site, so choose the one that people are more likely to select.

It seems hard to believe that having the keyword in the domain name does not have a effect on the ranking. I would venture to say that 50% of the sites found on the first page of Google have the their keyword in the domain name. Is that just a coincidence?

[SEOforGoogle]

while it may seem like coincidence, I would bet that those sites that have the keyword in the domain also have relevant content related to that keyword, thus, getting the site ranked well.

until an engineer tells us explicitly one way or the other, it's all speculation...

[freehits]

It blows my mind that no person here has made a point and stated how it is diffferent between the SE's.

They all do NOT appraoch this the same.

In my extensive serp watching, Yahoo will give weight to the keyword in the domain and folder structure, MSN and google do not.

To answer this with a broad sweeping yes or no is silly, since they each treat this differently.

[freehits]

Originally Posted by Eliyahu

It seems hard to believe that having the keyword in the domain name does not have a effect on the ranking. I would venture to say that 50% of the sites found on the first page of Google have the their keyword in the domain name. Is that just a coincidence?

I would venture to say your 50% figure is extremely far off and much too high.

I imaging the % is the same on the first 5 pages, since 'google' does not treat keywords in the domain with any favoritism.

Again stated, it appears clear that yahoo does.

[Robban]

it makes me think that I would definitely try to write a domain with the top keyword in it. This was what I wanted to know. SO IF TWO domains are equally good and click-friendly then you'd go with the one featuring a keyword or better keyword. (clearly my example does not have equal click-friendly names)

But it was interesting to see the difference in opinion here. From a logical point I would definitely let my search engine use som eof the weight of a domain but not too much.

[freehits]

I pick them with the keyword if I am able to for the yahoo benefits. I would not choose an ugly spammy domain just to accomidate this though, which is common sense I guess for most in here :D

[cbp]

The days of keyword rich domain names being of any great help are over.... the spammers made sure of that.

IMHO, something like one or a few keyword rich anchor text backlinks is more benefit than the keyword in the domain name..... hardy worth worrying about..

CBP

[wrmineo]

Originally Posted by cbp

The days of keyword rich domain names being of any great help are over.... the spammers made sure of that.

IMHO, something like one or a few keyword rich anchor text backlinks is more benefit than the keyword in the domain name..... hardy worth worrying about..

CBP

cbp brings up a good point, but IMO it's also just as "dead" because there are so many squatters out there.

However, I will give a good example:

Do a search in Yahoo, MSN, AltaVist (sadly most except Google) for "tax help site" "tax answers site" and you'll see a domain that I am honestly squatting on TaxHelpSite.com. My webhost gave me 10 free domain registrations as a "sorry gift" and had the domains I already wanted, so I picked up some with the sole hope and intention that some CPA firm, tax lawyer or others, would think, "That's It - I want it!"

Anyway, that hasn't happened (yet), but it does show how some engines rank not just the domain name, but the URL file structure in general.

Another proof of this, is that when you do queries in many search engines, directories, etc. you'll see the word/terms you're searching for are bold or colored, this is true for the title, description, and the domain/file struture - it's because they're weighting it in the relevancy IMO.

That's not to take away from the points that cbp mentioned: the fact remains that sites MUST have good content, code, links et al, but it does bring to bear that one should be cognizant of structuring their files and URI's.

You don't have to have the best domain name, but you can compensate by how you name your files, images and other items.

IMO - when the title, content, code and file structure compliment - they collectively kick butt!