Domain name vs Content

[Kate Lennon]

PS - Google gives Wikipedia special status as a "science resource". The fact that Wiki appears so prominently in search results has nothing to do with inbound links. Google has been cozying up to Wikipedia for a couple of years now - in much the same way that a python snuggles up to a rabbit before gobbling it up wholesale. Expect a takeover at any minute.

[mjtaylor]

Bless you, Kate and thank heaven for consensus among those with credibility. The little red or green mark below the number of posts indicates the reputation of the member, based on the experience of other members. Red marks are rare. I will trust that newer members will notice them and trust sources accordingly.

[Kate Lennon]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Bless you, Kate and thank heaven for consensus among those with credibility. The little red or green mark below the number of posts indicates the reputation of the member, based on the experience of other members. Red marks are rare. I will trust that newer members will notice them and trust sources accordingly.

It's hardly breaking news that most people are easily fooled (look at the presidents you elect over there). The proof of the pudding is in the number of green bills you put in your bank account, not in the number of green marks you have under your name in an Internet forum. I earn in the region of 2m euros a year from my websites (not sure what that is in US dollars - about $3m?). I own properties in Ireland, the UK and here in the South Spain, where I live in a villa overlooking the beach. I also own a large apartment in the city. I have three cars here, a Porsche, a BMW and a Mercedes. I've had full page articles written about me in newspapers and financial publications in the UK and Ireland. So you'll pardon me if your little green stars don't mean diddlysquat to me. As far as I can see, only one or two people here know what they're talking about. And you're not one of them.

[mjtaylor]

I do believe you are successful, Kate, but I don't believe it's primarily because of keywords in domains.

The consensus, which represents a sum total of experience and wisdom far greater than mine or yours, is that keywords in domains are a minor factor.

[davidweb]

sexyshoes[dot]com has higher density of keyword arrangement than sexyshoesonline[dot]com.

Google gives preference to higher density rather than lower density domain.

[mjtaylor]

Moved two posts on to new thread: If content is so great, why is my website buried?
where the question can get the attention it deserves.

[joewattie]

First of all my credentials; I have none. Occasionally I'm lucky enough to get a temporary gig here and there doing clerical work. Sometimes these places have do-it-yourself interfaces to some of the company web pages that I get to update.

Using empirical observations it seems to me that having a domain name with "keywords" helps. It's not the end all and be all but it seems to be at least a piece of the puzzle. Especially if you're fortunate to have a couple back links; it would seem a back link to "GreaterRochesterMortgage.com" would be worth more than a back link to "GRM.com" because of the keywords contained (I'm assuming that most back links don't take the extra effort of using meaningful anchor text.)

Overture suggested that "rochester mortgage" is a fairly popular keyword for our area and while our website is relatively weak we get relatively good positioning for the keywords "rochester mortgage" and "mortgage rochester". And we got *no* positioning for "rochester mortgageS" nor "mortgageS rochester" ... the plural of. (I've also noticed that we get better positioning if I google from within the Rochester area as opposed to someplace out of state.)

I also noticed another company kept popping up with top positioning for those keywords. It's company name / domain name was similar to ours but it was for a Rochester in another state and their website was even weaker than ours. It kinda reinforced the idea that domain name played a role.

With that in mind I bought the domain name GreaterRochesterMortgageS.com and had it pointed to our website. Within a month we started getting good positioning for "Rochester MortgageS" and MortgageS Rochester.

I also had our web host change the owner of our domain name from his company name to our company name. I can't swear that this helped but if I were writing the code I would consider using owner name as another vote of authenticity.

I've other corroborating anecdotes from other places I've worked but I fear I've bored you all long enough.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by joewattie

First of all my credentials; I have none. Occasionally I'm lucky enough to get a temporary gig here and there doing clerical work. Sometimes these places have do-it-yourself interfaces to some of the company web pages that I get to update.

Using empirical observations it seems to me that having a domain name with "keywords" helps. It's not the end all and be all but it seems to be at least a piece of the puzzle. Especially if you're fortunate to have a couple back links; it would seem a back link to "GreaterRochesterMortgage.com" would be worth more than a back link to "GRM.com" because of the keywords contained (I'm assuming that most back links don't take the extra effort of using meaningful anchor text.)

Overture suggested that "rochester mortgage" is a fairly popular keyword for our area and while our website is relatively weak we get relatively good positioning for the keywords "rochester mortgage" and "mortgage rochester". And we got *no* positioning for "rochester mortgageS" nor "mortgageS rochester" ... the plural of. (I've also noticed that we get better positioning if I google from within the Rochester area as opposed to someplace out of state.)
.

You are right, keywords in the domain name "helps" ... but is not the be all end all ... those who are interested in the keyword in domain name issue might want to read the post (linked) about what top SEO experts have to say about that.

Cheers, MJ

[cw1865]

You can look at it from a different angle too, specifically if the domain name matters not at all, then having a keyword rich domain name doesn't hurt. BUT, if it does help, you have it....

[Topglue]

could popularity be due to the fact that sexy's been on the net since Feb 03, 1998?

[JAugusto]

How about the stop words on domains?! Have you read the lattest trends?!