SEO question

Janitor_Willie

New Member
Do you all think that having a keyword in the root domain is given a slight edge or no edge over an addon domain with the same keyword?

For example
www.alaskanwidgets.com
VS
alaskanwidgets.mydomainname.com

I'm just wondering how important it really is to buy a domain when it's so easy (and free) to create an addon domain.
 

Danielle

New Member
Do you all think that having a keyword in the root domain is given a slight edge or no edge over an addon domain with the same keyword?

For example
www.alaskanwidgets.com
VS
alaskanwidgets.mydomainname.com

I'm just wondering how important it really is to buy a domain when it's so easy (and free) to create an addon domain.

It's not only SEO-purposes, if your page has a lot of visitors people will remember the root domain a lot easier then a addon domain.
 

leroy30

New Member
Exact match domains were penalized in the last few Google updates

So THATS what happened. Bugger. It happens to be our company name. Wish Google looked up registered businesses to know we aren't just spamming URLs.
 

JenniferK

New Member
My business domain name contains one of our primary keyword phrases, and we often compete with Wikipedia for the #1 spot for that term and several related ones. We've also seen good success when recommending keyword-containing domain names for clients. So in my experience, it does give the site an edge :)
 

JenniferK

New Member
And do you NOT use that same phrase anywhere else on the document??
We use that keyphrase all over our Home page, in an intentional but natural way. It is our primary keyphrase, which describes exactly what we do - and is also included in our business name.
 

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
So why is it having the phrase in the domain name is the one factor that apparently gets the credit?
 

JenniferK

New Member
So why is it having the phrase in the domain name is the one factor that apparently gets the credit?
It's only one of the important places - and the URL is less of a factor in SEO than it used to be. A couple of years ago, it seemed to give a clear advantage to use a keyword in the URL. Then for a while, it seemed that Google might be penalizing for it. Now it appears to help, or be neutral, but not harm.
 

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
The "harm" is only when the domain name and a high proportion of the links to the domain name are an "exact match" for a high volume search query and the document returned is "low quality".

Beyond that, the domain name is a fairly low 'value' factor, that has really been blown out of all proportion by "experts" who are clueless about real testing and are trying to rationalise a cause for an effect they think is there.
 

zakelijk

New Member
The document returned is "low quality".

That's one of the main reasons people get flagged nowadays. If your website is just crap and it's just online because of advertisements or other shit, then Google will get you... maybe not now but in the future they will.. just stop making crap start making great websites with great information.

A lot of SEO'ers think like this nowadays:
Ok, we take a exact term URL and link build it as fast as possible...We wanna go to the top with many keywords in a short time..

The reasons why they fail is just because you should look at the long term:
Make a beautiful website, create a good inner structure, take some time for it.. implement a good article everyday (15 minutes every night).. start building some links and the society will do the rest.. in the end you will have success.

If i visit a company and they ask me... can you get me as fast as possible in the top10? I tell them: WRONG! You need to build quality! Because you wanna build a great business! Do you want to pay a lot of money for 4 months success? Or do you wanna build up a great business and go for the long term success?
 
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