The Advantages of a Keyword-Rich Domain Name
October 24, 2005 | Category: Page OptimizationPeople often seem to ask how important it is to include keywords that they want to rank for in their domain name. The answer is that it’s not essential, but it helps a lot.
We all know that the first thing a search engine spider looks at when it visits your page is the title, but do you know what the second most important thing is? You guessed it: the URL.
Now, it’s important to remember that there are multiple components within the URL. One is the filename, which should ideally contain similar keywords to your title tag. The domain is another element of the URL where a relevant keyword or two can also help you out.
One problem that presents itself, however, is that the domain and the title tag aren’t really comparable. Every page of the site has its own title tag, but most websites have only one domain name. This is where we must bring in the concept of a “super-keyword” (or group of words), which applies to the entire site.
Your super-keyword should be something that’s relevant to everything on the site and thus will probably be something fairly general. For example, if you have a site about various types of cameras, you might want to work the word “cameras” into your domain, and include specific makes and models in the names of your files and folders.
So if you had a section of your site devoted to Olympus cameras, your URL might look something like: www.cameras.com/olympus/. That way, both of your keywords are in the URL, and there is a better chance of ranking well for something like “Olympus Cameras”.
Of course, it is next to impossible to get a domain like “Cameras.com”, so you would need to combine your super-keyword with other words, abbreviations, and phrases to find a domain name that’s available.
In summary, having a keyword in your domain can be very helpful to establish a good presence in search engines. That’s not to say that it’s the only thing you should think about when choosing a domain – it’s also important that the name be catchy, memorable, and brandable – but including a keyword is an excellent way to establish a site-wide theme and promote better rankings.
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Published by WealthStream Innovations
[…] Most people understand the benefits of having keywords in a domain name, but one question that is often asked in forums is whether it is necessary to separate keywords with hyphens. […]
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