Which one would you prefer?
A couple of weeks ago, I published a post we had the pleasure of Matt Cutts answering a few questions regarding all things SEO.
No, he didn’t write a guest post for Traffic Generation Cafe.
And I am not sure it’s such a bad thing either… 
If you missed that post, here’s the link: Matt Cutts on All Things SEO: Speed, Link Buildling, Domain Names and More
And if you are really lazy, which is OK – I am too, here’s the video I want to talk about… again.
In your comments, you mostly agreed to forget about what Mr. Cutts is saying and stick to what makes sense the most: keyword-rich domain.
And that’s why I thought to take one step further and let you know what I had to say on the subject of picking the right domain name:
5 Ways to Choose a Great Domain
Here are 5 great guidelines you can use when choosing the right domain (to make it easier, let’s pick a keyword – “pool chlorinator” for instance):
1. PoolChlorinator.com is THE perfect domain to get; it will trump all other variations you can come up with. When you have a dead-on domain, Google will WANT to put you in #1 spot!
2. PoolChlorinator.net or .org should be your second choice, if .com is not available.
3. Pool-Chlorinator.com – i.e. your-keyword.com. Many old school SEOs will suggest that this is a great way to go, and I won’t argue with them (or maybe I will). It was possibly the case back in the day when spamming was not so wide-spread. Rumor has it it’s precisely because many spammers are so fond of putting dashes in their domain names that Google discounts those type of domains altogether. Let’s look at it this way as well: how many big websites ranking high on Google you’ve seen that have dashes in their domain name? That’s my point.
4. PoolChlorinatorTips.com (i.e. suffixed.com) – this will be my next choice. When choosing your suffix, consider making it as short as possible unless it can be an additional keyword – more on that in a second.
5. MyPoolChlorinator.com (i.e. prefixed.com) – this would be my last choice. Google reads from left to right, as most of us do, and gives your first words the most weight.
Now a little exercise for those brain cells of yours:
Which domain is better?
a) PoolChlorinatorTips.com
or
b) PoolChlorinatorProducts.com
The former has a nice and short suffix that is more or less relevant to the topic.
The latter one… well, it has a suffix that clearly shows the BUYING intent vs research intent. Wouldn’t you rather attract visitors who are ready to buy vs just learn more about the topic? You bet!
So in this exercise the clear answer (although might be counter-intuitive at the first glance) is B.
Always use a suffix that gives you a bump in commercial intent. Here is a link to a great free tool that makes it a cinch to determine whether your chosen keywords have commercial intent.
HOWEVER…
Just because a keyword doesn’t have commercial intent, it does not mean you don’t want to optimize for it.
As long as it has a great amount of searches, I say go for it! Just make sure you have good traffic conversion techniques in place and any traffic can be monetized!
Marketing Takeaway
So don’t take your domain choice lightly – it can definitely make or break your chance to rank well… VERY well.
When you have the dead-on domain name, the #1 Google listing is yours to lose.
Here’s a great resource post if you are look for your next perfect domain:
So, what say you? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
Image credit: http://www.wayangblogger.com/
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Anna,
Hope everything’s fine
Still enjoying your blog.
Starting next week, I’ll start building my Greek-language-learning website (tutor: Me). Yes, you can wish me luck and perseverence!
As I’ve heard (am I wrong in this?), sub-domains can rank separately (for different keywords) from main domains, so I’m thinking I might just build it on a sub-domain of a relative main domain. (Hint: LearnGreek.com/org/etc is already taken, in several variations too)
I have two domains which are candidate for this:
- greekmyth-greekhistory.com
- seedsofulysses.com,
so it might look something like
- learnlanguage.greekmyth-greekhistory.com
- learngreek.seedsofulysses.com (I kinda like this one… “seeds of Ulysses” seems suggestive, appealing to the imagination, no?)
Anyway, my question is:
Will the word “Greek” mentioned in the main domain count towards making the site rank better, or it’s the keywords of the sub- which are more important?
(Oh, yes, and after reading your post, I developed some reservations about the dash in the first domain name, i.e. greekmyth-greekhistory, do you think it will hurt my SEO — supposing, of course, I don’t mess up and I do fine with keywords, promotion and other necessary stuff?)
Thank you so much (in advance
),
Helenee
Helenee invites you to read: Greek Ouzo: Drinking with the Gods updated Tue Jul 26 2011 10:19 am CDT
Hi, Helenee:
First of all, congratulations and all the best with your site.
SEO aside, your domain needs to be easy to remember.
A dash in the domain name is not easy to remember.
The second domain name is REALLY difficult to remember and spell. I wouldn’t go for that one.
Yes, your subdomains, which are really just pages on your site, can rank for separate keywords and mentioning your keywords in them might give you the edge.
Thanks Ana
Back to domain name search again, then!
Hi Ana,
Okay something that is confusing me. I have been using Adwords Keyword tool to view the popularity of keywords before I decide which ones to target.
However today I compared the Keyword tools results with what I got with SEM Rush and they were vastly different?
Which one do I use?
Thanks
Geoff
Geoffrey Talbot invites you to read: True Transparency
Google Keyword Tool is actually used as a base for SEMRush, Geoff. You might be looking at different numbers like broad vs exact match.
The one thing that I love about SEMRush and that I cannot find anywhere else is there “Traffic %” – it shows the percent of traffic, which the site under analysis receives for this exact keyword from the total amount of traffic for common keywords.
In my opinion, it gives me a much better picture of where I am at with any given keyword.
Some keywords I might be ranking for on the second page bring me more traffic than other keywords that I am on the first page for.
Pretty solid arguments, but only working for international or US websites. If you live in France, PoolChlorinator.fr will always top PoolChlorinator.com
Well, the example is not perfect since Pool Chlorinator are not french words, but you get my point.
I know you’re not talking here about the TLD, but more about the form of the title, still i believe some would benefit from my point of view.
Maria Pavel invites you to read: Hiring CNAs and Companions – Denver Metro Area
Makes a lot of sense, Maria – thanks for the additional knowledge from the international point of view.
Hi Ana,
I’m a relatively new visitor to your site; stumbled on it a few weeks ago and have been doing a lot of reading. As a small business owner, I’m trying to use a wordpress blog to generate traffic to our main site. My question is, is there more value having a blog located on wordpress.com, with links back to our main site, or is it more useful to host the blog in a subdomain on our main site?
Thanks for all the good info; I’ve learned a lot already, and have tried several of the tools you list.
cheers,
Charles
Definitely, host it on your main site, Charles.
That way you’ll beef up the size of your site and show Google that you have fresh content coming in – both big pluses.
Ana
OK, thanks Ana – we’ll give that a try.
Hey Ana,
I understand why keyword rich domains are so valued and important, but My question is, What about subdomains? My site is ian-belanger.com as you know.
Say I wanted to promote sneakers. How much weight would sneakers.ian-belanger.com hold in googles eyes, because my site has a good ranking (about 350,000 in alexa) but if I went out and bought a new domain it would take a longer time to get it’s ranking up.
Thanks for sharing Ana and have a great day!
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Subdomains don’t do as well as top-tier domains, Ian.
What I would do is get sneakers.com and then 301 redirect sneakers.ian-belanger.com to it, thus passing all the authority to the new domain.
Makes sense?
Hey Ana,
Yes it absolutely makes sense. Thanks for answering my question.
Ian Belanger invites you to read: SEO Basics Here Are The Plugin’s I Use For SEO And How I Use Them
Hey Ana,
I think people get way too concerned about having the perfect keyword rich domain name. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea and logically it makes sense to have your best keywords in your domain but it’s not necessary, my site is proof of that.
There are tons of sites that rank well for their keywords without having those words in their URL but there are also sites that do have keyword rich domains and they don’t rank at all.
The more weighted value is in effectively using your keywords in your content and in the links pointing to your website and of course provide good, relevant content. If you can do that first, it doesn’t matter what your domain name is.
Ladies, I didn’t mean to imply it’s a must.
However, with all things equal, a keyword-rich domain will rank over mrssmith.com every time.
More valuable and useful information for me to digest. If I ever start another website I will use this when choosing my domain name.
Justin | Mazzastick invites you to read: Is Time An Illusion
Hi Ana,
More the question is how the heck does one even find a .com domain that is short, keyword specfic and not overly competitive these days… without paying a fortune to someone hoping you will of course?
Appreciate the tips Ana, thank you.
~Marcus
Marcus Baker invites you to read: To be or not to be…That’s the Facebook Question
You are right, Marcus.
Have to settle for a second tier domain, like mine.
This is an interesting video, in my opinion having the keyword in the domain name is very important and always helped me to rank more higher in Google.
Bit Doze invites you to read: WordPress Blog Installation Service
Keyword in domain name is not really important…the importance of keywords in domain names has been lowered as many are just buying keyword rich domains for manipulating search results.
You can rank for keywords using domain names which are not keyword rich as well.. it’s alla about how you play the game
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Wow, Sandeep, many statements here to talk about.
You are right, they are not as important, but a keyword rich domain will win over MrSmith.com every time – with all other things being equal.
If you don’t mind I would like to share a link of my older post – http://curiouslittleperson.com/importance-of-keywords-in-domain-name/
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Excellent tips Ana, nice to see the clear distinction described between ‘buying traffic’ and ‘browsing traffic’.
I have an ongoing debate with myself (not schizophrenic, we just have a lot to think about) about whether or not to change my domain name.
As you may know I use jymtarrant.com which is useful for branding purposes and links up nicely with my social media accounts, but it certainly doesn’t help with the rankings.
What do you think about the Social branding aspect? I noticed you making this change in the early days of TGC…
All the best (and many happy returns again!)
Jym
Jym invites you to read: Better Blog SEO – The Long and Short of Long Tailed Keywords
Yes, indeed I did, Jym.
Social branding goes hand-in-hand with your domain name – whatever it is, that’s what you brand. Of course, I changed all that as well, when I changed my domain name.
It comes down to what you want your blog to be, Jym.
I’d like my blog to be #1 traffic generation blog in the world – I always dream big.
That’s why I did what I did.
What’s your blog purpose? There lies your answer.
Using a keyword rich domain is definitely a great tip, although I can see why Mr. Cutts wants to downplay the importance of keyword domains. Many Google searches result in a keyword rich domain near the top of the SERPs with absolutely no content.
Do you really think the .com performs significantly better than the .net or .org? Obviously it’s easier for people to remember a .com address, but I have yet to see any evidence that a .org or .net ranks lower.
I think .com is more user oriented, Mark.
You might loose some possible visitors with the other extensions.
Lower rankings? Probably not so much.
Thanks Ana, that’s what I thought you meant but wasn’t sure if you meant it for ranking purposes or from a usability standpoint. I think .com is definitely more user friendly.
Ana,
I have a domain that is in the same keyword situation as yours is with “trafficgeneration.com.” There are two old static sites using exact keyworded.com and keyworded.net on top.
I think any changes that Google brings in will make those domains drop down I will rise to the top because my site is not static, it has valuable keyworded content, back links and the keywords in my domain name.
I would like to see that happen for you too. Hopefully the change will work in favor of those who are providing the best.
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I thought it was supposed to have happened in the Farmers update, but I suppose it didn’t hit the SERPs yet, Sheila – I am with you though, we need this change.
My pleasure, Ana
I’ll hear from you then…
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I’ll go with the commercial intent domain name straight off. What? What’s the purpose of setting it up if not to sell stuffs and attracts readers who want to buy.
Depending on my niche though, sometimes I go into market without deciding to sell anything straight off but to develope relationship…if this is the purpose, then commercial intent keyword will not work well.
That’s my opinion though!
Tim
N-B- I love your reverting to mobile theme for mobile users but it’s annoying that you can’t revert to full site if you want. At least my opera mini is not showing your full site again after clicking full site button at the bottom.
It’s kinda frustrating…I feel readers should be able to read either your mobile version or your full site…
Tim Again!
Hey Tim! Great to see you here. Did you get my email?
Mavis Nong invites you to read: Traffic Generation Blogging Contest – Get the Inside Scoop!
Hello Mavis,
Good to see you too!
I didn’t get your email, I must have missed it. Can you send it again?
Tim
I just did, Tim
Mavis Nong invites you to read: iBlogZone – The Home of Online Business and Blogging Resources
RE: my mobile version.
I haven’t given it much thought yet, Tim – just added a plugin that let’s you see a simplified version. Will have to see why it doesn’t show the full one when you tell it to.
I’ll go with commercial intent every single time!
Hi Ana,
Totally agreed with you. I have a site related to discount coupons and my domain is couponseasy.com. This is the best domain available for me at that time and it has suffix with keyword, I think it’s a good decision by me.
Talking about keyword rich domains.. well, they are recommended. However, I don’t feel a domain with no keywords in it, resulting to disasters. Take for instance, the same Matt Cutts, based on whose speech you had written an article a couple of weeks ago; he writes at mattcutts.com .. but what’s wrong with it? It is having enough presence despite of the format of MrSmith.com .. In fact, he has inspired you to write a blog post
I’d like to add, I would never even bother about the domain as far as it has got good content in it
The problem is we are no Matt Cutts. Building your name as a brand is a very tough thing to do and tougher to get ranked in search engines.
After all this post is all about how to get ranked faster and higher.
Hi Ana,
This is what I have been missing from my domain. When I first selected it, I was a novoice, so I just gone for it and I started working on it. After certain time, when I understood the basics of SEO, I came to know that I have done a blunder mistake in selecting the domain name, but now I can’t do anything with it. I will keep sticking with it and I will do my best to build backlinks to rank it better for all my most important keywords. Anyways, Thanks for this great advice.
Sathish
Sathish | Make Money Online invites you to read: 3 Social Media Marketing Tips For Your Business
Hello Sathish,
If I were you and made mistakes while starting up, depending on how bad, I’ll just turn the mistake around and just change it into a brand.
Viperchill didn’t know the meaning or reason why he choice that name. He just did it and now, it’s already a brand name. Very few people know he’s actually Glen by name. So, change the disadvantage around and just brand it instead if it’s brandable!
My blog internetincomerant dot com doesn’t make too much ‘good seo’ but I’m turning it into a brand gradually and building my slow but consistent backlinks to it. Hope that helps.
Tim
Tim’s got a point!
However, making your domain into a brand is exceptionally hard. Not everyone will become Glen Allsopp.
On the other hand (not that I am suggesting you do it just because I did it), Traffic Generation Cafe wasn’t always TGC. It used to be something different and once I knew better, I picked a name that could become a brand, plus have my keywords in it.
So it’s possible to make that change, Sathish!
Thanks, Ana.
I did not know that about prefix vs. suffix, but it makes sense… now that you’ve explained it to me.
And your point about hyphens in the domain name is well taken.
Thanks for having my back!
Peggy
Peggy Baron invites you to read: My Forum Commenting Challenge – Pass or Fail
You know it, Peggy.
Ana-
I wish I had this post before I picked my domain name.
Are you saying that the more keyword rich domain name, the more Google is likely to rank the site higher? Do you believe Google places higher priority on domain name, than say, meta keywords?
I love the way you ranked the examples. Many people, including myself, learn more from example than just explanation.
Allie invites you to read: Step by Step Blogging 10- The End of the Series…
Hi, Allie:
To answer your question, I’ll give you an example.
The number #1 spot on Google for “traffic generation” is taken by trafficgeneration.com.
It’s an old and stale squeeze page with no new or useful content, yet it’s sitting in #1 spot mostly because of the domain name (and age – nothing I can do about that).
So yes, it’s very important.
By the way, depending on how serious you are about developing your blog you can switch your domain name to something more keyword-oriented – I did it with TraffciGenerationCafe.com (it used to be something different).
I couldn’t agree with you more, Ana. Keyword-rich domain name is the way to go. Thanks for sharing the useful tips to make choosing one easier.
Not sure how I missed your post on domain suggestion tools – I thought I read pretty much everything here
.
All the best,
Mavis
Mavis Nong invites you to read: Blogging Schedule – Where is Attraction Marketing Online Headed
That post is an oldie, but a goodie.
By the way, thanks on tipping me off on publishing 2 posts in one day – wasn’t my intention. Thanks to you, it was quickly changed and my heart rate is back to normal.
Saw your guest post submission – look forward to reading it. Will publish next week.