Is there a power to sort across keyword domains?

Keyword domain names are considered valuable for a variety of reasons, including the long-held idea that they could be directly or indirectly useful for ranking purposes.

Choosing a domain name is an important step in starting a website, so it is important that you make the right decision.

Choosing a domain name usually falls into three categories:

1. Keyword domain.
2. Word + domain keywords.
3. Brand name.

It is debatable which approach is best. What is not in dispute is that it is helpful to learn about the topic before you decide.

Keyword domains

A keyword domain is a domain name with keywords. An example might be Widgets.com.

Using a domain name with keywords in it can provide perception of authority.

Some companies have generic domain names and redirect them to their sites for whatever reason.

Coffee.com, for example, is turning to Peet’s Coffee, a craft coffee roasting company. This makes it easier for people to navigate to Peet’s.

However, the downside of generic keyword domains is that “all good” ones are already registered and are too expensive to extract from a domain.

There is also some internet history associated with generic keyword domains.

Sometimes, internet users typed the keywords of a product or service they wanted, straight into a browser or search engine. This practice was called direct navigation.

Direct navigation brought significant ad revenue to those who owned and “parked” these domains.

Domain parking was set up so that domain names displayed ads and only ads.

The profitable business of parked domains was helped by search engines of that time, which included the names of parked domains in the search results.

So if someone typed a one-word query like that [burgers]then Google could rank Burgers.com.

Then, in 2011, Google reduced the visibility of parked domain searches from search results.

So is there a power to sort keyword domains? Not anymore, but John Mueller of Google has something to say about it, more about it below.

Word + domain keywords

Therefore, it is a popular choice to add a word to the domain name to help describe what a site visitor can expect on the site.

As a result, domains like this are cheap[name of product/service].com, [name of product/service]Reviews.com, Fast[name of product/service]and so on.

The word plus keyword for a domain name is not a bad way.

Top of Word + keyword domain

The keyword immediately indicates what the site is about, and the word tells the site visitor what to expect based on the user’s intent.

Looking for a review? Try it [name of product/service]Reviews.com.

The downside of Word + domain keywords

The downside of this approach is that it locks the site into providing a certain niche and can limit its ability to grow.

So if you start as [JoesCameraReviews]it will be difficult to transfer this site to review (or sell) other products.

There are many sites with keywords in the domain that rank very well.

Trademarked domain

A branded domain is a domain name that does not necessarily contain keywords.

Amazon, Zappos and Etsy are examples of branded domains.

What’s great about a branded domain is that the brand name is that it doesn’t necessarily limit what the site can represent.

Many branded sites have very little trouble ranking in search results.

Google provides four insights into keyword domains

While answering the question va recently Google’s John Mueller offered four insights into the ranking power of keyword domain names.

Four insights into keyword domains and rankings:

1. Keyword domains do not rank faster.
2. Keyword domains don’t automatically rank better.
3. Keyword domains lost their strong impact on rankings years ago.
4. Keyword domains were ranked the same as branded domains.

1. Keyword domains do not have a time priority

There is a belief that keyword domains rank faster than branded domains. But according to Google’s John Mueller, that’s not the case.

There is an advantage in retrieving keywords in anchor text links. This is something that has been debated for years. An argument for and against can be made.

Unfortunately, John Mueller’s statement did not address this perceived advantage.

Here is what John Mueller confirmed:

«… Takes time like any other new site… Obviously there are many sites that rank by keywords on behalf of their domain. But they may have been working on it for years and years … “

2. Keywords in domains do not rank better

John Mueller was quite adamant in arguing that keyword domains are not better ranked than branded domains.

“… just because keywords are in a domain name doesn’t mean it will automatically rank for those keywords.”

When it comes to sorting, there are so many things like content, user intent for that content, and links. All of this probably has a significant advantage over something like keywords in a domain.

Although John Mueller did not specifically say that keywords in the domain name are not a signal for ranking, he confirmed that keywords in the domain name do not bring any dramatic benefits. And that’s an important insight.

3. Keyword domains lost their impact years ago

John Mueller argued that keyword domains lost their influence years ago.

Here is what John Mueller said:

“… Just because keywords are in a domain name doesn’t mean it will automatically rank for those keywords. And that’s something that’s been going on for so long, really long. “

This may be a reference to the 2011 algorithm update (official Google Notice here).

In late 2011, Google updated its algorithm and added a classifier to remove parked domains from search results.

Quote from Google’s algorithm update notice:

“This is a new algorithm for automatically detecting parked domains. Parked domains are fence posts with little unique content for our users and are often full of ads only.

In most cases, we prefer not to show them. “

Nevertheless, the search industry continued to believe that keyword domains were better than branded domains, even though Google no longer promoted parked keyword domains.

We can say that the signal is minimal. But nothing supports this theory.

It has been a long time since any search engine published a survey that included keywords in domains as any signal.

We live in a time when keywords in the titles (H1, H2) have a reduced ranking.

Current algorithms they no longer give extra weight to the title tags. We know this, and it calls into question the idea that Google continues to give a direct bonus to keyword rankings on a domain name.

4. Keyword domains are ranked the same as branded domains

This is another statement that runs counter to the idea that keywords on a domain name take precedence in ranking.

John Mueller points out that keywords in a domain are not related to their current ranking:

John Mueller’s statement on keywords in domains:

“… it’s kind of normal that they rank by those keywords and that they have them on behalf of the domain, it’s kind of unrelated to their current ranking.”

Mueller makes it clear that the presence of keywords in a domain name is not related to their ranking.

Research the domain name before using it

It is always good to research a domain name and find out if it has already been registered and how it has been used.

There are rare instances where a domain that was used for spam can get stuck in a loop of Google’s algorithm, causing it to be blocked for a month, released for a few days, and then banned again, preventing the site from being ranked. higher than the other page of search results.

Read more about the penalty for an abandoned domain A Google algorithm error puts cities in a strange state.

SEO takes advantage of keyword domains

Keywords in the domain name have many advantages. But the advantage of SEO is not necessarily one of the advantages, as Mueller explains.

“… having them on a domain name is kind of unrelated to their current ranking.”

Stand out with your domain

It might be a good idea to choose a domain that stands out. This can be with a keyword or with a brand name.

Former Google employee Matt Cutts recommended in a 2011 webmaster-assisted video that choosing a domain name that stands out may be a good idea in certain situations.

Matt Cutts advised:

“For example, if you have 15 websites about Android and they all have Android, Android, Android, Android, it’s going to be a little hard to remember, rise above the noise, rise above the noise.

While, if you have something that is a little more branded, then people will remember it. They will be able to return to this. Even sites like TechCrunch don’t write anything about technical news. “

Extract on domain names

There are pros and cons to the different types of domain names used for a website.

If a company wants to leave room to move to cover a broader topic, a domain name that is less committed to the topic or even a brand is appropriate.

Of course, you can start with a narrow thematic domain and change it in the future. But this can cause other sites to change their mind about links to the site and site lovers lose interest.

So perhaps the best advice is for a company to consider what it wants to achieve now, what impression it wants to make on website visitors, what story the domain name communicates to the visitor, and also how well the domain name matches the future. companies.

On the issue of ranking, it is clear that there is no direct advantage of keyword-based ranking for a domain name, which makes selection easier.

Watch John Mueller discuss domain names at 9:50 p.m.:

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