domain names

Hi Russell,

In terms of getting a higher ranking position, no, having keywords in the URL does not help. It will however cause the terms within the URL to be bolded which is said to help in click through rates.

In terms of domain name extensions like .org and .edu, no it doesn’t help anymore.

I have a different opinion with this

I think the words in the url have a massive effect – type online casino bonus into google and you’ll only see a couple of sites on the first couple of pages which dont have at least one of those words in their url.

As for the domain extensions – I believe the territorial ones are important – ie if you want to aim at UK rankings then .uk – german .de etc.

The domain name itself, I dont think is that important as I know of affiliates who send traffic from high ranking sites that do not have any gambling specific words in the URL. However I agree with Richard and think the extention is important as to where you want your traffic from.

@GaryTheScubaGuy 189580 wrote:

Hi Russell,

In terms of getting a higher ranking position, no, having keywords in the URL does not help. It will however cause the terms within the URL to be bolded which is said to help in click through rates.

Actually I half-disagree with this I’ve found that having keyword domain names does make a big difference, but with some clarification needed. Firstly, only generally if it’s an exact match on the search term. Secondly, it’s more effective in niche areas where competition on the term is lower. Thirdly, more weight is given in Yahoo and MSN than Google to the keywords. And fourthly, it helps with inbound links where people link using your URL as the anchor text.

By way of an example, I’m #1 on all 3 SE’s for “Live dealer casinos” despite never cultivating backlinks. All I did was whack some content up a couple of years ago, link to it from 2 of my sites and have hardly touched it since except to update obvious progression with the technology.

Of course, it’s not the only factor – just one that helps. I’ve actually considered this my “secret weapon” for some time now, so it would help me if no-one believes a word of what I just typed ” title=”” class=”bbcode_smiley” />

@russell@totesport 186961 wrote:

Specifically the tale name, e.g. does a .co or .co.uk have a greater resonance on the SE’s than a .org.uk or a .net?

This depends a lot on a) where you host it and b) what your target market is. I’d always pick .co.uk over .com if I was hosting in the UK and aiming at ranking in Google.co.uk. Vice versa with a .com or .net.

Additionally, I have found that “generic” extensions like “.info” etc are much harder to rank than extensions where the search engine has a “localised” version. The SE’s in my experience tend to relate extension as more relevant to their local version and consequently generics tend to become somewhat orphaned.

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmta/domain-name.htm
http://www.search-marketing.info/newsletter/articles/domain-name.htm
http://www.seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial/domain-name-choice

I agree just search in google and see how many of the top 10 or 20 sites have the keyword in they’re domain.

both play part, but no-one really knows how much… just as well as hosting the site in the country of your destination supposedly helps – but its difficult to prove.

but just to give you an idea of just how beneficial the domain name and the extension can be, i suggest a little exercise:

– go to google.de and search for casino
– take top 4 sites and try to look up the links in yahoo
– see what i mean?

the domain casino.dot.de has far far far less links then any other site out there (just under 1,5k) – wouldnt it suggest the domain name and extension plays a big part?

notice how many links the only domain in top 4 without the keyword “casino” in the actual URL needs to be ranked well – i get over 230k links.

any more doubts?

Not only is a good domain name an enormous advantage for natural traffic and search that others without them could have to pay a lot of money just to get and maintain only fleetingly, but people will even search for the full domain name itself in multiple forms. For instance, on top of searching for “example keyword phrase” and the combined all one term “examplekeywordphrase,” they’ll also search for “examplekeywordphrase.com”; “example keyword phrase .com”; “examplekeyword phrase.com”; “www.examplekeywordphrase .com”; and so on, and so forth. I see these types of searches in my traffic stats all the time, and, well, you can guess whether I like it or not. ” title=”” class=”bbcode_smiley” />