Question for SEO experts: is the domain name REALLY important?

[italiandragon]

Hi, I`m just having a doubt, actually many!

Considering that a domain name is a bunch of characters, I wonder if for example:


realestate.com

would absolutely be on top of:

myrealestate.com

or

xyzrealestate.com

If the keywords are the same (Real Estate or Property or whatever) for ALL domains, then is not the age that decide who goes on top?

Another example. Who would come first if you were Googling using Google.co.uk from the UK, for the term "poker" between:


poker.info (registered in 2000)

poker.co.uk (regged in 2008)

poker.com (regged in 2005)

mypoker.com (regged in 2002)

happypoker.com (regged in 2003)

Please note, for this example I used incorrect registration dates.
Can you oder them from top to bottom, which one would show first?

I think it would be:

poker.co.uk (because I would be browsing from the UK and using Google.co.uk in this example)
poker.info
mypoker.com
happypoker.com
poker.com

This always assuming they have exactly the same keywords.

What do you think?

And what if instead I was using Google.com from another Country, like Australia?

This is my view:

poker.info (because it`s the oldest)
mypoker.com
happypoker.com
poker.com
poker.co.uk



So, I`m wondering if, domains get indexed not by their names but by their location and age first.

Otherwise it would make sense that while looking for "poker" (just to keep the example above)
I would get a list of all poker.ccTlds like:

poker.com
poker.net
poker.org
poker.info
poker.co.uk
poker.fr
poker.com.au

etc.....

till the last one, even the most remote and unknow extension before anything like:

happypoker.com
mypoker.com
pokerclub.com

etc.


But that never happens....so?


I hope I explained clearly the question. It`s very important because if I`m right then most of the value for some domains s not there unless there is direct type in, which may happen for a name like poker but won`t happen for names with 2 or 3 words like:

"cheap medical insurance"


Thank you

 

[hina]

SEO is much, much more complicated than that. You cannot predict ranking based on domain extensions and registration dates alone. Many other factors come into play: page content, page structure, links to your website, etc. The domain name is important, but not that important. Development is far more important.

 

[DN BROKER]

Domain name is your best friend in SEO, only if its aged well like a bottle of wine!

The older the better it will rank with SEO applied. I've tested several old domains and have seen how quickly they jump up the rank the minute you apply SEO.

 

[wussadotcom]

Domain name is your best friend in SEO, only if its aged well like a bottle of wine!

The older the better it will rank with SEO applied. I've tested several old domains and have seen how quickly they jump up the rank the minute you apply SEO.

I don't really see a big difference for the age factor. Any site applied SEO will jump up pretty fast until in a few weeks or month they will see their site properly placed based on the work done on it. Around after 3-5 month then you will actually see the true fruiting of your hardwork. At that moment of establishment then you will only need to do some extra backbuilding of necessary.
For the domain keyword factor, yes it pretty important but with some work done, any domain can rank high. Test out my siggy. Cheerio

 

[DN BROKER]

I don't really see a big difference for the age factor. Any site applied SEO will jump up pretty fast until in a few weeks or month they will see their site properly placed based on the work done on it. Around after 3-5 month then you will actually see the true fruiting of your hardwork. At that moment of establishment then you will only need to do some extra backbuilding of necessary.
For the domain keyword factor, yes it pretty important but with some work done, any domain can rank high. Test out my siggy. Cheerio

SEO or not, aged domains are priceless and will rank higher then a newly regged domain name!


Aged Domain VS New Domain + same SEO applied = AGED Domain Higher Rank!


Google favors aged domains! - apply the same SEO using my formula and you will see for yourself!

 

[Keral_Patel]

I think a good domain name is better for SEO.

Realestate.com is far better then myrealestate.com

Consider the type in traffic and the guys who will remember your site and they will be the ones who will make natural backlinks for your site etc.

Yes one can overtake the good domain with slight bad domain name in the index but that means more efforts are required. So if the question is like For the same amount of SEO efforts which domain name is better then I would say RealEstate.com is good.

 

[wussadotcom]

SEO or not, aged domains are priceless and will rank higher then a newly regged domain name!


Aged Domain VS New Domain + same SEO applied = AGED Domain Higher Rank!


Google favors aged domains! - apply the same SEO using my formula and you will see for yourself!

Well I am sure a SEO expert like you would know better than me :smilewinkgrin: but from my own real experience if age is a factor it would be the site age, not the domain age. Doesn't really have such a big impact when I was optimizing my site. Then again everyone has their point of view.

 

[loredan]

The domain name is just one piece in the algorithm puzzle. Some people say there are nearly 200 algo factors. The relevant domain (aged or not) would obviously help.

 

[David G]

imo, the domain name is the #1 criteria by far to get ranked high. Nothing is even close to the importance of a keyword rich domain in a niche

Most seo experts downplay it and say it is just a small part of the picture and usually deny it is important

I have seen numerous websites which had almost no content and no links or page rank ranked high or #1 in G in a niche which must be from the domain name as there was no other reason for it. However, with that said, there are a few other secrets to make the keyword name even more powerful.

 

[italiandragon]

imo, the domain name is the #1 criteria by far to get ranked high. Nothing is even close to the importance of a keyword rich domain in a niche

Most seo experts downplay it and say it is just a small part of the picture and usually deny it is important

I have seen numerous websites which had almost no content and no links or page rank ranked high or #1 in G in a niche which must be from the domain name as there was no other reason for it. However, with that said, there are a few other secrets to make the keyword name even more powerful.

Out of curiosity, everything is a "secret" for you or it`s just a coincidence lately that whatever I ask, is "secret" ?


Anyway, let`s test a few keyword on my google and see what is the first 3 results, WITHOUT checking the box "pages only from Australia" :


Poker:

PokerStars.com
au.888.com
PokerNetwork.com

(Poker.com is 8th place , no other poker.Tld within the top 10 , it`s relevant to take notice the within the top 10 there are also 2 LLL , one is NPL.com.au and the other one is PKR.com which is the last result of the first page)

News:

News.com.au
Abc.net.au
news.ninemsn.com.au (notice Google recognised the subdomain as main keyword)

(News.com is not on the whole first page)


Lawyer:

lawyersweekly.com.au
lawyers.com.au
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer

(there are no "lawyer.tld or lawyer.ccTld within the top 10 - the closest keyword match is number 2 "lawyers.com.au" and number 10 "lawyers.com" )


According to this first 3 examples that I tested, keyword is not the most important thing.

 

[loredan]

Out of curiosity, everything is a "secret" for you or it`s just a coincidence lately that whatever I ask, is "secret" ?


Anyway, let`s test a few keyword on my google and see what is the first 3 results, WITHOUT checking the box "pages only from Australia" :


Poker:

PokerStars.com
au.888.com
PokerNetwork.com

(Poker.com is 8th place , no other poker.Tld within the top 10 , it`s relevant to take notice the within the top 10 there are also 2 LLL , one is NPL.com.au and the other one is PKR.com which is the last result of the first page)

News:

News.com.au
Abc.net.au
news.ninemsn.com.au (notice Google recognised the subdomain as main keyword)

(News.com is not on the whole first page)


Lawyer:

lawyersweekly.com.au
lawyers.com.au
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer

(there are no "lawyer.tld or lawyer.ccTld within the top 10 - the closest keyword match is number 2 "lawyers.com.au" and number 10 "lawyers.com" )


According to this first 3 examples that I tested, keyword is not the most important thing.

LOL...bad boy...you just destroyed a myth and some people's "secrets" )

...as for all the "secret keepers" and "specialists" out there...guys, get real - the domain name plays a role in google's algo but it is not, never was and will never be "the #1 criteria by far to get ranked high"!

 

[Gerry]

Lorenzo,

Pay for me to come to italy and stay a few months and we can meet and discuss this in person.

Amalfi?
Verona?
Padova?
Sardinia?

Pick one.

 

[italiandragon]

Lorenzo,

Pay for me to come to italy and stay a few months and we can meet and discuss this in person.

Amalfi?
Verona?
Padova?
Sardinia?

Pick one.

Hi Gerry,

I have visited all them ... Sardinia sounds the best option but in summer!

 

[DN BROKER]

Lorenzo,

Pay for me to come to italy and stay a few months and we can meet and discuss this in person.

Amalfi?
Verona?
Padova?
Sardinia?

Pick one.

Is that your dog? in your profile page? So cute.

 

[bluesaga]

I wrote a nice long post and i accidently pressed back, what a ****er.

So, without rewriting it, in short EXACT match domain names have a large weight with the right TLD.

By right TLD, just think about it, its easy to pickup an .info or .us domain name if the .com is taken.

I would go as far as saying unless you have the top or very close to (think .net for US) domain for your country search engine, you won't get a large boost to your rankings, however if you have a top domain from another popular country (say UK or AU) you will get a boost, just not as much outside your country.

So:
Google UK, search "Egg Basket Arrangements" (is there such thing?)
eggbasketarrangement.co.uk would rank higher than
eggbasketarrangement.com, however the .com would still rank well if it was not a competitive niche.

Google US, search "Egg Basket Arrangements"
eggbasketarrangement.com would rank higher than
eggbasketarrangement.co.uk

I don't think the .info or .us domains would get any such bonus for being an exact match domain.

However it goes further than just this, take for example you are targetting the keyphrase "dining tables" in the UK, the .co.uk will be taken and have a huge price tag on it, this will be a competitive niche also.

If you have the domain choice of:
Furniturezone.co.uk
diningtableszone.co.uk

Diningtableszone would be a better ranked domain eventually, not because it contains the words "dining tables" inside it, but simply because people linking to you (primary ranking factor in most SEs) would link to you with "Dining Tables Zone" and you would get great keyword benefit because of it, "furniture zone" however wouldn't help you for dining tables much what-so-ever.

Hope that makes sense!

 

[Gerry]

Is that your dog? in your profile page? So cute.

Yes, He is one of eight. And, yes, his name is Mobi.

We train therapy dogs. Currently, we have three certified TDI (Therapy Dogs International) Yellow Labs.

 

[Aleksandar]

Actually if it sounds more logically to you then probably google thinks the same. Exact match domains are also great if the desired term get's huge search volume but that's not always easy to acquire of course. Brandables work just fine with exact match terms if they contain the relevant keyword.

If you type for example "themes" in google you can see that a lot of different keyword domains (and extensions too) are ranked in the top. Basically it's not the most important factor if you have an exact match domain but it can help for the exact term. It's important to optimize your anchor texts and of course your title tags and content. That's how google is going to recognize you as the relevant source.

Just my 10 cents.. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Gerry]

Hi Gerry,

I have visited all them ... Sardinia sounds the best option but in summer!

Yes, I know a couple of people who live there.

Hurry! Send me the plane tickets and I will meet you there!

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

The short answer is Yes.

 

[povidiu]

Yes, the domain is important, but also important is the content, and the links pointing to you. Nowadays, the content is the king.