A Good Domain Name
 

I was doing a little catch up reading of the GG&J email newsletters and I came across one that talks about how choosing a domain with the keyword in it instead of a domain that would be good for marketing reasons such as a domain thats easy to remember can increase your rankings in the search engine.

The full newsletter can be found here towards the bottom.

I myself have found that using keywords in domain names does help in some search engines but it has not led me to believe that it isnt possible to get there without them by viewing search engine results. I find that there is more of a mix with domains with keywords and those without.

What I would like to know is if anyone has tested this theory out and found it to be true.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=porn 2 keyword domains
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=free+porn 1 keyword domain
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=porn+stars 3 keyword domains

out of the top 10 search results.

I may be wrong but one of my possible theories as far as adult domains goes is that it might help not to have the keyword in the domain name. That way google can not just classify you as an adult link site without reviewing your content with greater detail. This is just a theory that I will be testing in the next few months.

Any input on the subject would be helpful.

I can't speak from having any experience, but I think the domain name itself does carry a significant bit of weight, especially in conjunction with incoming link text. For example lesbian pics... The site isn't all that special, doesn't have tons of quality back links, but the domain, link back text, and content all cater to 'lesbian pics', and therefore the high ranking. |huh

Ultimately though, I think the linked text on incoming links, and the content make up the majority of 'PR' and in turn SERPs, pretty much reguardless of the domain name ( hence linklists kicking ass in G ). Who knows really?

I've got some similar testing in the works soon too, only I'm going the other way with it.. buying domains with keywords in them. Maybe I'll PM you in a few mos and we can exchange findings ;).

Im sure there are major advantages to having keywords in the domain but what I am saying is that with proper content, anchor back link text, and title text im sure it would take the same amount of time if not a little bit longer to get into the top positions as it would be with a keyword domain.

The example you showed me is about correct because the average amount of back links needed with that keyword anchor text to get in the top 10 is between 65 - 75 and that domain has 145 back links. Now add that with the fact that they have the keyword in the domain I wouldnt see why they wouldnt be number one.

A little more info for you. The only other 3 domains out of the top 10 with high amounts of back links are tiava.com with 397, lesbian-porn-pictures.org with 35, and debauchery.com/lesbiansex01.htm with 42 . The rest have less than 5 back links and even some of those are higher than the ones I posted.

I agree that keyword domains give you a good boost but in my opinion I think the amount of targeted anchor text back links and the amount of indexable themed content pages can over come that boost easily.

Like I said earlier these are just my unproven theories so until I finish my testing just take what I say as just an opinion. I will also send you a pm when im done to let you know how things came out.

Thanks for the reply as well.

What is an Anchor text back link?

The anchor text of this link is "this link".

Google doesn't parse keywords run together in domain names.

In other words, Google doesn't give you a boost for "free" or "porn" in "freeporn.com." People who buy domains like "amateurchickswholikesanal.com" for added ranking bonus are wasting their money.

If people link to you with the text "free porn", that's a different story.

Google link: command is far from accurate. Yahoo linkdomain: reveals way more links for those top domains.

I wouldn't assume something is true by just looking at Google's top 10 results. There are too many factors involved.

For example, if a TBPR 0 site outranked a TBPR 6 site for "free porn", that isn't enough to say PR doesn't matter. There's only enough there for you to conclude PR isn't THE ONLY factor in nailing top position - assuming those TBPRs accurately reflect actual PageRank, which in itself is a big assumption.

Since google reads dashes as spaces and thus interpret the individual words, would a domain name like "amateur-chicks-who-likes-anal.com" be a significantly better alternative to "amateurchickswholikesanal.com" name?

I never assumed anything. It was just an observation of the results which ranked high without the keywords in the domain name.

I never said anything about yahoo because as most know goole and yahoos link counting structure are very different. Also because it was my understanding that they both have different algorithms and yahoos results would have no bearing on googles results. I might be wrong but it seems like a sound theory.

PR is a whole nother bag of bolts thats why I didnt bring it up. :)

I think my post might have been misread because my whole point of posting about those sites was to say that although having a keyword domain might help give you a boost it is in my opinion not more important then having relevant back links with targeted anchor text. Like the links that I posted.

A thousand fucking theories about google are posted on the net every single day.. and 99.9% of them are completely unfounded, supported by self-serving bullshit, and mostly are posted to stroke the ego of the poster.

As I and others have said before, unless these people work for Google and have knowledge of their algorithms.. they are nothing more than unsupported theories..


Let take these zealots for example..

completely baseless google ranking theory

They have 'proved' nothing in my opinion... except that if you are an idiot and buy a domain name that contains certain keywords, and then you never use those keywords in a page on that domain or use those keywords in any link to that domain, THEN.. Google wont rank it for those keywords...

.. and even then.. in their example they do not say, when the domain was purchased, when it was hosted, when it was spidered and how many times it was spidered and where it was linked from etc etc. etc. etc.

So how can any person make an informed descision or form an opinion with the dearth of information provided.


What if.......? Google does not give weight to the domain name keywords .....

... until the keywords are used in a page
... until the keywords are used in text linked to the domain
... until a certain number of pages exist on a domain
... until you add a 'googlepray' meta tag
... until you sacrifice a virgin on your keyboard
etc... etc... etc... etc...

What if... ? When the things listed above occur........

.... Google gives massive weight to the run-together keywords in the domain
.... Google gives some weight to the run-together keywords in the domain
.... Puts every page at the top of every result for those keywords


.. it would make this statement completely false, misleading and/or unfounded...


Add to that ... the fact that.... any so called "proven" theory about Google.... is only valid for the 5 minutes it takes to write the text that purports that theory... because Google may change what they do every single day.. and none of these theorists will know when, why, or by how much it will change.



DD

It depends. Too many hyphens in a domain name *may* be a negative signal for Google:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-...eview-session/

Vanessa isn't talking about domain names per se, but there's a good chance the same line of thinking applies across all elements in an url. Consider, for example, urls like hot-amateur-bitches-who-love-cum-on-their-faces.sdk349assd-amateur-coed-sluts.com/aamteur-sex-free-porn-amatuer-pics-vids-p2p.html

Would you want Google to crawl that site?

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DangerDave, you can do better than crying bullshit with no ammo. You're wasting your breath flaming "theories" instead of making your case with counterexamples. Bottom line is you don't have access to Google's algo either, so you're not in any position to judge. Cut the shit and engage in a discussion where people have the opportunity to explore ideas instead of threads turning into a "I'm right/You're wrong/let's take a fucking poll" BS.

I gotta tell you I like talking about search engines. I never claimed to know anything about Google, but this is a search engines forum. Maybe you'd be happier if we just shut it down?

Google is not a compete black hole. There are some things that are hard to pin down, and there are other things that we know as fact with close to 99.9% certainty.

For example, Google weighs BOLD and STRONG equally in its algorithm, according to a Google engineer Matt Cutts talked with. The engineer can be wrong or spreading misleading information intentionally, but I doubt it.

Before I go on, let me just say...

WHO THE FUCK CARES ABOUT KEYWORDS IN DOMAIN NAMES?

Content quality, branding, good marketing ... what more do you need?
Stuffing your domain name with keywords is fucking cheezy unless you're going over to the dark side.

Having said that, you bring up valid what ifs. I admit John Scott's example isn't bulletproof. Obivously there are alot of factors involved and some factors are co-dependent.

Domain age is not a proven ranking factor, although many people seems to believe it. Also, it *may* influence your position but it has no impact on whether a page appears or not at all for a query. If you run the same domain name test on a 10 year old domain named "imwiththegivemeproofcrowd.com", you'll see similar results.

Buy two domains, freepornrus.com and paidpornrusblows.com. Link to them from one TBPR 3+ domain (for quicker indexing) using URL as anchor text. On freepornrus.com, put up a page with the words "free porn R us" embedded in the text. You need a long tail phrase since you can't run a site: check on two domains simultaneously. On paidpornrusblows.com, put up a similar page (identical HTML structure, different text) also with the words "free porn R us" embedded in the text. Also use "free porn r us" in an H1 on this domain (a pretty weak optimization), so that the domain will rank higher than freepornrus.com with all things being equal. (this prevents arbirary order of the search results). After both are indexed, searches for "free porn r us" on Google (wrapped in quotes, otherwise you'll pull millions of results).

If freepornrus.com outranks paidpornrusblows.com, then your "what if" holds water.

Build two more test pages on the two domains (again, adding the keyword once on paidpornrus.com to prevent random SERP result). Then link to both domains using the anchor text "free porn R us."

Dude, seriously.

You're right. Google's algorithm changes by the minute and different algorithms is said to exist on hundreds of DCs. However, by looking at your "test beds", you'll get a decent if somewhat partial overview of where Google's algorithm stands at any one time.

Here's a compelling argument FOR exact match domain names by Aaron Wall:

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001860.shtml