Using keywords in Domain names

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gnfb

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#265493 24-Jan-2020 11:45

I hope I have the jargon correct

I am talking about the possible benefits to using a keyword in a domain name, to try and secure a higher rating in search engines.

Take it as given that I realise the name is not the only "ability" to secure a higher listing but its the one I am starting with.

So having said that the scenario

1.Lets say I wanted to sell bike parts and i found out that bike.co.nz and bike.nz was available.

How beneficial on its own would that be against lets say q7.co.nz or joebloggsbikeparts.co.nz

The reason I am asking is its a tough question to get a definitive answer to on the net. I do however get the feeling from some articles that the benefit of keywords in domains has little bearing to google compared to a well set up seo "friendly" active website.

I am delving into an area that is "above my paygrade" so be gentle ..

Comments thoughts?

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#2405971 24-Jan-2020 13:45

Some used to say the domain name was an important signal for search engines. It appears this is no longer necessarily the case.

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#2405977 24-Jan-2020 13:55

I believe site content, especially considering it’ll be public, would be more beneficial when related to SEO.

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#2406059 24-Jan-2020 13:58

I know a case where the site owner invested around $50k for a .nz domain name that would be very competitive on the specific market he wanted to dominate, buying it off the original owner.

The site lasted a couple of years and died. Combine the poor SEO (outsorced to an Indian company who specialised in creating "backlinks" but were really just spammers) with poor strategy, and the money went down the drain.

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MurrayM

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#2406061 24-Jan-2020 14:02

I don't think domain names give as much weight as they used to, but if a generic name that matches your main keyword was available then I'd still seriously consider getting it (unless you had a very well known business name).

gnfb

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#2406077 24-Jan-2020 14:21

Good your comments and thoughts confirm I am on the right track. A laymans example for me was putting in to google the word "car". Not one of the front page is anywhere close to car.com or car.co.nz. , and I would hate to think what car.com would go for!

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

I have two shops online allshop.nz patchpinflag.nz
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kobiak

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#2406121 24-Jan-2020 15:20

gnfb:

Good your comments and thoughts confirm I am on the right track. A laymans example for me was putting in to google the word "car". Not one of the front page is anywhere close to car.com or car.co.nz. , and I would hate to think what car.com would go for!

that's because google's search results based not only on searched term, but on your past search perferences + location + device + moonphase and only google knows what.

try incognito and you'll be surprised in the difference

try duckduckgo and you'll be more surpriced

back to the question. yes keyword in domain name still has some benefits, but not as it used to be as search got complex and must be relevant to content and not just keywords. SEO is complex beast. worths good money at the right hands.

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gnfb

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#2406132 24-Jan-2020 15:34

kobiak:

back to the question. yes keyword in domain name still has some benefits, but not as it used to be as search got complex and must be relevant to content and not just keywords. SEO is complex beast. worths good money at the right hands.

here are you saying that one may choose to use www.newcarreviews.com for a site that did new car reviews? sort of?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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kobiak

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#2406134 24-Jan-2020 15:38

gnfb:

kobiak:

back to the question. yes keyword in domain name still has some benefits, but not as it used to be as search got complex and must be relevant to content and not just keywords. SEO is complex beast. worths good money at the right hands.

here are you saying that one may choose to use www.newcarreviews.com for a site that did new car reviews? sort of?

yeah, it will be higher ranked then www.skdjvnkssksksksk-car-new.com

just to be clear.

if www.dodgy-car-review.com - existed for 10 yrs and has 100000 review and traffic to website

your newly www.newcarreview.com - won't be as beneficial as above domain, purely because it was just created. has no content. no traffic. no links.

SEO is an ongoing process and not one off. things change quicker on online space and website has to reflect, but if some website was in business for 10 years - it wont suddenly drop to bottom just because someone provides similar content on better domain name.

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#2406158 24-Jan-2020 16:55

As far as I am concerned a domain name is part of the branding experience and as such ideally would be memorable, recognisable and easy to type in.

For me, promotion and rankings is really a factor of content, audience and relevance.

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#2406176 24-Jan-2020 17:46

Sidenote: do freezers have fuses? just went to get dinner out and it looks like its off! just what i need at the start of the weekend!

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Ademir

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#2432080 3-Mar-2020 20:52

I think, that if you want to rank a specific keyword like "buy new bikes" and you have a website www.buynewbikes.nz you will much easier rank on that keyword, than someone with a domain carsandtrucks.nz. And this is only one reason there is a lot more....so i think that is very important.

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#2432253 4-Mar-2020 09:54

Although keywords in domains may no longer give a direct ranking advantage, they may still help with ranking due to the likelihood that there will be many incoming links to the website that also include the keyword (simply because it's part of the domain name). For that to work you'd need to get a decent amount of incoming links.

frankv

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#2432305 4-Mar-2020 11:13

There's *many* top level domains, so if you can't get bike.co.nz, you may be able to get bike-nz.link or bike-co-nz.link or bike-nz.online or bike-nz.co or some other TLD. Or maybe you could get the nz.online (or nz.link or whatever) domain, and hence be able to use bike.nz.online. I don't know how valuable the .nz at the end is.

Andib

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#2432348 4-Mar-2020 12:28

frankv:

There's *many* top level domains, so if you can't get bike.co.nz, you may be able to get bike-nz.link or bike-co-nz.link or bike-nz.online or bike-nz.co or some other TLD. Or maybe you could get the nz.online (or nz.link or whatever) domain, and hence be able to use bike.nz.online. I don't know how valuable the .nz at the end is.

Using domains like that will get you de-ranked by search engines as that's what people use to try and 'look real' when setting up phishing sites.

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Ademir

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#2432759 4-Mar-2020 20:03

How many of you are working with SEO and can anybody tell me some good websites or bloggers for buying sponsored posts with backlinks( with NZ, CO.NZ domains)?

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