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05.12.2008 at 07:59AM PDT, ID: 23394770

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9.4

which domain to use

Zones: Internet Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Web Development

Tags: w3c, domain

I just purchased 4 domains based on of the number of pages that showed up in Google. Each domain has 3 keywords within each domain describe exactly what I do. I changed up the middle keyword in each that for the most part mean the same thing and the user could input that in. I noticed that the number of pages in Google come up differently for each:

1) Results 1 - 10 of about 1,400,000 for ..
2) Results 1 - 10 of about 95,000 for..
3) Results 1 - 10 of about 442,000 for..
4) Results 1 - 10 of about 925,000 for..

Now I don't want to maintain 4 seperate websites. So, I'll put a 301 permanent redirect on 3 of those domains that point to the 4th. I don't believe Google will penalize me for that. Which do I decide out of the 4 to be the main website? Do I base it on the number of pages that came back or other criteria. If other criteria, what tool(s) could I use to determine which domain would give me better search results?

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Question Stats

Zone: Web Development

Question Asked By: COwebmaster

Solution Provided By: duz

Participating Experts: 4

Solution Grade: A

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05.13.2008 at 09:15AM PDT, ID: 21556543

KenAdney:

I'm not sure that it makes any difference but my opinion, based on no facts whatsoever, is that you want your page to stand out from all the others. So I would use the one with the least google hits...i.e. less competition. I think what you really want to look at is not how many pages have these terms but what terms most folks are searching for.

Assisted Solution

05.13.2008 at 09:23AM PDT, ID: 21556627

COwebmaster:

How do I find what terms most folks are searching for?

05.13.2008 at 09:25AM PDT, ID: 21556654

KenAdney:

There's several tools mentioned in the discussion at http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=427. Word Tracker is the one I hear most about.

Assisted Solution

05.13.2008 at 10:49AM PDT, ID: 21557460

kallestie:

Also, one thing to remember, SE's are not paying as much attention to the URL as they used to. The title tag and content is key.

Assisted Solution

05.13.2008 at 11:05AM PDT, ID: 21557620

COwebmaster:

The SE might not be but the user could be putting those keywords in the search. Also, you mean the title tag in the browser?

05.13.2008 at 11:08AM PDT, ID: 21557647

KenAdney:

You raise a good point. Maybe the one you want is the one with the shortest name so it easier for folks to remember it (and it would be the one you market).

Assisted Solution

05.13.2008 at 11:10AM PDT, ID: 21557674

kallestie:

Definitely! From a marketing perspective, you want people to remember it and make it easy for them to type. Otherwise they just get frustrated. Most of the SEO can be solved with good practice and content.

05.13.2008 at 11:14PM PDT, ID: 21561618

Rank: Wizard

duz:

COwebmaster -

>Results 1 - 10 of about 1,400,000 for....

I assume you are performing a Findall search rather than a Exact search, which makes the numbers meaningless.

If for example I perform a Findall search on Google for |power tools| there are 70 million hits but an Exact search for |"power tools"| gives only 22 million.

A better measure but not a perfect one is the EF Ratio. This is defined as:

EF Ratio % = ( Number of Exact results / Number of Findall results ) x 100

EF Ratio % estimates the relative frequency of the search term and low percentages may indicate an uncompetitive search term. For example the EF for 'spotted mushrooms' is 0.3% and would be very easy to rank for, while the EF for 'moving company' is 44%, a very competitive search term and to rank in the top tree for this term would be expensive.

Note: EF Ratio is not a hard and fast rule and it works better at the extremities.

> I noticed that the number of pages in Google come up differently for each....

I assume these keywords are concatenated in the url in which case you should perform a search on the concatenated keyword, for example |dewaltpowertools|

Because search engines are not very good at parsing urls having keywords concatenated in the url is not as effective as having them hyphenated, for example dewalt-power-tools. For more information please see http://www.seo-blog.com/keywords-in-urls.php and http://www.seo-blog.com/url-update.php

However there may be branding considerations which override the importance of parsable urls.

>How do I find what terms most folks are searching for?

You will find a number of keyword research tools mentioned here http://www.seo-blog.com/keyword-research.php

Hope that helps.

- duz
(On a rare visit)

Accepted Solution

05.14.2008 at 06:22AM PDT, ID: 21563834

COwebmaster:

Thanks Duz. So how about domains that have 301 permanent redirects on them? Would you suggest buying those same domains but with hyphens too? Each of the domains have keywords in them that the user could possibly enter into the SE. But those domains wouldn't show up in the SE if they are redirected (I'm assuming..please clarify if I'm wrong here). For instance, if you type into Google..social-seo.com, you don't see that domain listed just the result for socialseo.com (I believe they put a redirect on that hypenated domain).

The other domain I have is more focused on branding so it doesn't make sense to purchase a hyphenated domain, I don't believe.

05.14.2008 at 07:06AM PDT, ID: 21564337

gwkg:

MSN still places a lot of weight on keywords in the url

keyworddiscovery.com shows what people are searching for. They limit free accounts to the top 10 results per keyword phrase (but you can drill down to get another 10)

301 redirecting a hyphenated domain to your main domain won't affect your ranking. If you want to capture search engine traffic with a keyword domain, you will need to place unique content on the page to get it indexed.

05.14.2008 at 07:16AM PDT, ID: 21564425

gwkg:

To directly answer your original question, it really depends on your keywords on whether to chose the most brandable domain - shortest, memorable and easiest to spell - or go after keyword traffic. First, make sure your keywords are words people are actually searching for.

05.14.2008 at 07:20AM PDT, ID: 21564470

COwebmaster:

how about having 2 hyphens. is that ok?

keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com

05.14.2008 at 07:26AM PDT, ID: 21564552

COwebmaster:

again thought that domain with the 2 hyphens would be a 301 redirect to the nonhyphenated domain so that spammers don't pick it up. what do you think?

05.14.2008 at 07:55AM PDT, ID: 21564873

gwkg:

How will people know to type the hyphenated domain into their browser? If it is 301 redirected, it won't show up in search engines.

Three hyphens isn't a problem, but the only thing it will be good for is search engine traffic. If the three words are available without the hyphens, I would go with that. The article posted above concerning hyphens is over 2 years old.

Type the words 'free dog training info' into google without the apostrophes and look at the number one results. Google does not have a problem identifying words in a domain without hyphens.

Type the phrase in live.com and you can see by the 3rd result that MSN doesn't even need the words in the order you typed them to recognize the phrase.

You'll also notice that yahoo doesn't place as much weight on keywords in the url as google and msn, because those sites are nowhere to be found.

Besides that, the search engines change their criteria all the time to stay ahead of spammers. If the engines devalue the importance of keywords in the domain - as yahoo seems to have done - what are you going to be left with?

Assisted Solution

05.14.2008 at 08:01AM PDT, ID: 21564957

COwebmaster:

I guess having the hyphenated domains isn't so much for humans as it is for SE (specifically google). It's just another way for google to crawl each keyword, yes?

05.14.2008 at 08:09AM PDT, ID: 21565048

gwkg:

Exactly.

05.14.2008 at 08:17AM PDT, ID: 21565145

COwebmaster:

cool, thx all!

05.14.2008 at 10:09AM PDT, ID: 21566374

Rank: Wizard

duz:

gwkg -

>Type the words 'free dog training info' into google without the apostrophes and look at the number one results. Google does not have a problem identifying words in a domain without hyphens.

You are confused.

Although Google is highlighting the keywords in the url this does not mean that Google is indexing the keywords in the url.

A script to highlight text on a page can be written in a couple of lines. Parsing concatenated urls will come but it is a harder nut to crack.

- duz

20080236-EE-VQP-29 / EE_QW_2_20070628