Affiliate
Domain Name Anxiety Syndrome
BY Jim Kukral | August 16, 2002
Originally published on ClickZ.com
Are you an affiliate marketer with several Web sites? Do you break
out in a cold sweat when you decide to build a new affiliate site
and every solid domain
name combination is taken? Are you constantly trying to get
the edge over competitors on the search engines?
If
you answered "yes" to these questions, you're suffering
from Domain Name Anxiety Syndrome. The syndrome is rumored to
have been created when affiliate marketers discovered having relevant,
keyword-rich domain names could boost rankings on search
engines.
Ever
since, affiliate marketers have snatched up every possible domain
name available, no matter how long
or how silly.
Why? Affiliate marketing is a business. The difference between
a number one search engine rank and a number two could lead to
success or failure.
That
means we need to use every possible advantage we can to beat out
our competition. Result: super long, keyword-rich domain names.
Does
It Work?
Mark
Stockton of SEO
specialists 1
Design 4 Life thinks so. "It is emphatically the case
that having keyword-rich domain names does help boost rankings
a little. It is a factor in most search engines algorithms.
"If
your site is called keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com, it is likely
that this will be the anchor text for most of a site's inbound
links, and, certainly in the case of Google, the anchor text of
inbound links is very important in their algorithm."
In
theory, if you had two identical Web sites, the one with the keyword-rich
domain name should have the edge and rank higher in search results.
"The
real advantage of a keyword-rich domain name is in Yahoo!, as
they draw heavily on only three elements to decide rankings --
the title, description, and domain name," said Stockton.
"Just
having a keyword-rich domain name is not going to make a great
difference in ranking in most search engines. But if you combine
it with the factors above and other SEO techniques, it is an advantage."
Nonscientific
Case Study
I
searched for "party
invitations" on Google. I got 407,000 results. Look at
a few of the domain names that showed up on the first page (none
are paid listings):
- www.party-invitation-announcement.com
- www.party-invitations.com
- www.partyinvitations.com
Still
not a believer? I searched for "DVD"
on MSN and got 4,443 results. Here are some from the first page
(again, none are "featured" or "sponsored"
links):
- www.dvdfile.com
- www.dvdreview.com
- www.dvdinsider.com
- www.dvd.com
- www.dvdcity.com
- www.dvdsewer.com
- www.dvdangle.com
Google-hotels-yahoo-sex-lyrics.com
KeywordDiscovery.com Keyword Research Tool
--
Compiles keyword search statistics from over 180 search engines
world wide, to create the most powerful Keyword Research tool.
Wordtracker's
long-term report reveals that among the most searched-for words
on the Internet are "google," "hotels," "yahoo,"
"sex," and "lyrics."
If
you believe Wordtracker (and you should), wouldn't it make sense
to string those words together and buy the domain name? Not necessarily.
Long domain names have disadvantages, so be wary. Two of them
are:
- Brand
recognition. Sure, your Web site might show up first. You
might even get clicked on first. But will your visitor remember
your domain name? Simply put, shorter and simpler domain names
work best. They allow visitors to easily remember them, so they
can visit repeatedly.
- Length.
Not only are long domain names difficult to remember, they're
hard to type into a browser. Errors are more likely. With errors
comes frustration. Consider a shorter version of your name to
use for branding only (e.g., "Coke" rather than "Coca-Cola").
More
About Domain Names
Ready
to get started finding keyword-rich domain names for your next
affiliate Web site? Start here:
- Ever
wonder how to create profitable domain names? According to WebReference.com,
you first need to understand what makes a domain name valuable.
- Domain
Notes contains tips, tools, domain software, and links to
domain name resources.
- Unclaimed
Domains will alert you when the names you want become available.
DomainBook.com
catalogs names currently for sale.
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