Q&A - Promoting Domain Names
By Kalena Jordan
Expert Author
Article Date: 2007-04-09
Dear Kalena...
I have a favor to ask you. I hope to launch the revised version of my site shortly and I'm re-considering the URL to submit to the Search Engines. Would my site be better served under the name of:
WorldTradeDirectory.com (Google Search Results for keywords: "world trade directory": 101,000,000 )
or
WWWorldTrade.com (Google Search Results for keywords: "world trade": 701,000,000 )
I'm just not sure if the "WW" before "World" will either help or hurt its spiderability if someone just types "world trade" in searching.
Thanks !
Jorge
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Jorge
When it comes to promoting your domain name, you should always choose the one that is most logical from a user perspective. I'm not sure if you've bought either or both of these domains but to me, the first one is the only choice. It's much easier to remember and to type. The second one is just silly.
Here's a heads up: there is very little search engine advantage to having your keywords in your domain name these days.
If you insist on using them, they should be separated via hyphens e.g. world-trade-directory.com because search engines can only distinguish individual keywords if they are separated by hyphens.
But that causes usability issues, so what some people do is buy both hyphenated and un-hyphenated versions of a domain and park the unhyphenated one on the same IP address as the hyphenated version, while only promoting the hyphen one via search engines.
I personally wouldn't bother with any of it. If any search algorithm advantage of having keywords in your domain still exists, it's miniscule. Choose the first domain option above and keep it simple.
About the Author:
Kalena Jordan was one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia and New Zealand and is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. Kalena was one of the founders of http://www.SearchEngineCollege.com and is currently Director of Studies and SEO tutor for the online training institution. Kalena is a member of SEO Consultants and has spoken at the popular Search Engine Strategies Conferences. She is also a moderator at the Search Engine Watch Forums and author of the popular Search Light newsletter.
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