Is Having A Keyword In The Domain Important?

There are many schools of thought when people start talking about the importance of having a keyword domain name. Personally, I’ve always thought of it as something to consider, but not overwhelmingly important. The problem with that statement is that I’m not known to thousands of people as an SEO Guru, so all of the unknown SEO practitioners out there, like me, often have to prove points by experience, trial and error, and referencing to well known experts in the SEO industry.

Having said that, luckily my thoughts on the importance (or non importance) of keywords in domains were right on target (and I could have confirmed this with experiments of my own), but telling you what the gurus say will hopefully drive the point home.

The overwhelming majority of SEO experts agree that having a keyword in a domain can give somewhat of an advantage in some situations - but not all. (Hell, think of the word, “Google”, lol!) Branding, especially in this day and age, is quite a heavy factor to consider, and you would certainly not want to change your domain name just to get a keyword in it - especially up and coming brands.

Anyhow, the general consensus of experts all basically say the same thing - having a keyword in your domain can give indirect benefits to rankings due to the fact that 90% of people that “naturally” link to you will use your domain name as the anchor text. Of course, we all know the importance of good anchor text, so you’re giving yourself an advantage by using your primary keyword in your domain name. Makes sense, right?

Another interesting theory deals with the search engines themselves. Perhaps if they see a domain with a strong, exact match keyword, it may be weighted strongly as it could be a sign of navigational query. Also, the website could be seen as a topical leader because the person that owns the domain name beat everyone else to the punch (and again, I’m talking about an “exact match” scenario). That also makes sense. By the way, that was what Aarron Wall had to say about it, and we all know Aaron Wall is a Darklord of SEO
Another benefit to consider is the increased CTR (click through rate) on the user end. If your average, non-webmaster is searching Google for “American Made Knives”, and americanmadeknives.com ranks on the first page (not necessarily #1), then americanmadeknives.com has a better chance at drawing the visitor in than something totally different like “rogersknives.com”. Why? It’s all psychological. In their mind, they see that americanmadeknives.com is exactly what they were searching for, and to them (whether it is or isn’t), it seems to be the most relevant to their query. Make sense? The point being - don’t ever forget the minds of your potential customers!

Yet another factor to consider, is the fact that different search engines obviously have different algorithms, and it has been said that keyworded domains may carry more importance in MSN, then in Google or Yahoo. Of course, it can’t be confirmed, but enough experimentation has taken place to prove points like this. I’ll take their word for it.

So, to sum everything up, I think that when choosing a domain name, generally speaking, if you can grab one that has your primary keyword as the exact match (best case), or possibly one that just contains your primary keyword, then go for it. But if you’re an up and coming brand, then don’t rush to your registar to change up your game plan. There are plenty of sites out there that rank just fine and dandy without any hint of a keyword in the domain. It’s totally up to you. There are some obvious benefits, but search engine weight wise, it just can’t be confirmed.

Honestly, in my opinion, it has been summed up best by Roger Montti (a.k.a. martinibuster) when he said,”…a look at the SERPs makes it abundantly clear there are far more important factors at play. So don’t expect a good domain to be a shortcut. It’s not. You still have to do the grunt work.