Keyword Domain or Brandable Domain - Which to go for?

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junglepocket

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Hello

Just looking for some opinions and advice really...

I have a 2 keyword phrase I want to target and have managed to find an exact match domain.

Additionally, I have found another domain which contains only 1 of the 2 keywords in the title, but the domain is much more brandable and attractive.

I understand the weight given by Google to keywords in the domain, but I am unsure as to which to go for.

Choosing the more brandable domain means more work to hit my target keywords. Choosing the exact match domain, means easier SERPS but with an less attractive name.

On a slightly different note, with affiliates snapping up keyword rich domains left right and centre, in the coming years do you think that consumers will become more sceptical of such domains, and prefer to choose and trust domains which are more of a brand?

Savvy internet users tend to trust organic listings rather than paid Google adverts - will this be the same situation with domains in the future? Or am I thinking too much?
 


If you are going for SEO - get keywords in your domain. It's common sense, you can brand it still by adding a prefix to your keyword bunch.

For PPC, I don't give a fuck about keywords. I just go for "branding", if you will.
 
Buying a brandable domain means that you need to go out of your way to create the connection between your brand and the product you're selling. There's obviously a lot of effort involved in that compared to the keyword domain, which already has that connection made.

It really depends on the domains; take for example:

HostRocket.com vs WebHostingProvider.com

Myself, being a 'savvy internet user', I'd go with HostRocket because I already know that a domain like "WebHostingProvider.com" probably won't deliver the service I'm looking for. For someone not so attuned to those things, WebHostingProvider.com looks pretty good when you just typed 'Web Hosting Provider' into Google. Depends on your target demo, depends on the niche, depends on a lot of things.

For PPC, go for whatever will help your CTR. For SEO, use whatever will help your rankings.

EDIT: Also, what effect are you trying to achieve? Do you want to build a brand? or are you just out to make a bit of money?
 
TylerL said:
EDIT: Also, what effect are you trying to achieve? Do you want to build a brand? or are you just out to make a bit of money?
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Ive been mulling over this for the last few days and its giving me a total headche. Your question Tyler, is very helpful.

In the short term I want to make money rather than taking the added effort to brand the site, so the keyword domain is the natural choice.

In the long term if the keyword site goes well, I can still develop the other site as a proper 'brand'. If it doesnt then I can keep hold of the domain and resell it later.

Great!

Thanks for the advice. Now if you dont mind, Im off to make some money.
 
I think it depends on whether you are going for SEO or PPC. If you are promoting affiliate offers solely then I would go for branding as Google, MSN, Yahoo put little to no weight on your domain keyword and it can look sort of spammy or shady if you have long tail keywords as your domain.
 
I agree. You could even pick up a batch of domains and get them for 5.99 each so it's not a huge deal. If you don't have a few hundred to spend on something like a domain you should think twice about trying to do affiliate marketing anyways.
 
bprimeelite said:
I agree. You could even pick up a batch of domains and get them for 5.99 each so it's not a huge deal. If you don't have a few hundred to spend on something like a domain you should think twice about trying to do affiliate marketing anyways.
Click to expand...

I think he probably knows this. The question is more about how he should organize it. I tend to agree with earlier posts that it completely depends on the industry you are associated with as well as your goals. Once you are sure about your objectives this will be pretty clear.
 
Thanks guys.

Since my last post, I have been talking to a small busines who operate in the same building as me, and they have agreed to let me take over their marketing for their website. This means I have less time to work on my project, so it reinforces the choice of going for the easier approach of the keyword domain.

(This is my first venture into dealing direct with a merchant and cutting out the affilate network, and I would recommend this approach since it means zero competition against other affiliates and the ability to negotiate higher commissions. Recommended if you can...)
 
It depends on what you're going for. I personally focused on SEO without keywords in the name such as www.ronripple.com It's officially at the top of the search engines for Nascar fan. You just have to focus on SEO.

Now when I created www.thinandrich.com, i was focusing on key words in the domain name. And it worked very well... so I'm kind of torn on which one is better.

But regardless... I'm the man when it comes to SEO.
 
Keyword domains will get you better organic placement most of the time but the mutating algorithms of webcrawlers dont like that sometimes but what ive found is that you can use a domain with the brand name and the keyword after it and then get the brand name domain alone and use that for servicing emails
 
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