Hey Dave, Good SEO article. It goes against common theory that hyphens rank worse.
Regarding TLDs, I’ve seen a .org rocket up the results in very competitive space, so it made me wonder.
Here is my question:
Let’s say I’m starting a site to sell buffalo chips. I’ve done my homework and realized “buffalo chips” is by far the most desirable search phrase. I’ve given up on finding something brandable; and prefer something with SEO juice.
What do you think of the relative value of these three choices?
Your first example with a hyphen has SEO value for the SERP whilst the other two has no SEO value. Might as well have the domain name hjghjjhgfjh.tld
Do you really believe Google would as a matter of course downgrade hyphenated domains because for a period of time they were used for SEO reasons? Now the SEO myth hyphenated domains are penalized in Google has become a well known “SEO Fact” there’s isn’t even a slight reason to downgrade them (not that they would, not how Google works).
Just a bunch of webmasters, my site was downgraded, it was a hyphenated domain therefore hyphenated domains are penalized.
That’s how SEO myths are created.
Same argument with tld’s, ignoring country specific benefits there’s no difference. So org is no better or worse than com or info. Go check Matt Cutts videos on YouTube, he’s covered this and confirmed Google doesn’t downgrade any tlds: Matt Cutts works for Google anti-SPAM team and is the go to Google guy for SEO information.
Check the SEO Tutorial SERP in Google, 4 of the top 10 use hyphenated domains with the keyword SEO within them. For the SEO SERP it’s 3.
Buy SEO Hyphenated Domain Names and Non-Hyphenated?
Great site full of real useful information and comments and after reading about optimizing a domain name here I have just purchased my 3 work domain name, with hyphens . I bought .com and .co.uk and know the un-hyphenated options for both .com and .co.uk are available – as it is a highly competitive industry I work in, I now wonder if I should buy those up too – so that only I have my three top chosen keywords in my domain name whether hyphened or not?
From an SEO perspective for a specific SERP and related SERPs hyphenated domains are the best, but they only cover a subset of SERPs a site might be targeting.
For example my site seo-gold.com covers SERPs including the keyword SEO, but it doesn’t help with any of these keywords which pages on this site target:
keywords domains search engine optimization optimization PageRank PR tutorial and so on, this domain name helps with one SERP and that’s SEO (and Gold, though that’s branding).
If the domain was seogold.com it would be optimized for ZERO SERPs. As a side note that domain was registered at least 8 years ago and is redirecting to another domain currently parked on Godaddy. A Google search for seogold doesn’t find either of the domains, as it happens this site is number 1. If someone offered me seogold.com for free I probably wouldn’t want it, might check if there’s any backlinks to it and see if they have any value, but the domain name in it self is worthless.
There is no value buying domains only to 301 redirect them to another domain unless you add links to the domains. If I registered seo-gold-tutorial-optimization.com and 301 redirected it to this site how would a search engine know it exists without links to seo-gold-tutorial-optimization.com ???
Unless you plan to link to domains you are 301 redirecting there’s nothing SEO wise to gain from owning them, they won’t pass any SEO benefit. Although there’s a theoretical value in linking to domains you are 301 redirecting it’s costly, you have to add links for starters and a 301 redirect costs link benefit. I assume the cost of a 301 redirect is the equivalent of linking to an intermediate page with a single link that links to another page with the same anchor text of the first link. this will likely cost around 15% of the PR the original link could pass, that’s costly. Makes more sense to create pages targeting the SERPs within the domain name and link to those pages.
There’s no real SEO difference between seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial/ and seo-gold-seo-tutorial.com/
I’ve only once purchased domains to stop others registering them and that was for branding purposes. I develop WordPress SEO themes called Talian and Stallion and have registered multiple relevant domains. I wouldn’t register non-hyphenated to stop others registering them, waste of money, they have no SEO value. I generally wouldn’t register hyphenated domains I don’t plan to use, it’s not hard to find a derivative of a SERP or another tld that works.
Hello. We have already spent some money on branding our website domain name (e.g., web name prominent on vans, shirts, brochures, etc). Domain name is not currently ideal for SEO purposes. Other (better) website names are available for purchase. Meaning they have good keywords in them, with hyphens. I am not very technically savvy, but if we point those domains to our current website (I suppose through what you are calling a 301 redirect), will that be just as good for SEO purposes? Would GREATLY appreciate your advice!!
Hi. Could you please just let us know if hyphenated domain names are still good for SEO?
I gather by now that Google can distinguish keywords mashed together without hyphens–but is it still true that hyphens with the same words are just as good for seo purposes? Please answer…article doesn’t have a date and I’d really very much like to know.
In VietNam, we prefer un-hyphenated domains, people rush for those domains while hyphenated domains are still available and easily to grab.
I just purchased one hyphenated domain at USD2.7 while same domain un-hyphenated which has been registered and now is for sales at USD1000. I can not understand how people evaluate that.
SEO Value - Hyphenated Domain Name vs Un-Hyphenated Domain Name
With regards to hyphen domain names. I’m not sure how old this article is but im sure google would recognize the seo and gold from your domain without the hyphen, right?
I have a client who has both the hyphen and un hyphened versions of his domain. Can decide what is the best method? any ideas
Should I Buy Both Hyphenated and Non-Hyphenated Version of Domain Name?
Thank for a really great article – it’s by far the most useful one I’ve seen yet on the topic!
I’m new to all this so still learning. I’d really appreciate your advice, as I can’t seem to find an answer yet.
A few years back I bought both the hyphenated & non-hyphenated version of several domain names. ie. abc-inc.com & abcinc.com abc-books.com & abcbooks.com abc-magazines.com & abcmagazines.com abc-events & abcevents etc
I was told then I should buy both to prevent someone from taking my domain and impersonating my site. I was also told that by having both names and directing the hyphenated site to the main domain, I could increase my SEO traffic.
Since then, I’ve kept these 20 domain names, but don’t see launching my company for at least another year or two.
The cost of renewing the domains is getting quite pricey (approx $30 per domain if I want to include the $17 privacy setting service to not publish my home address).
I am considering getting rid of the hyphenated domains as I already own the main domain. Though based on your article, it sounds like that may not be the right move.
I’d really appreciate your advice on 2 questions:
1) Keep Main Domain & Rid Rest? – if I already own the main domain abcinc.com – should I even bother keeping any of the other domains? As even though the other domains would represent separate incorporated companies, would it make more sense to have them all just operate out of the main domain?
2) Keep UnHyphenated Domain & Rid Hyphenated Domain if Both are Exact Match? (or vice versa?) – if I own both hyphenated & non-hyphenated versions of the same domain, should I keep only one and get rid of the other? (to help reduce my costs) Or is there value to having both for SEO?
Thank you so much for any help you can offer – I really appreciate it!
To add to the above buying a domain like abcinc.tld has zero SEO value unless the word abcinc is a keyword search engine users use to search for stuff. There’s a list of Unintentionally Inappropriate Domain Names, here’s 10 funny ones.
These are real world examples, now we know the examples should be read as
Master Bait Online Experts Exchange It Scrap Les Bocages Speed Of Art Who Represents Pen Island Therapist In A Box American Scrap Metal
But could also be seen as the funny versions:
Masterbait Online Expert Sex Change Its Crap Lesbo Cages SpeedO Fart Whore Presents Penis Land The Rapist In A Box Americans Crap Metal
Google doesn’t know which the owner of the domain had in mind when they bought the domain which is why Google doesn’t guess what Therapistinabox.com is supposed to represent, search Google for Therapistinabox and that domain name is number one: the domain name helps for the SERP just like a search for abcinc.tld would help for the search abcinc, but not for Abc Inc.
Search Google for Therapist in a Box, Amazon is number 1 and the above domain number 2. Had they registered and used therapist-in-a-box.com might have been enough to be number 1, difficult to say since there’s over 200 ranking factors Google uses and the domain name isn’t a major ranking factor (it’s a factor, but there’s far more important SEO factors that can beat a domain name). The current number 2 ranking is due to the other factors Google uses since the domain name doesn’t help that SERP.
Search for The Rapist In A Box and you won’t find that domain in the top 50 because the domain isn’t optimized for that phrase in anyway, you can conform there’s no onpage SEO for that phrase with this Google search:
site:http://therapistinabox.com rapist
No results.
While
site:http://therapistinabox.com therapist
38 results, which is why it’s number 2 for the earlier search Therapist in a Box.
You should take away from this there is no SEO value in a non-hyphenated domain name like abcinc.tld (unless abcinc is a SERP), but there is SEO value in hyphenated domains like abc-inc.tld, but only if you use it as your main URL.
If all you plan to do is register abc-inc.tld and 301 redirect to abcinc.tld it will have ZERO SEO value as I discussed in the comment thread I linked to near the top.
Unless you plan to spend valuable link benefit on linking to abc-inc.tld there’s no SEO value in owning it and even then because the domain name is only one of the factors, I suspect the ~15% of the PageRank you’d loose through the 301 redirect is worth more than the SEO value of 301 redirecting abc-inc.tld.
Unless you have a real brand I wouldn’t bother trying to register all tld’s, if you must protect the basic ones, there’s too many tld’s to cover them all in both hyphenated and non-hyphenated. If someone wants to target your brand it’s going to be easy enough with a domain like abc-inc-keyword.tld and they can add your most important keyword: amazon-books.com (owned by Amazon, wonder if they went through the WIPO process to claim the domain).
If I could register amazon.ego I wouldn’t be able to compete with Amazon.com without a massive link building campaign, the domain is a small factor. Unless you are a large brand that will generate a lot of traffic (small brands generate practically no traffic) I wouldn’t waste my money on multiple domains.
I have multiple domains with SEO articles, in the process of moving all the content here and 301 redirecting to here and it will have a short term negative impact (I loose the 15% PR), but long term will be easier to manage and there’s SEO value in having all the content on one domain (a trust factor). I’ll probably keep the old 301 redirected domains registered for 5 years before dropping them (assuming most backlinks have been updated by then).
Hi David – Thank you so much! I really appreciate you putting in the time and thought to provide such a detailed response – your advice is extremely helpful. Cheers!
Could you please elaborate on the domain extensions and their benefits or pro’s and cons. For insance, the single keyword i need is available in .company and .me, should i purchase it in those extensions? What would you say about .co.uk vs .com extensions. Thank you in advance Dave!
There’s not a lot to say about domain extension and SEO, but I’ll try :-)
Ignoring keyword proximity to Google there is no difference in these URLs:
stallion-theme.co.uk/
stallion-theme.co/uk/
stallion-theme.uk/co/
co.stallion-theme.uk/
co-stallion-theme.uk/
stallion-co-theme.uk/
stallion-theme-co.uk/
Google parses them all as the following words:
stallion theme co uk
If I’m targeting the phrase Stallion Theme the best domain from the above ones is stallion-theme.uk because I get the exact phrase (Stallion Theme) and only one additional word (the tld) which is UK. If I’m not interested in UK SERPs there’s no difference between stallion-theme.uk vs stallion-theme.com or any one word TLD.
As you can see from my site I use stallion-theme.co.uk not stallion-theme.uk (which is available and I won’t be registering it or any other TLDs) because the domain isn’t a huge ranking factor, it’s small. Once you take into account the vast majority of your URLs will include more than just the domain name, you can see the domain isn’t that important.
Look at the URLs for the SEO tutorial article series:
Only the end part helps with the SEO SERPs, the stallion-theme.co.uk part doesn’t help gain a SERP like Fresh Content SEO or SEO Domain Name, but the end part of the URLs (fresh-content-seo and seo-domain-name) does. So as long as you take into account the phrases each URL is targeting you are covered.
Obviously if you are targeting SEO tutorial SERPs like I am a better domain name would be seo-tutorial.tld BUT then it limits what can be added to a domain (in hindsight should have gone with a different domain for that site like stallion-seo.tld, but you know :-)).
What to use depends on the site and SERPs targeted. If highly niched content like if all this site was about is an SEO tutorial, seo-tutorial.tld is perfect (I was originally only going to add content about the Stallion Theme here, but I diversified), what the tld is doesn’t matter that much. Since the SEO benefit is shared over all words and .com is one word and .co.uk is two words, strictly speaking single word TLDs are better, but the difference is minor. The same is true for those who use the www version of the URL, by using www you add an extra keyword to the URL (www) which takes a share of the SEO benefit.
So there’s the same number of words in these two URLs:
Unless the tld is part of a SERP it makes no difference which one you use. If you were trying to rank for any of these ‘words’ : com, org, net, co.uk, me, company…. having that TLD will help. So if I planned to start a site that reviewed companies a good domain would be review.company since this would give all webpages on the site a small boost for SERPs related to review and company.
Since the public are used to .com’s etc… I won’t be buying any of the new ones, feel spammy. Google will likely treat all new TLDs the same as the old ones, but I don’t like them.
Using Numbers / Digits in Domain Names - Numeric Domains
Recently i have been made aware that if your domain starts with a number, it is likely to rank your site differently (possibly higher) in directory-driver traffic. Do you think this holds true? Also, Chinese pay millions for numeric domains. Lastly, and most importantly my question is: does the search engine ignore the number if its placed in front of the keyword? Or, according to your logic, should I follow my digit with a hyphen in order to separate it from the keyword, for search engine purposes? Thank you in advance! I appreciate your insight into these important matters.
I don’t know what you mean by “directory-driver traffic”?
From a Google SEO perspective you won’t get a boost because your domain includes a number, so no SEO boost for number per se.
Exception is if you are specifically targeting a number SERP, fop example “top 10 SEO tips” type SERPs: 10-something.tld would get a boost for the number 10 sitewide so that type of domain would help.
However, if you use a domain like 10keyword.tld you won’t get a boost for keyword, you’ll get a boost for 10keyword, which isn’t a SERP unless 10keyword is a SERP like bet365 is a SERP (popular online gambling site).
I’m aware the Chinese give a lot of value to numbers, they have lucky Chinese numbers like the number 8 and understand some will pay a lot of money to acquire things with a lucky number. Not a clue about specifics though.
Quick Google search:
The domain name 1001.com sold for $100,000. Frank Schilling’s Name Administration sold 88888.com for $245,000. 114.com sold in early 2013 for 2.1 million dollars, getting in the top 5 disclosed transactions in 2013. 55.com to this date is the numeric domain sold at a highest price � $2.3 million in 2011. Source: https://www.domainholdings.com/numeric-domains-chinese-culture-and-how-you-can-profit-with-domains/
Clearly there’s a market, not my type of thing to try to tap into.
Hey Dave,
Good SEO article. It goes against common theory that hyphens rank worse.
Regarding TLDs, I’ve seen a .org rocket up the results in very competitive space, so it made me wonder.
Here is my question:
Let’s say I’m starting a site to sell buffalo chips.
I’ve done my homework and realized “buffalo chips” is by far the most desirable search phrase.
I’ve given up on finding something brandable; and prefer something with SEO juice.
What do you think of the relative value of these three choices?
buffalo-chips(dot)net
buffalochips(dot)org
chipsbuffalo(dot)com
Looking forward to your thoughts.
tj
Your first example with a hyphen has SEO value for the SERP whilst the other two has no SEO value. Might as well have the domain name hjghjjhgfjh.tld
Do you really believe Google would as a matter of course downgrade hyphenated domains because for a period of time they were used for SEO reasons? Now the SEO myth hyphenated domains are penalized in Google has become a well known “SEO Fact” there’s isn’t even a slight reason to downgrade them (not that they would, not how Google works).
Just a bunch of webmasters, my site was downgraded, it was a hyphenated domain therefore hyphenated domains are penalized.
That’s how SEO myths are created.
Same argument with tld’s, ignoring country specific benefits there’s no difference. So org is no better or worse than com or info. Go check Matt Cutts videos on YouTube, he’s covered this and confirmed Google doesn’t downgrade any tlds: Matt Cutts works for Google anti-SPAM team and is the go to Google guy for SEO information.
Check the SEO Tutorial SERP in Google, 4 of the top 10 use hyphenated domains with the keyword SEO within them. For the SEO SERP it’s 3.
David
Great site full of real useful information and comments and after reading about optimizing a domain name here I have just purchased my 3 work domain name, with hyphens . I bought .com and .co.uk and know the un-hyphenated options for both .com and .co.uk are available – as it is a highly competitive industry I work in, I now wonder if I should buy those up too – so that only I have my three top chosen keywords in my domain name whether hyphened or not?
Thanks in advance.
Jaxanne
From an SEO perspective for a specific SERP and related SERPs hyphenated domains are the best, but they only cover a subset of SERPs a site might be targeting.
For example my site seo-gold.com covers SERPs including the keyword SEO, but it doesn’t help with any of these keywords which pages on this site target:
keywords domains search engine optimization optimization PageRank PR tutorial and so on, this domain name helps with one SERP and that’s SEO (and Gold, though that’s branding).
If the domain was seogold.com it would be optimized for ZERO SERPs. As a side note that domain was registered at least 8 years ago and is redirecting to another domain currently parked on Godaddy. A Google search for seogold doesn’t find either of the domains, as it happens this site is number 1. If someone offered me seogold.com for free I probably wouldn’t want it, might check if there’s any backlinks to it and see if they have any value, but the domain name in it self is worthless.
There is no value buying domains only to 301 redirect them to another domain unless you add links to the domains. If I registered seo-gold-tutorial-optimization.com and 301 redirected it to this site how would a search engine know it exists without links to seo-gold-tutorial-optimization.com ???
Unless you plan to link to domains you are 301 redirecting there’s nothing SEO wise to gain from owning them, they won’t pass any SEO benefit. Although there’s a theoretical value in linking to domains you are 301 redirecting it’s costly, you have to add links for starters and a 301 redirect costs link benefit. I assume the cost of a 301 redirect is the equivalent of linking to an intermediate page with a single link that links to another page with the same anchor text of the first link. this will likely cost around 15% of the PR the original link could pass, that’s costly. Makes more sense to create pages targeting the SERPs within the domain name and link to those pages.
There’s no real SEO difference between seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial/ and seo-gold-seo-tutorial.com/
I’ve only once purchased domains to stop others registering them and that was for branding purposes. I develop WordPress SEO themes called Talian and Stallion and have registered multiple relevant domains. I wouldn’t register non-hyphenated to stop others registering them, waste of money, they have no SEO value. I generally wouldn’t register hyphenated domains I don’t plan to use, it’s not hard to find a derivative of a SERP or another tld that works.
David
Hello. We have already spent some money on branding our website domain name (e.g., web name prominent on vans, shirts, brochures, etc). Domain name is not currently ideal for SEO purposes. Other (better) website names are available for purchase. Meaning they have good keywords in them, with hyphens. I am not very technically savvy, but if we point those domains to our current website (I suppose through what you are calling a 301 redirect), will that be just as good for SEO purposes? Would GREATLY appreciate your advice!!
Thanks so much for an awesome SEO article!!
Hi. Could you please just let us know if hyphenated domain names are still good for SEO?
I gather by now that Google can distinguish keywords mashed together without hyphens–but is it still true that hyphens with the same words are just as good for seo purposes? Please answer…article doesn’t have a date and I’d really very much like to know.
Thanks so very much for an awesome site!
In VietNam, we prefer un-hyphenated domains, people rush for those domains while hyphenated domains are still available and easily to grab.
I just purchased one hyphenated domain at USD2.7 while same domain un-hyphenated which has been registered and now is for sales at USD1000. I can not understand how people evaluate that.
With regards to hyphen domain names. I’m not sure how old this article is but im sure google would recognize the seo and gold from your domain without the hyphen, right?
I have a client who has both the hyphen and un hyphened versions of his domain.
Can decide what is the best method? any ideas
Thank for a really great article – it’s by far the most useful one I’ve seen yet on the topic!
I’m new to all this so still learning. I’d really appreciate your advice, as I can’t seem to find an answer yet.
A few years back I bought both the hyphenated & non-hyphenated version of several domain names. ie.
abc-inc.com & abcinc.com
abc-books.com & abcbooks.com
abc-magazines.com & abcmagazines.com
abc-events & abcevents
etc
I was told then I should buy both to prevent someone from taking my domain and impersonating my site. I was also told that by having both names and directing the hyphenated site to the main domain, I could increase my SEO traffic.
Since then, I’ve kept these 20 domain names, but don’t see launching my company for at least another year or two.
The cost of renewing the domains is getting quite pricey (approx $30 per domain if I want to include the $17 privacy setting service to not publish my home address).
I am considering getting rid of the hyphenated domains as I already own the main domain. Though based on your article, it sounds like that may not be the right move.
I’d really appreciate your advice on 2 questions:
1) Keep Main Domain & Rid Rest? – if I already own the main domain abcinc.com – should I even bother keeping any of the other domains? As even though the other domains would represent separate incorporated companies, would it make more sense to have them all just operate out of the main domain?
2) Keep UnHyphenated Domain & Rid Hyphenated Domain if Both are Exact Match? (or vice versa?) – if I own both hyphenated & non-hyphenated versions of the same domain, should I keep only one and get rid of the other? (to help reduce my costs) Or is there value to having both for SEO?
Thank you so much for any help you can offer – I really appreciate it!
There’s a similar question at Buy SEO Hyphenated Domain Names and Non-Hyphenated?.
To add to the above buying a domain like abcinc.tld has zero SEO value unless the word abcinc is a keyword search engine users use to search for stuff. There’s a list of Unintentionally Inappropriate Domain Names, here’s 10 funny ones.
Masterbaitonline.com
Expertsexchange.com
Itscrap.com
Lesbocages.com
Speedofart.com
Whorepresents.com
Penisland.net
Therapistinabox.com
Americanscrapmetal.com
These are real world examples, now we know the examples should be read as
Master Bait Online
Experts Exchange
It Scrap
Les Bocages
Speed Of Art
Who Represents
Pen Island
Therapist In A Box
American Scrap Metal
But could also be seen as the funny versions:
Masterbait Online
Expert Sex Change
Its Crap
Lesbo Cages
SpeedO Fart
Whore Presents
Penis Land
The Rapist In A Box
Americans Crap Metal
Google doesn’t know which the owner of the domain had in mind when they bought the domain which is why Google doesn’t guess what Therapistinabox.com is supposed to represent, search Google for Therapistinabox and that domain name is number one: the domain name helps for the SERP just like a search for abcinc.tld would help for the search abcinc, but not for Abc Inc.
Search Google for Therapist in a Box, Amazon is number 1 and the above domain number 2. Had they registered and used therapist-in-a-box.com might have been enough to be number 1, difficult to say since there’s over 200 ranking factors Google uses and the domain name isn’t a major ranking factor (it’s a factor, but there’s far more important SEO factors that can beat a domain name). The current number 2 ranking is due to the other factors Google uses since the domain name doesn’t help that SERP.
Search for The Rapist In A Box and you won’t find that domain in the top 50 because the domain isn’t optimized for that phrase in anyway, you can conform there’s no onpage SEO for that phrase with this Google search:
site:http://therapistinabox.com rapistNo results.
While
site:http://therapistinabox.com therapist38 results, which is why it’s number 2 for the earlier search Therapist in a Box.
You should take away from this there is no SEO value in a non-hyphenated domain name like abcinc.tld (unless abcinc is a SERP), but there is SEO value in hyphenated domains like abc-inc.tld, but only if you use it as your main URL.
If all you plan to do is register abc-inc.tld and 301 redirect to abcinc.tld it will have ZERO SEO value as I discussed in the comment thread I linked to near the top.
Unless you plan to spend valuable link benefit on linking to abc-inc.tld there’s no SEO value in owning it and even then because the domain name is only one of the factors, I suspect the ~15% of the PageRank you’d loose through the 301 redirect is worth more than the SEO value of 301 redirecting abc-inc.tld.
Unless you have a real brand I wouldn’t bother trying to register all tld’s, if you must protect the basic ones, there’s too many tld’s to cover them all in both hyphenated and non-hyphenated. If someone wants to target your brand it’s going to be easy enough with a domain like abc-inc-keyword.tld and they can add your most important keyword: amazon-books.com (owned by Amazon, wonder if they went through the WIPO process to claim the domain).
If I could register amazon.ego I wouldn’t be able to compete with Amazon.com without a massive link building campaign, the domain is a small factor. Unless you are a large brand that will generate a lot of traffic (small brands generate practically no traffic) I wouldn’t waste my money on multiple domains.
I have multiple domains with SEO articles, in the process of moving all the content here and 301 redirecting to here and it will have a short term negative impact (I loose the 15% PR), but long term will be easier to manage and there’s SEO value in having all the content on one domain (a trust factor). I’ll probably keep the old 301 redirected domains registered for 5 years before dropping them (assuming most backlinks have been updated by then).
David Law
Hi David – Thank you so much! I really appreciate you putting in the time and thought to provide such a detailed response – your advice is extremely helpful. Cheers!
Could you please elaborate on the domain extensions and their benefits or pro’s and cons. For insance, the single keyword i need is available in .company and .me, should i purchase it in those extensions? What would you say about .co.uk vs .com extensions. Thank you in advance Dave!
There’s not a lot to say about domain extension and SEO, but I’ll try :-)
Ignoring keyword proximity to Google there is no difference in these URLs:
Google parses them all as the following words:
stallion
theme
co
uk
If I’m targeting the phrase Stallion Theme the best domain from the above ones is stallion-theme.uk because I get the exact phrase (Stallion Theme) and only one additional word (the tld) which is UK. If I’m not interested in UK SERPs there’s no difference between stallion-theme.uk vs stallion-theme.com or any one word TLD.
As you can see from my site I use stallion-theme.co.uk not stallion-theme.uk (which is available and I won’t be registering it or any other TLDs) because the domain isn’t a huge ranking factor, it’s small. Once you take into account the vast majority of your URLs will include more than just the domain name, you can see the domain isn’t that important.
Look at the URLs for the SEO tutorial article series:
# https://seo-gold.com/topics/seo-tutorials/
# https://seo-gold.com/seo-check/
# https://seo-gold.com/google-penalties/
# https://seo-gold.com/buy-backlinks/
# https://seo-gold.com/fresh-content-seo/
# https://seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial/
# https://seo-gold.com/website-navigation-structure-seo-guide/
# https://seo-gold.com/seo-domain-name/
# https://seo-gold.com/anchor-text/
# https://seo-gold.com/pagerank/
# https://seo-gold.com/seo-serps/
# https://seo-gold.com/google-sandbox/
# https://seo-gold.com/seo-meta-tags/
# https://seo-gold.com/title-tag-seo-tutorial/
Only the end part helps with the SEO SERPs, the stallion-theme.co.uk part doesn’t help gain a SERP like Fresh Content SEO or SEO Domain Name, but the end part of the URLs (fresh-content-seo and seo-domain-name) does. So as long as you take into account the phrases each URL is targeting you are covered.
Obviously if you are targeting SEO tutorial SERPs like I am a better domain name would be seo-tutorial.tld BUT then it limits what can be added to a domain (in hindsight should have gone with a different domain for that site like stallion-seo.tld, but you know :-)).
What to use depends on the site and SERPs targeted. If highly niched content like if all this site was about is an SEO tutorial, seo-tutorial.tld is perfect (I was originally only going to add content about the Stallion Theme here, but I diversified), what the tld is doesn’t matter that much. Since the SEO benefit is shared over all words and .com is one word and .co.uk is two words, strictly speaking single word TLDs are better, but the difference is minor. The same is true for those who use the www version of the URL, by using www you add an extra keyword to the URL (www) which takes a share of the SEO benefit.
So there’s the same number of words in these two URLs:
# https://stallion-theme.co.uk/seo-title-tag-www
# http://www.stallion-theme.co.uk/seo-title-tag
Unless the tld is part of a SERP it makes no difference which one you use. If you were trying to rank for any of these ‘words’ : com, org, net, co.uk, me, company…. having that TLD will help. So if I planned to start a site that reviewed companies a good domain would be review.company since this would give all webpages on the site a small boost for SERPs related to review and company.
Since the public are used to .com’s etc… I won’t be buying any of the new ones, feel spammy. Google will likely treat all new TLDs the same as the old ones, but I don’t like them.
David
Recently i have been made aware that if your domain starts with a number, it is likely to rank your site differently (possibly higher) in directory-driver traffic. Do you think this holds true? Also, Chinese pay millions for numeric domains. Lastly, and most importantly my question is: does the search engine ignore the number if its placed in front of the keyword? Or, according to your logic, should I follow my digit with a hyphen in order to separate it from the keyword, for search engine purposes? Thank you in advance! I appreciate your insight into these important matters.
I don’t know what you mean by “directory-driver traffic”?
From a Google SEO perspective you won’t get a boost because your domain includes a number, so no SEO boost for number per se.
Exception is if you are specifically targeting a number SERP, fop example “top 10 SEO tips” type SERPs: 10-something.tld would get a boost for the number 10 sitewide so that type of domain would help.
However, if you use a domain like 10keyword.tld you won’t get a boost for keyword, you’ll get a boost for 10keyword, which isn’t a SERP unless 10keyword is a SERP like bet365 is a SERP (popular online gambling site).
I’m aware the Chinese give a lot of value to numbers, they have lucky Chinese numbers like the number 8 and understand some will pay a lot of money to acquire things with a lucky number. Not a clue about specifics though.
Quick Google search:
Clearly there’s a market, not my type of thing to try to tap into.
David