Choosing keywords for your domain names is a tricky process.
Some people want to follow the footsteps of Twitter, with a creative name. Other people want to combine words. Facebook is like a YearBOOK which contains profiles and pictures of FACEs. You get it. But we're not like them are we? We want a cool domain name with nice keywords.
Okay, so for a General Forum - Which is more descriptive?
GeneralForum.com
Bagga.com
Obviously GeneralForum.com is more descriptive. But let's think!
GeneralForum will rank high for 'general forum' (even if the content sucks).
Bagga will require good content to rank for 'general forum'.
But how are people coming to the general forum? Are they searching for 'general forum' or just coming across it? Would having Bagga.com be better than a keyword domain because it's more memorable? Perhaps the amount of visitors that come back because the name is catchy would outnumber the amount of people that come because they searched for 'general forum'.
So the thought process we should all have is...
What's more important? A keyword domain name, or a memorable one?
How many people searched for "a website that has shortened statuses" and found Twitter?
How many people simply heard about "Twitter" and remembered the catchy name?
The second number clearly outnumbers the first one.
But what if we want the best of both worlds?
Let's say we want a forum about Science. Would it be better to have the domain ScienceForum.com or Sciencebingo.com ?
Well, let's think.
Do a lot of people find scientific info because they search 'science forum'? I'm willing to bet that people are more likely to search for 'science facts' or 'science news' or 'science articles'. So does the word forum have importance?
We already know that Google can figure out if something is a forum by the script the site uses - it doesn't rely on the word 'forum' to know it's a forum. So for rankings it does not matter. But for some reason we all naturally go for "ScienceForum.com" instead of stuff like "ScienceBingo.com". We think that being spot on descriptive actually helps. Sometimes it does (like with ForumPromotion instead of like AdminHangoutSpot). But in many cases the non-totally-descriptive names can be beneficial because they're memorable, unique, and the keyword-filled domains don't get that much of a higher ranking anyways!
So,thanks for reading my way-too-long essay about keywords in domain names. What are your thoughts about my opinions, and keywords/domains in general?
Some people want to follow the footsteps of Twitter, with a creative name. Other people want to combine words. Facebook is like a YearBOOK which contains profiles and pictures of FACEs. You get it. But we're not like them are we? We want a cool domain name with nice keywords.
Okay, so for a General Forum - Which is more descriptive?
GeneralForum.com
Bagga.com
Obviously GeneralForum.com is more descriptive. But let's think!
GeneralForum will rank high for 'general forum' (even if the content sucks).
Bagga will require good content to rank for 'general forum'.
But how are people coming to the general forum? Are they searching for 'general forum' or just coming across it? Would having Bagga.com be better than a keyword domain because it's more memorable? Perhaps the amount of visitors that come back because the name is catchy would outnumber the amount of people that come because they searched for 'general forum'.
So the thought process we should all have is...
What's more important? A keyword domain name, or a memorable one?
How many people searched for "a website that has shortened statuses" and found Twitter?
How many people simply heard about "Twitter" and remembered the catchy name?
The second number clearly outnumbers the first one.
But what if we want the best of both worlds?
Let's say we want a forum about Science. Would it be better to have the domain ScienceForum.com or Sciencebingo.com ?
Well, let's think.
Do a lot of people find scientific info because they search 'science forum'? I'm willing to bet that people are more likely to search for 'science facts' or 'science news' or 'science articles'. So does the word forum have importance?
We already know that Google can figure out if something is a forum by the script the site uses - it doesn't rely on the word 'forum' to know it's a forum. So for rankings it does not matter. But for some reason we all naturally go for "ScienceForum.com" instead of stuff like "ScienceBingo.com". We think that being spot on descriptive actually helps. Sometimes it does (like with ForumPromotion instead of like AdminHangoutSpot). But in many cases the non-totally-descriptive names can be beneficial because they're memorable, unique, and the keyword-filled domains don't get that much of a higher ranking anyways!
So,thanks for reading my way-too-long essay about keywords in domain names. What are your thoughts about my opinions, and keywords/domains in general?
