Written on February 2nd, 2008 at 05:02 am by Darren Rowse
How to Choose a Domain Name – Brandable Domains vs Keyword Rich Domains
Here’s a question that I get quite a bit that I thought might make an interesting question for discussion:
When choosing domain names do you get a keyword rich or more brandable name?
What do I mean by keyword rich vs brandable names? Let me explain further with a segment from a previous post on choosing domain names for blogs.
- Keyword Based Domains - these domains, as the name suggests, incorporate keywords that your blog is about in them. This is good for a number of reasons. Firstly it communicates something to your readers very quickly with regards to what your blog is about. The other positive is that Search Engines take a good look at the words in your domain name when deciding what your blog is about and how to rank it. As a result if you’re after SE traffic then these types of names can be worth looking at. Examples of blogs with keyword based domains are Cellphone9, the Movie Blog, Sims Gamer and Digital Photography School.
- Brandable Domains - these domains might often have some relation to their topic in terms of their feel or sound but are much more about creating something memorable that can become an identity in and of itself. In terms of traffic strategy – these blogs would be suited ideally to developing a blog that is aiming to build a community of loyal readers. Of course these blogs can also do very well in search engines but this is usually for other reasons (keywords in URLs are just one of many factors). Blogs that have these types of domains include Boing Boing, Gizmodo and Dooce. In fact if you look at Technorati’s Top 100 blogs – you’ll see that most of them have brandable names and not Keyword based ones.
Like I said in the post that I’ve taken those descriptions from – these two options are not mutually exclusive. Domains like Engadget and even ProBlogger are quite brandable yet also incorporate keywords (gadget and blogger) – however it’s not always possible to get both (in fact it’s getting harder and harder) and many bloggers are faced with the choice of one or the other.
So back to our question – which do you prefer when you’re starting a blog?
What have you based your decision upon in the past and if you had to start another blog today which would you go for?
85 Responses to “How to Choose a Domain Name – Brandable Domains vs Keyword Rich Domains” - Add Yours
Bitten
February 2nd, 2008 6:03 am
I’ve always tried to make my domains brandable and keyword rich. I have Manga Fukushuu (blog about manga) and BlogiBlogi (metablog in Finnish. “Blogi” is blog in Finnish).
Justin Dupre
February 2nd, 2008 6:05 am
Brandable with the keyword is the way to go. It helps get the name across to those not in touch with your blog already, and the brandability adds a “cool” factor for it. Like my blog, Blogosis. Brandable and the Keyword Blog in there.
Justin Dupre
http://www.blogosis.com
Gary Jones :: BlueFur.com
February 2nd, 2008 6:06 am
I recommend brandable over keywords if you want people to come back to your site again and again. If your domain is not memorable then having keywords won’t help you.
Off topic but I use the word brandable in our blog a lot but dictionaries do not see it as a word. Is it a word?
Stelian Andrei
February 2nd, 2008 6:11 am
My personal choice would be a brandable domain. I don’t know exactly why, but I love names that sound a little funny. It’s pretty strange that these names are also easier to remember.
But I guess all that depends on what you want your new blog to address. If you want to discuss issues like politics, religion or education I doubt you would have much success with a domain la SmackIt or something similar. If however you decide to create your own brand, a personal blog or social networking website, as you already said, it seems brandable domain names have more success.
So the bottom line is, if you don’t have the possibility to choose a domain name that blends both types, you must decide what you want to do with your project and choose a domain name accordingly.
john chandler
February 2nd, 2008 6:11 am
If I have to lean one way or the other, I think branding makes the most sense. A unique name is going to be more likely to stick in someone’s mind as that blog/site that they “stumbled across that one time”. I’ve found my way back to many a site just because I was able to retrieve a unique name from my memory.
Vikingblogger
February 2nd, 2008 6:11 am
When i picked my domain I had in mine that it should be easy brandable. :)
For blogs i think domains that are brandable best, for other sites like info sites and such i always goes for keyworddomain.
Staale aka Vikingblogger
cyberfizzle
February 2nd, 2008 6:13 am
I prefer the brandable names.
Stephanie
February 2nd, 2008 6:21 am
I prefer both, as anyone would, but without that I’ll take brandable. Besides, if a combination of brandable and good keywords domain isn’t available, odds are the available keyword domains will be unavailable or ugly.
netvalar
February 2nd, 2008 6:23 am
While I was trying to decide on domain names I found that my internet activities had created a couple of brand names for me so I ended up with brandable domain names instead. If it wasn’t for the online activities that created Netvalar.com and timelineonline.org I would have shot for keyword domains.
Now though after spending the last year making changes on my direction and realizing that things change I am glad I went with teh brandable names instead. I can make a direction change now or add to my directions and keep building upon my current domain names via branding.
Andy Merrett
February 2nd, 2008 6:28 am
I’ve tended to stick to domain names with keywords, rather than trying to get clever with a brand. Whether it works, I don’t know.
esvl
February 2nd, 2008 6:29 am
My belief is the domain name that means the most to you personally, will get you far.
esvl
fromtheold.com
Four20
February 2nd, 2008 6:32 am
I feel brandable blogs are risky, but do have a chance to become very big. . .Keyword blogs can get a good head start early on via search engine traffic
Thanks,
Doug
InstallerApps.com
Greg
February 2nd, 2008 6:32 am
I chose The Internetling because it is easy to remember and brandable. I knew a bit about SEO even back then but I still chose a brandable domain over seo. Though from experience I know that Google puts weight onto domain names, but only when it comes to coutnry-specific sites (NOT domains, sites!)
I wanted something cool, not just some web 2.0 name, like ooogliuoooo.co.uk :D
Scott Magdalein
February 2nd, 2008 6:33 am
I prefer keyword-rich, because any name is brandable. My own domain is not keyword-rich, which is why I like them. If I could go back to fix it, I would.
esvl
February 2nd, 2008 6:39 am
But then again I have over 50 and I need some reason to stick to one.
Peter Cooper
February 2nd, 2008 6:42 am
Brandable names are always the best, by definition. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a keyword or two in there, but if you’re JUST using keywords, people aren’t going to remember it too well and it sounds generic and lame, like those generic early dot-coms (dogs.com, shopping.com, etc.. lame!).
I’d consider “Digital Photography School” to actually be brandable (as is Cellphone9), because even though it has your main keyword in there, it’s “school”. It’s not something unmemorable and generic as “The Movie Blog”! You need to mix something in with the keywords to make it brandable, like “school”, “9″, “modo”, “crunch” or whatever.
As you note, the Technorati Top 100 says it all! Engadget (it has “gadget” in it, but it’s a brand), Techcrunch, Gizmodo, Boing Boing, The Huffington Post, Lifehacker (two keywords become one brand!), Ars Technica… how many of these are “keyword rich” domains in the sense of your article? None. Because those sorts of domains suck and rarely work as well (though there are exceptions).
Wendy Piersall
February 2nd, 2008 6:53 am
I think the preference should be based on your business goals – if you can find a way to get both keywords and branding in a URL, you’ll do well.
Although eMoms at Home wasn’t perfect, I bought it because there wasn’t much competition at all for the term “eMom”, which has allowed me to establish t as a pretty strong brand that stands on its own.
At the same time having “moms at home” in my URL has certainly helped me to be found for certain keyphrases that I otherwise wouldn’t rank for.
The hard part about finding a good keyword domain is that most of them are already taken, or are hard to brand. It pays to be really creative and brainstorm with others who are creative to get the right domain from the start. It’s arguably one of the most important decisions you can make in your online business, as a future rebrand could kill your site.
The Marketing Dojo
February 2nd, 2008 6:55 am
I prefer a creative use of the keyword, that could be brandable.
Frugal Dad
February 2nd, 2008 7:06 am
With Frugal Dad I was really thinking “brandable” because it was catchy (or so I thought), but I have discovered the world of frugality is popular in the search engines, especially in these lean economic times. If I had it to do over I would stick with a brandable name that’s easily recognizable (and memorable) to readers in my niche’s online community.
Mujahideen Ryder
February 2nd, 2008 8:01 am
That is so try with keywords in your domain name. I actually have a combination of keyword and brand name in my url. It’s a mixture of a very popular controversial term with a totally random add on. It helps a lot. Especially when you search for ‘mujahideen’, my blog is number 2 on Google. Wikipedia is number 1.
Linux Operating System
February 2nd, 2008 8:11 am
I think we should try to do both, as with ProBlogger, I think mine
Go2Linux is also both is “brandable” and also includes the keyword “Linux”, I have looked for that when I have chosen it.
Cherany
February 2nd, 2008 8:19 am
I personally went with brandable, because much of what I came up with that met both criteria was already taken. I think if you can find a way to incorporate both, you’d be best to go that route.
Melissa Donovan
February 2nd, 2008 8:23 am
Ugh. I have the worst time coming up with names… of any kind. Domain names, my business name, character names when I’m writing fiction — it’s a great source of frustration for me. Usually when I finally come up with something I really love, it’s taken, and that just compounds my annoyance. If you know any tricks for making up brandable domains, those are the ones I like best, although for my own site, I did use the keyword approach.
Graham Jones - Internet Psychologist
February 2nd, 2008 8:42 am
Brandable or keyword rich doesn’t matter. What matters is memorable. Google only became a brand after we remembered the name. If their domain name had been keyword related – using “search” in some combination – it would never have been passed on by word of mouth. People often forget that most people visit web sites as a result of being told them by another person (word of mouth) or having read them in a newspaper or magazine. Search only accounts for around a third of all visits. That means for people to get to your site, your domain names need to be memorable first. If they also use your keywords that’s a bonus for the smaller proportion of people who’ll get to you via search. But if you concentrate on keywords, you could well be missing out on a significant proportion of visitors who need to remember your domain name.
JEMi
February 2nd, 2008 8:45 am
Brandable
InMyHeels.. you know .. like walk in my shoes..
walk InMyHeels bc I’m a female
the site has nothing to do with shoes .. has to do with experiences and personal development
but I really like the name :)
hmm come to think of it.. my other blog (new) is keyword rich
myfavoritedietblog.com
… whats there to miss :)
Rebellious Arab Girl
February 2nd, 2008 8:51 am
Here is my suggestion when picking your domain name.
Is it easy to remember?
Is your site content based on that name?
Pick a domain name that you know will stand out and make people pause, read more about you, and wonder why you choose that name.
And last but not least, which I think people should seriously follow, you have to live up to the name of your domain. Don’t choose a very attractive name, yet your site content is mediocre and have nothing to do with it at all. I came across a lot of blogs like that and it makes me wonder about what’s going on in people’s heads when they blog.
In the end I think the domain name should be brandable and keyword rich. That makes your blog stand out. It is hard to do, but if you are a good blog writer than it shouldn’t be so hard. :)
PCLoadLetter
February 2nd, 2008 10:04 am
I prefer both also. It is important that the name get the point across and be memorable at the same time. You should however try to get the keyword in there.
This will tell you how much of a niche you are going to fill. If all the brandable names you can think of are taken, then you are in a largly populated niche. Maybe try to narrow down on your focus.
The real important thing is that you are happy with it!
Rhys
February 2nd, 2008 10:46 am
One of my sites I run is a brand name generator (http://www.mybrandnewbrand.co.uk), it’s amazing from the stats seeing what people come up with as domains.
Personally, I go for both. A keyword + an unreleated word but sounds cool can still be achievable. Trust me :)
Meredith Hamilton
February 2nd, 2008 10:49 am
I went the keyword way, but if I were to do it again I would go brandable because of the great possibility of building a community that I didn’t originally realize existed.
web design bristol
February 2nd, 2008 11:01 am
We were discussing the exact same thing today at work. For me it depends on how fast you want to rank and how much time / money you want to spend on seo. Keyword rich urls rank quicker than brandable urls – that’s a given, however for a long term strategy brandable is best especially for blogs.
Lea de Groot
February 2nd, 2008 11:08 am
If you can make it brandable and keyword rich in a tasteful way then you are definitely on a winner. :) Tricky task, though.
But its definitely true that what is in the address affects how the engines assess the site – for example, I set up a blog recently called “What the photographer’s wife saw” and dropped it in a subdomain called ‘photo-bride’ on the photographer’s website.
I put an adsense adlinks line on it (more as an easy way of tracking traffic than a revenue generation method), and for the first while all the ad topics were russian mail order bride type topics :(, until a proper crawl for content could happen.
So, they initially judged the content from the ‘bride’ in the url.
Ryan
February 2nd, 2008 11:08 am
I believe it would be best to have a keyword rich domain. You want folks to know what your site is about when first reading the domain since websurfers move so quickly. It seems that if they’re not interested in your domain they will move quickly to the next. Just my opinion.
Nick Pernisco
February 2nd, 2008 11:34 am
My website is Understand Media, and it teaches you to, well, understand media. The blog’s name isn’t too imaginative, but it’s created a brand in and of itself, the Understand Media Blog. I think both domain naming techniques should be used together.
Brisbane SEO Guy
February 2nd, 2008 11:36 am
I can offer two suggestions that have worked well for me.
Don’t forget the dash option in domain names. Google treats dashes and other punctuation as spaces. Dashed domains suck from a branding point of view, but are great from an SEO point of view.
All things being equal, blue-widget would outrank bluewidget for the search term “blue widget”
Why not have two domains, one pointing to the other with a 301 redirect?
For example, for US$15 I bought seo-training-australia.com
It points to searchtempo.com
I use the dashed domain name for some online promotion and the business/brand name for branded offline promotion.
I have also noticed that the dashed domain ranks very highly in live.com (not that many people use live.com).
brian
February 2nd, 2008 11:55 am
hi darren
i’ve been lurking here for months.. fantastic site.
this particular post caught my attention, becuase i recently acquired ’starsite.com’, and have been thinking about how best to build that into a brand/blogging network. The guys i bought the name from sold it for less than 1/2 their asking price because… it was too VAUGE. I was happy to take it off their hands. :)
presently, i’m doing WP installs for starsite.com/mac, starsite.com/music, etc.. I’ll start with 2 or 3 and see what other ‘blogs/channels’ i can add over time.
i’ve learned so much from problogger, and from doshdosh.. both of you are invaluable. Thank you so much. I’m going to be spared a number of mistakes because of your advice. I’ll have plenty more to make on my own. ;)
looking forward to participating more here, now that i’ve broken the silence. Enjoy your weekend.
brian
Sue
February 2nd, 2008 12:46 pm
@Brisbane SEO Guy, your advice seems to fly in the face of most SEO sites, re: the hyphen in the domain name. I have one in mine, and it hasn’t seemed to hurt.
Can you elaborate a bit more on where you got the info on this from? Since most of the good domain names are taken, hyphenization, if it’s not going to hurt, is a great alternative.
Truly, the best domain names are keyword rich, though. If you’re lucky to find one that’s descriptive of your site, putting together two words is the best way to go. It’s easily remembered, and easy to type in, if someone hears your site mentioned besides coming in through a search engine. And some can even be considered brandable.
For example, some domains I own include midcoastliving.com, pemaquidlight.com, hauntedlights.com, roadsidehaunt.com, nightbeacons.net, midcoastlife.com. Not all are developed yet, but are for future projects. And of course, the hyphenated one, lighthouse-news.com
Chetan
February 2nd, 2008 1:50 pm
What kind of keyword would lately be the most brandable for a blogger posting random internet stuff Darren?
Kirk Warren
February 2nd, 2008 2:27 pm
I went with brandable and let the sub-header handle the keywords. The domain name is still related to the topic, but doesn’t do much for searches.
Welcome to Paradise
February 2nd, 2008 2:58 pm
I would go for Keyword rich domains.
Why? would be the obvious question. my simiple answer would be,
so that search engines find my domain easily and that I get a higher chances of being found out in a search engines.
However, I don’t say that I don’t prefer Brandable Domains but I prefer Keyword Rich Domains.
Sangesh
February 2nd, 2008 3:19 pm
Brandable domain is the name of the game. Regarding keywords… I let the meta tags and keyword rich pages handle the rest.
Cheers.
Gary
February 2nd, 2008 3:21 pm
When I chose The Auction Rebel I was going with brandable. I suppose it could be described as keyword and brandable, but the keyword auction is pretty generic to attract a lot of traffic on it’s own.
If I were to register another domain I’d go with brandable with it also.
Jake Ludington
February 2nd, 2008 3:21 pm
It really depends on the type of traffic you hope to generate. Many of the brandable domain blogs are going for daily repeat traffic from the same people. Keyword-rich domains can help with placement in certain search engines. I’m of the opinion that your domain name doesn’t matter – it’s your content that will attract people.
I have a domain that’s neither brandable nor keyword rich, in that I’m using my name, which people routinely add an extra ‘D’ in to the point I purchased mispellings of it. And yet, I get tons of traffic from search engines because I write stuff that solves people’s problems. If people find you through a search engine, they don’t really care what your blogs domain is.
Ian Stewart
February 2nd, 2008 3:35 pm
I recently sweated over this question, brainstorming over 20 good names and two great ones. I was starting a blog about blog theming.
I ended up with ThemeShaper.com. The idea being it’s brandable—I “shape” themes—and it has a keyword in it—”Themes”. In the end, I’m really happy with my choice. It was worth brainstorming.
DotComDepot.com
February 2nd, 2008 3:56 pm
Always go with Brandable, especially if we are talking about your primary web site. If you launch a series of niche products, you can risk using more words or being less “brandy.”
When it comes time to sell, the Brandable domains are much more valuable.
Most people feel if the domain is taken, they should move on and look for another, but many domains are parked and available to you at a reasonable price if you contact the owner and make an offer, you may get it!
* The shorter the better
* Use as few words as possible
* Never dashes
* Never mis spells
* Avoid using numbers
Here are some examples of domains for sale in our portfolio:
HomeBizSystem.com
HomeBizSystems.com
HomeBusinessSystems.com
HomeOpportunities.com
If you run a home biz authority site, you can see these are extremely powerful and convey maximum authority and most of all – credibility.
Here are some more examples:
Diets101.com
DietDr.com
WeighLossInfo.com
WeightLossInformation.com
They are simple, authoritative and it’s obvious what they encompass. They are memorable and can survive word of mouth advertising as well as TV, radio and other mass promotions.
Aside from your business idea, products and plan, your domain is the most important factor.
Sterling Johnson
Reese Spykerman
February 2nd, 2008 4:34 pm
I’m with Justin Dupre–use a combo of the two if you can swing it.
However, I tend to think using something keyword rich can be more important for a blog, particularly if you’re narrowly focused on a particular topic (e.g. cellphones). This can help give you some extra search engine juice, but traffic building is important as SEO juice, so again, striking a balance is key.
For general website sites and company names, I’d advocate choosing something more brandable (e.g. squidoo.com)
A strong blog with a keyword rich name can become a brand in and of itself later. Problogger.net is a good example ;)
Larry Keiler
February 2nd, 2008 5:28 pm
Interesting that you should have this post at this moment. I spent part of my evening searching domain names and the best (available) ones I came up with tended to be a combination of branding and keywords — maybe with more of a lean towards branding. In other words, something catchy or memorable.
Claymation
February 2nd, 2008 7:48 pm
I’ve struggled with what I thought was a very brandable, keyword rich domain:
http://www.bigcitytravels.com
Have built it up and torn it down in various formats several times over.
The travel niche seems flooded, but as you can see it has other rich keywords to play off of.
I do believe I’m going to sell this one off to the highest bidder.
Tired of working, and need more play time ; )
jamie
February 2nd, 2008 8:37 pm
Oh no! I am so way not cool, hip trendy and creative.
I just do what it says on the packet – you see my thing is walking in the mountains, okay, so I am not much good at this blogging thing, but, you see I Love walking in the Mountains. So I went for that. I guess it’s kinda both, anyway I like it and people are reading it.
Ali from TheOfficeDiet
February 2nd, 2008 9:21 pm
I went for a bit of both (though I didn’t think it through in those terms)
“The Office Diet” had words that did well when I compared them to other similar terms on google trends (”office” and “diet” both get a lot of hits).
I’ve not come across a book or website using the same phrase — did a fair bit of googling and checking on Amazon. I think it manages to be both memorable and descriptive.
I think brandable domains can sometimes be tricky to remember, especially if the word has nothing to do with the topic. (To me, Facebook and MySpace are more memorable than BeBo, for instance…)
Ali
INconstantIN
February 2nd, 2008 10:50 pm
It is obvious that the most recommended is the case when you manage to have both brandable and keywords rich options in one name. But as long as this is not possible, I would go for brandable.
Kelly
February 3rd, 2008 12:49 am
Darren,
“Keyword rich” is the new term for easily understood and located, and that in my opinion is far more important than brandable.
Stretch your mind way back and pretend you don’t know them both–how much more money do I have to throw at “McDonald’s” to get the customer to know what they sell, than at “Burger King”? That is what it’s all about for branding/ marketing/ becoming top-of-the-mind. Dollars and time-to-memorable.
Now, if you can also be super-positive and remarkable (a la Seth Godin) with your name (Burger KING has a lot more going for it than Burger BARN), then you’ve hit on it. Hence the genius of “ProBlogger.” Layers of intention, understandable, low dollars and time-to-memorable, super-positive, remarkable. (Of course you had to back it up with inspired content, but you were going to do that even if you named it “Darren’s Closet,” weren’t you?)
Your name is the most important ad you’ll ever write. This goes for your domain name just as much as your business name. They both deserve strategy and planning to get them as close as you can to representing your Vision, and the solution your ideal customer is searching for.
Regards,
Kelly
Maximum Customer Experience Blog
Garg the Unzola
February 3rd, 2008 1:03 am
Mine was just a word play. Necrophilia.. necro files.
I didn’t know that there already was a film called ‘necro files’, otherwise I would’ve chosen another name.
At least I get the google and yahoo page ranks.
http://necrofiles.blogspot.com
Money Never Sleeps
February 3rd, 2008 1:29 am
Personally, I don’t think it matters that much. What a Blogger should try and do is get an aged Domain Name…even pay a few hundred for a nice aged domain name that has been around for over 5 years! This is a very effective way to rank well in the search engines! Trust me on this one…I was shocked to see this…I think Google puts HUGE weight on the age of the domain!
Timothy Andrew
February 3rd, 2008 1:35 am
I’d always prefer a memorable name. The question one must ask himself is: ‘What is the purpose of my creating this blog?’. If it is SOLELY for profit, I think the blog fails right there.
But good blogs focus more on the reader-blogger relationship, and that is what blogging is all about. Making money should be secondary. Therefore, a memorable name would be a better choice in any case. Even if it is completely silly and unrelated, it will make the site memorable. (Like Rottentomatoes)
Jill at GoalGuru.com
February 3rd, 2008 2:24 am
If you can come up with a domain that encompasses both keywords and branding, that would be the ideal.
GoalGuru.com is an example of that.
In my work, I appear on TV, radio, pocasts and teleseminars and having something powerful and memorable is a necessity.
Here are the ingredients I was looking for:
Keyword
Short
Catchy
Memorable
Expandable Brand
Authority and expert status
Think about what you want to convey, what you want your name and brand to encompass in the highest vision for your company and mission, what are those words. After you narrow down the words, brainstorm other keywords or phrases that encompass it. Break out the old trusty dictionary and thesaurus.
Live Your Dreams,
Jill
rodel
February 3rd, 2008 2:58 am
id rather have both if possible to lessen the load.. :)
Josh
February 3rd, 2008 4:22 am
Brandable is my vote. I want people to remember my name more than funky algorithms. Google, Yahoo, Myspace, YouTube… I feel those are more clever branding names versus keyword rich names.
But then again, it is all relative. If your site is about Chicago, you should want chicago.com and not rottentomatoes.com.
Chris :: AppleiPhoneReview.com
February 3rd, 2008 4:49 am
In December 2006, I registered AppleiPhoneReview.com because I knew lots of people would be searching for an “iPhone review” once the device came out.
I was right; I’m still on the first page of Google for the term as well as for the term “Apple iPhone Review,” which both bring me a couple thousand visitors a month still (even more before, and it will probably spike once new versions of the iPhone are released).
Connie Ragen Green
February 3rd, 2008 10:33 am
I went for a keyword rich name because I am a relative newcomer to the internet for running my business. Most of my clients find me because they want to write and sell their ebook, or to learn the technology I am teaching them in my weekly teleseminars. It would be unfair for me to brand myself at this point and disappoint my future students.
Chris Butterworth
February 3rd, 2008 10:34 am
If your niche is already fairly crowded, a key-word name won’t stand out; there’s probably already several just like it. Brandable has a better chance of gaining traction, because people are going to remember it – it’ll stand out from the crowd.
I have a blog about Autism called HappyChucks (http://www.happychucks.com), and I’ve many people comment how much they love the name in just a very short time (it’s a fairly new blog)…
Ebony Jones
February 3rd, 2008 1:02 pm
We went with the brandable domain….our niche – news & gossip is filled to the brim…so a keyword like name wouldn’t have worked well for us.
I think brandable is easier for your reader to remember …tell some one else about, email someone else about….etc. I think a memorable name helps build a relationship with your reader more effectively. I love the Gizmodo example…who’s gonna forget a name like that. I think it’s better to let the meta tags and your friendly urls do the search engine work rather than your name.
We wanted to create a site for people who would like and appreciate our particular slant on current events, gossip, etc. …and just a fun place to get some news, laughs, gossip and commentary. So after a little back and forth – urbanswirl.com – because we’re a blogging team, because we’re different ethnicities, different sexes, different sexual orientations…and we’re from the city.
Jody Mitoma
February 3rd, 2008 2:15 pm
Brandable, definitely without a doubt. The URL must be easily remembered, or else it is useless! But then again, my website title is both Keyword Based AND Brandable… So if you can do that, you’re well on your way to success. :]
Nate D.
February 3rd, 2008 2:34 pm
Great post. I prefer brandable domains much better. If I was starting a new blog today I would definately go for one with some sort of brandable value.
Cynthia
February 3rd, 2008 4:36 pm
The question is – what is the purpose of your domain buy? If you’re hoping to develop and sell or simply park a domain using keywords is the way to go. I work with one of the top name parking companies and our portfolio includes Free.com, CheapCars.com, Divorce.com, Singles.com.
But personally, I’m a writer and I like a combo – my TV site is TV of the Absurd. I doubt many people are searching for Absurd TV, but once they find me, I hope the name sticks.
More keyword style is my Supernatural Update which is all about the show Supernatural. Or StopSkynet which is about Sarah Connor Chronicles.
My most off the wall domain name was TaffetaPhrases.com, it’s Shakespearean, but I intended it to be one of those everything and anything blogs. It didn’t work out and I won’t go that far out on names again. Thinking I should stick Shakespearean Amazon links on it 0r perhaps links to buy fabric?
Barbara
February 3rd, 2008 7:25 pm
I have a keyword rich name with “Blogging Without A Blog. com”, however, that wasn’t intentional. It was a name that came to me in a light bulb moment, and that’s what I went with.
In the process of blogging, and visiting other blogs, I am finding that it’s not your name that’s important….it’s what your write. As long as you can get your blog found, if visitors like what you write, and you are providing them with educational/valuable information, they will either bookmark your site, or subscribe to your blog .
A domain name (unless you’re looking for branding), really isn’t that important. Content is.
AsiaPartTime
February 4th, 2008 6:07 pm
I will go for Keyword Rich Domain. It save me a big step in terms of SEO. e.g. my domain saved me times in SEO since the main keyword “Part Time” is there. But the “Asia” word is a bit mis-leading.
masdhenk
February 5th, 2008 12:08 am
thats difficult choice,
sometimes we want to have the brandable name but poor in targeted keyword.
I think, only our intuition guide us to choose one of it.
masdhenk
Brad Shorr
February 5th, 2008 12:35 am
Really interesting question. If the main reason you’re blogging is to generate transactions, a keyword rich domain may be the way to go, since driving traffic is paramount. But if you’re blogging to generate conversation and build your reputation, I think branding is by far the best strategy. When I see a domain packed with keywords, my first thought is, this blog is trying to sell me something. The blogger is writing for search engines, not me. Not sure if I’m typical, but that’s not the attitude you want if you’re trying to build a community of readers.
markowe
February 6th, 2008 12:06 am
I think with “keyword-based” domains names I think there are a couple of questions:
1) Is the name going to be so inspid or generic that you aren’t taken seriously? I think “buy.com” is an awful brand, I guess the “only” reason for their success is type-ins and subsequent SEO and content-building. Otherwise it’s desperately unmemorable, even if they ARE probably pretty successful (hey, what’s that got to do with anything!)
2) Does a “keyword-rich” domain name REALLY impact SEO that much? I mean, it is just one of a multitude of factors and once your site has good content, it is an irrelevance.
I’d prefer to build a strong brand every time.
Tina
February 6th, 2008 2:09 am
It’s funny when someone stuffs their domain with keywords presuming this technique will do magic to their rankings, ending up with something like Matt Cutts suggested:
buy-cheap-viagra-online-while-consolidating-your-debt-to-play-texas-holdem-and-watch-porn.com ;)
On a serious note,
1) My experience shows that *keywords in domain names can be the decisive ranking factor only when all other conditions are equal*, but this will hardly help if someone has done a better job than you optimizing their site on the whole. (like Peter Cooper said before re Technorati Top 100)
For example, compare results returned for query “SEO services” and “football ticket prices” (use intop20 for US IP). In the former case only 3 out of 10 top-ranking sites have the word ’seo’ in their domain (at least in Google), while in the latter case the 1st spot is taken by footballticketprices[dot]com in all the three SEs, and the site merely has any backlinks at all.
2) A brand name may also be preferable as nowadays finding a good domain with keywords may turn nearly impossible.
For example, when registering a domain for our link-building site, we found that not only linklink[dot]com was taken, but also linklinklink[dot]com, too!
It may also be a good idea to start with your primary keyword and than add some meaningless (or meaningful) suffix, preferably, a well-known one, like -moz, -tube, -ster, – ous, etc. Note (better not hyphenate words in your domain)
Like, for our domain, we made up that ‘LinkZaZa’ word eventually – just because it seemed to sound good – and then it turned out that ZaZa means plenty in some language.
Now we only need to make it rock :)
Esp
February 8th, 2008 11:04 am
If possible, a combination is of course best, but I agree that that can be rather difficult to attain these days. However, I have to admit I am quite pleased with mine, although in retrospect it also has a keyword that won’t necessarily help me. I run an auto blog and I run it because I love cars, they’re a passion. Therefore I ended up with Automolove.com. I personally think it is quite brandable – it conveys a message (a love for autos), it contains the keyword auto (but also love…), and it is a variation of the words automobile/automotive, which is what the site is about. So I’m pleased with that. =)
Reddy
February 10th, 2008 6:32 am
It would be good to have keyword based domain, if it is also easy to remember for visitors. Otherwise will go for branded domain which also can be easily remembered.
suresh
February 11th, 2008 2:44 am
Having domain name with key word will help as readers easily remembers it and pass to community and friends.
The indexing problem and comepetetion with good keywords is the problems that has to be overcomed.
marti garaughty
February 18th, 2008 7:27 am
Hi Darren, this past week I registered 2 domain names for a couple of new projects that I’m working on.
I purposely researched & chose the new names with SEO in mind.
With a bit of creativity & planning, we can have a well branded and a keyword rich domain, both at the same time.
Girls Just Wanna Have Funds
February 20th, 2008 1:21 am
I went with brandable therefore appealing and memorable. But keyword rich would need to be memorable as well to keep readers coming back.
Ginger
http://www.girlsjustwannahavefunds.com
Orfej
February 21st, 2008 9:50 am
Brandable Domains are my choice because it is future – uniq brand, personality.
Javier Ferrand
April 10th, 2008 6:20 am
Hi,
Given the fact that there is almost zero availability for keyword base domains with .com, would it be wise to choose one but with .info, .biz, etc.?
Are these kind of domains equally ranked in search engines?. I’m about to start a blog about cars and I can’t find a name that I like, so this option seems interesting to me.
What do you think?
Tim
July 20th, 2008 3:26 am
My lack of experience in this area hasn’t given me time enough to form a bias towards one camp or another. This makes it interesting to read through the many responses to this topic.
The tally shows most respondents prefer branded domains or a combination of branded and keyword, but many do not, and some believe the issue doesn’t even matter. So it’s all over the place. Lots of good points on all sides. Maybe you all are right.
Underneath it all, the consistent issue discussed here isn’t about naming domains. It’s about how to attract visitors and create a successful blog. How this can be accomplished, I would think, must be a combination of many, many factors, some of which are beyond any blogger’s control. I’m not sure a real strategy that works across the board could exist. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be anything to ceaselessly debate. I feel we do our best and some succeed and some fail, due to mistakes and/or just plain lucky or unlucky circumstances.
Another observation is what names people believe are “memorable” or not. Some of the “memorable” examples I’ve read above are domains that I would not remember. It must be a personal thing half of the time.
ComCloset
August 8th, 2008 4:14 pm
Brandable domain names are the way to go. That’s why we have set up a unique domain name boutique that offers very clever and catchy domains as well as branding concepts to give the buyer an idea of the domain’s potential.
Check us out: http://comcloset.com
Madeira
October 19th, 2008 8:00 pm
I also agree with some of the posters that the way to go is to have a short brandable with a single keyword domain. However I also believe that you cannot think too long about the name as you business or functionality will make your company more memorable anyway!
CreateAndMarketYourWebsite.com
January 6th, 2009 9:10 am
Branded domain names are good, but i would suggest the keyword-inspired domain names.
Your domain name must reflect what your site is all about even before they click on it.
Choose a good domain name tutorial here:
http://www.CreateAndMarketYourWebsite.com/Choose-a-Domain-Name/
The Future Web Owner’s Guide in Building a Website
uniquelasvegastravel
March 1st, 2009 12:40 pm
This is a great post, I favorited your blog and added your feed.
uniquelasvegastravel
March 1st, 2009 1:38 pm
Very informative post. Keep it up. And thanks for such a great site.
Denise
March 2nd, 2009 5:11 pm
I suggest going with a ‘brandable’ name, and forward keyword rich domain names to it. That’s what I’m about to do… hope it’s successful!
ABBA LIFE INSURANCE GIRL
April 7th, 2009 10:23 am
As long as the name of the domain is related to the key word content of the website you are in good shape. For instance if you google mp3 downloads the first websites will usually contain mp3 in the domain name.
Comments will be closed off on this post 90 days after it is published. Apologies to those this impacts but it's a regrettable and temporary measure to combat a growing comment spam problem. See our most recent posts where you can comment here.