I have read so much conflicting opinions on what makes a good domain name and really need some clarification.
I am sure I read recently that Google are changing the weighting for keywords in domain names i.e. that they will be giving more weighting to domain names with keywords.
Can anyone confirm this?
Also can Google read a keyword in a domain name even although it is not hyphenated ie can they see the keyword in [noparse]www.keywordaaaaa.com[/noparse] as well as [noparse]www.keyword-aaa.com[/noparse]
I personally don’t think it matters as much anymore. If you are creating something like a “micro site”, the keywords can be more important for the short term. But if your goals are longer term, I think you could do just fine without having ANY keywords in the domain.
Yes it can! For example, I have a site with the domain name “getdown”. If you search for “get” or “down” along with other relevant keywords, it finds my site. If you search for, eg, “etdo” along with other relevant keywords, it doesn’t. Conclusion - Google is smart enough to realise that “getdown” is made up of the words “get” and “down”, but isn’t interested in other combinations of letters within it if they don’t make actual words.
Off Topic:
When you’re using dummy URLs to explain the point, please don’t allow them to become clickable links. If they start with http:// or www. then you need to un-tick the “Automatically parse links in text” box. If you leave it ticked, we end up with a load of outbound links to dummy sites. Thanks!