domain names

[Smiley]

Hi there,

Some advise please.

My company is thinking of buying a domain name for example cyclingingalway dotcom this domain name is ranked google number one if you search cyclingingalway . The page is also reasonably well optomised for cycling in galway.

If i buy this name and imput my own cycling in galway information will it always stay as number one for the search cycling in galway because of the name, with the understanding of course that the information contained inside is relevant.

Also If we are to buy cyclinginmayo dotcom which does not presently exist will the name help to put us to number one for the search "cycling in mayo"

Thanks in advance

 

[mneylon]

There's zero guarantee that the domain will keep its rank

The keywords help - but they're not the only factor

 

[achieve]

these domain names will help your ranking, but as Blacknight states, there are no guarantees. It depends on so many factors i.e. algorithm. In my my experience I think that you will find that these domains will perform very well in Yahoo & MSN/Bing, but not necessarily so with Google. I'm still of the "old school" where "content is king" is no 1, and to then follow Google best practice guidelines.

 

[Kieran]

Hi

Have you done any keyword analysis. I did a very quick check on Google Keywords and there is no Irish traffic for Cycling Galway or variants so of course you will rank number one as nobody is actually looking for it.

You do not explain what niche you want to be in either - is it cycling holidays, renting bikes to tourists etc.

The Cycling Ireland search terms have high traffic but this is quite broad. As the previous posters mentioned there is no guarantee ever that you will stay number one or even on page one and good content is king. The right domain is one of the many items required to get good placement. A forum post is too short to go into this but there is plenty of information on SEO on this forum already and on the Internet. This SEOMOZ link is a good primer to explain and easy to read SEOmoz | Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization

I wrote a blog post recently just about this about Banana Picking in Cork. Go to google.com and search for this and you will see what I mean from above - won't post the link.

Explain some more and we may be able to help more

 

[Smiley]

key word analysis

Thanks Guys,

Thanks kieran for doing a keyword analysis . I was using this just as an example though.

Can i ask how you do a check on keyword analysis. Is it a piece of software.

tks

 

[Kieran]

No problem

Google has a free online tool.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

 

[RedEvo]

Have you done any keyword analysis. I did a very quick check on Google Keywords and there is no Irish traffic for Cycling Galway or variants so of course you will rank number one as nobody is actually looking for it.

It's not the search volume that will dictate this but the number of competing pages. Even though search volumes are low there are 175 pages optimised for the search - not many I know.

d

 

[Kieran]

175 competing pages means that here is virtually nothing but I think the post was on the value of your domain name in search rather than the actual terms and I think our answer is.

Yes it helps but is just one of the many items that help you and if you do not have the domain name available all is not lost as there rare plenty of other ways of getting a good ranking.

 

[link8r]

There is no guarantee but if the domain stays indexed without any hiatus or interruption, then you should reap rewards from the age of the domain.

The length of time for which Google has a domain indexed is massively important, and its something that can't be fudged. An old domain is almost always better than a new one - hence why dropcatching is such a growing area.

Content is king - we all need to work to stamp out spam and Achieve makes a good point - but - and this is an important but - content on its own isn't enough.

Web marketing is like a car - you need the chassis, engine, fuel, map and ability to drive it. It doesn't work with 90% of the components - it needs them all. The problem with concentrating on just content is that its like trying to make your car go fast by just adding components to the engine and neglecting to add fuel.

Make no mistakes - this isn't a guess - Google's ranking system/index is heavily based on the voting model it developed - its a core, integral part of why sites rank - authoriy. and Age is crucial to improving authority. A site cannot rank itself, a policitian cannot vote himself into power.

 

[achieve]

agree with link8r. Of course you can't base all your SEO on "content is king", but in my opinion it is most important. I have recently been asked by a couple of small businesses to review their sites from an SEO point of view. 2 or 3 straight forward SEO techniques and best practice saw these site rise from obscurity to page 1 ranking for their particular preferred search terms.

In fairness, when I did the SEO for the existing sites, existing SEO was zero, or if possible even worse than that!