how important is domain name relevancy?
 

just wondering, how important is domain name relevancy? staying with a general area of course, but does it make a _huge_ difference?

would i be better off with a longer, more "targeted" name, or just stick with a name that is short, and easy to remember?


basically just trying to come up with a name for a site, not sure if i should use my existing site or get a new name (none of the ones are available, of course).

Years ago, I would just buy any porn-sounding domain to use for any porn project. More and more, I am coming to believe that a relevant name is very important unless you are just going to host galleries on it. If you are starting any serious project, it might be worth your time to go out of your way to find a catchy, relevant domain name.

SpaceAce

It doesn't make a very significant difference, but it surely counts as one of the major and deciding factors in your SE placement.

That would only apply to listings on an SE that listed by alpha-numeric order. Our SEO claims that domain names are not looked at any more as keywords.

very

You should try to focus on SE relevance and use keyword combos like blackpussy.com black-pussy.com dildolesbians.com etc.

Unless you have the rare one word domains like pussy.com anal.com or the money to afford such domains don't count on type in traffic

hrm, ok, good advice. it's just my current name is catchy, easily remembered, but not targeted.

all the 2-word combinations i can think of so far for the project are already owned... although none of them seem to be actually in use. i don't want to spend a buttload on the domain name, but maybe if the sites are not in use, i could get a good deal. most of the domain names are registered with non-US owners, as well.


none of the .net names are taken, but i don't think it's a really good idea to try and use a .net. good to own, but i don't need those issues (even if the names aren't in use).

although i don't think the '-' seperated names are taken, but i usually try and steer clear of those domains (harder to type in, IMHO)

Exactly what niche or type of site is it? There's always a chance that the domains you want are owned by someone here on GFY and you might be able to make a deal.

SpaceAce

it's a review site.


ok, so far i've found one '-' separated name that might work. but i've just never liked those :(

so if i used a name that was combined with a '-', (for example domainentry1-domainentry2.com), would that be bad?

I've always liked a more succinct domain name to something longer, and targetted.
The chances are that no one is going to just type in your domain without knowing about the site already (assuming the domain is any more than, say, four letters). And search engines and the like don't seem to place any more emphasis on the actual domain name than on content and keywords.

So, for return visits, unless the domain is really something clever or catchy, I go with shorter.

Well, your SEO is partially incorrect on that. Why do you think people use spammed keywords in the domain names when they spam Google?

well, the question still remains, would a site that has a '-' in the middle hurt traffic?

No... It wouldn't hurt traffic. I believe now that the SE's disregard the hyphen.

good to know. i dropped an email to the person that has the domain i really want, and as well to the person with the hyphenated version. there's a hyphenated name i could live with, but hopefully since neither of these domains have appeared to be used for quite some time, they'll deal... i almost get the impression they're just sitting on them, waiting for some sucker like me :winkwink:

relevancy helps but 10 years ago who knew what the fuck an ebay was. Short and or simpe is the name of the game. If a surfer can remember your name days later your good.

tomax