Keyword Domains – Search Engine Optimization Common Sense
Domainers and SEO consultants don’t always see eye to eye.
Why not? We’re not competitors. We both have the same goal of increased organic and targeted traffic for our clients, or for our own businesses.
I understand the value of proper SEO, so why is it that some SEO companies have such a difficult time acknowledging that all SEO starts with the actual domain name? Or at the very minimum that a domain name, if properly utilized, has the ability to give you the edge in a competitive market?
These questions and others rattled around in my head as I sat in on a client meeting the other day…a 3rd party vendor pitch for SEO services. The client (my client) has purchased multiple keyword domains from me over the years. I’ve also trained members of said client’s internal staff on keyword research and how to integrate keyword domains and targeted landing pages as part of a long-term online marketing strategy to drive traffic to the main company brand, or to a specific product within their online store or to a specific service offering.
In addition to keyword advertising campaigns (which they still utilize across several networks) my client grasped early on how keyword domain landing pages targeting niche keyword search terms could over time reduce their dependence on paid keyword advertising, and result in higher quality organic traffic over paid clicks.
My client gets it.
My client understands that keyword domains serve as a foundation on which to build, but they are only that. If you build a crap house on a strong foundation, you still have a crap house. Keyword domains are not the answer in and of themselves. Hence my client’s need for a competent SEO firm to provide content writing and other SEO services.
The simple reality is that Keyword domains WITH relevant content, and built out incorporating effective SEO strategies, have a huge advantage over similarly created content sites not employing a keyword domain approach.
Any SEO “expert” who doesn’t readily admit that should seek a new line of work.
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Tom, your advice is right on the money and well stated.
Any SEO professional who doesn’t understand and capitalize on the power of a keyword-rich domain name is not a consultant that you should use. (Having made that general statement, there are exceptions of course…like when you want to build the largest bookstore retailer in the world and want to do it on a trademarked name rather than, say, books.com.)
Your house building analogy is good. You can use other materials (non-keyword domain name, no SEO tactics, etc.) but it may take you longer to build the house.
Regards,
Michael
Totally agree Michael. My annoyance is with the so called SEO gurus who gloss right over, or do not even consider, how a keyword-rich domain can tip the scales in a site’s favor over other similarly constructed sites with comparable content. It’s irresponsible.
@Tom,
I think because a website such as Resume-Help.org is able to generate over 150,000 unique a month demonstrates the value of SEO, or adwords.
Resume.com only pulls down 20,000 unique per month, which is a domain name that is lacking. Nothingbutcoverletters.com is another example of a name with little appraisal, or if any, that is able to produce 33,000 unique per month.
SEO companies probably take credit for building traffic to these domains. My best performing resume domain produce under 200 unique per month. I would definitely want to score more traffic to coverletterservices.com and resumecompanies.com. Not every great domain name scores instant traffic.
1932quarter.com is scoring high traffic based on the generic value of the coin. Convincing a website and a SEO company to treat a generic domains with respect may be an tall order, especially with the two websites above making a fortune on their traffic.
Great article. Thanks.
JAG