Google, Yahoo & Microsoft : SEO Influence of Keywords in Domain Names

SEO Question : Are keywords in URL and domain name important? And how does it differ across various search engines?

For years, this question has also been frequently asked in many forums and blogs; whether keywords in URL and domain names are important and how each search engine treats such domain names.

The importance of keywords in the URL and URL structure is fairly important, and here is the level of importance for the top 3 search engines:

1. Microsoft Search
2. Yahoo Search
3. Google

From Google’s perspective, keyword in domains plays a very small role in determining the rank of a website. Google is more focused on the quality of links pointing to a website and the content of that site, not whether the website has its primary keyword in its domain name or not. [Not to say it’s not important, it’s just not as important.]

Advantages of Keywords in URL Structure

One advantage of having the primary keyword in a website’s domain name is that even if some other sites link to the website using just its URL, the website still gets the benefit of the keyword as its anchor text.

Having keywords in the domain name helps to improve CTR (click thru rate) since the URL with the keyword gets bolded in the search results which grabs more attention of the searchers.

When this question was asked in the WebProWorld forums, a member said:

“Domain names are for people. There are plenty of sites at the top of the SERPs for their chosen keyword(s) that don’t have them in their domain name. Make the name easy to remember and spell because it’s for people.”

Quite true! If you make a search in Google for Computers, you will find that the sites placed at the top are leading computer brands that do not have the word “Computers” in their domain names.

If you are targeting a long keyword phrase such as “Refurbished Toyota Corolla for Sale” then trying to include this keyword in your domain name won’t be a good idea at all, at least from the users’ perspective.

However, there were views against this thought as well, another member of the WebProWorld forums said:

“We’ve seen good results with keywords in the URL, if no reason other than to entice searchers to click your search listing. Human visitors are becoming better at ignoring spam in search engine results, and are looking to important clues in your listing. Keywords in meta descriptions, titles and URLs get clicks.”

He has a point as well, with more and more spam sneaking into the search results, users now look for vital clues in the search engine listings to determine which link they should be clicking.

Also another member of the forums said:

“URLs are not so important for Google but do play a more important role with Yahoo. However, in more competitive categories so many other things come into play - branding particularly - that I wouldn’t be driven by the tld.”

Microsoft, Yahoo and Keyword Friendly Domains

So if you are targeting Microsoft and Yahoo in your search marketing campaigns, then you should probably have a domain name that has your targeted keyword in it, especially in Microsoft Live Search.

If you are targeting a moderate to highly competitive industry, then other vital things such as links and branding will easily outweigh the advantage that one gets from having keyword in the domain name, but the keyword in the domain or URL structure is highly beneficial in these search engines.

I also ran across this post in the Contractor Web Development community which nicely explains how each search engine treat domain name keywords

“Google, while highlighting keywords in the domain name, does not give preference to them, as that would be unfairly shifting favour to an aspect of a site that can easily be manipulated and does not necessarily determine content or its quality.

Yahoo has been reported to take into account domain name keywords in the past, but recent search results suggest that less emphasis is placed on domain name keywords, which has helped filter out keyword-stuffed and spam-riden sites with low quality content.

MSN Search apparently does take into account domain name keywords. As an example, compare the results of “cheap travel” on MSN Search and Google. You will notice that the MSN results are dominated by keyword domains containing the keywords cheap and travel, while Google results are not.”

So to boil it down, keyword in domain names are not important for Google, moderately important for Yahoo and it is somewhat a major ranking factor when it comes to MSN / Live Search.

So You can share your thoughts on this issue.

Google Opens Site Creation Tool to Everyone

Remember JotSpot which was recently launched as part of Google Apps for businesses, schools and organizations? Google just opened it up to everyone. No domain required. Group sites will be hosted as a subdomain on Google Site’s domain.

Nothing biggie here really. It’s just your old circa 1990’s site creation tool. Think of Geocities resurrected for the social web. That’s basically what Google Sites is.

It doesn’t require too much technical skills to build your own site either. The site creation tool comes with pre-loaded with several themes which you can use for your group sites.

On the positive note, this could be useful for those still using Google Groups. You can easily create a site for your Groups where your members can share stuff, collaborate on certain issues and pretty much some other things that you normally do together in a social networking site.

Russia’s Top Search Engine Yandex Raising Funds via IPO !!

Russia’s no.1 search engine and the country’s biggest internet firm Yandex, is now raising funds via a New York-IPO scheduled later this year. Yandex is hoping to raise around $1.5-$2.0 billion funds which is based on a preliminary valuation of Yandex at $5 billion.

Yandex had already mandated Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Renaissance Capital to organise an IPO on Nasdaq NADq.O.

Yandex has definitely come along way since we covered them in the Journal’s Spotlight of 500 Search Engines two years ago. It beats both Yahoo and Microsoft in March 2008 getting 522 million or 2.2 percent of all European searches conducted during the period, based on comScore data. It also got 47% of all searches conducted in Russia followed by Google, Rambler and Mail.ru, with a total revenue of $167 million in 2007.

No wonder, even Google’s Sergy Brin was amazed at how Yandex’s many talented people was able to make Yandex beat Google search in Russia.

A peek behind the curtain at Google

Udi Manber talks about search at Google in a recent post on the Google blog . If you're interested in search or search engine optimization (SEO), the post is definitely worth a read. Udi discusses items from big (Google revamped how it com.. Read Full Article Here

Image Hotlinking and SEO : Are There Any Benefits?

• Are there any benefits of other sites hotlinking your site (is that worth as much as a regular link)?

Hotlinking refers to the process of using images of one site on the pages of another site. Hotlinking is infamous on the web due to the following reasons:

• Hotlinking is treated as a way of stealing bandwidth from the host site [the site where the image is originally hosted]
• Besides that hotlinking can also result in copyright infringement violations which can land you in a legal conflict with the owner of the host site.

But the main question here is, keeping all the copyright issues aside for a moment, if we look into hotlinking from an SEO perspective, are there any benefits in getting your images hotlinked by another website? Would hotlinking be worth as much as regular links?

When this question was asked in the Google Groups Webmaster Help Discussions recently, Aaron Pratt, a member of the group, responded by saying:

“anything linked to including images shows that people out there might like what you have, google then has to determine is the linking is real or make believe. :)”

However, the point to notice in the above statement is “anything linked to”, so:

• If the hotlinked image has a link to your website URL, then that would be treated as a proper image link and will pass due link credits to your website.

• Also if the hotlinked image is linked to the image URL itself, then that would increase the chance of your images appearing in Google Image searches.

Last year, Patrick Altoft wrote an exceptional piece and script to benefit from sites which hotlink to images, embedding an alt attribute and image title in the linking code, making this hotlinking even more powerful.

But what if the image is neither linked to your site nor to the image URL? Do you think such a hotlinking would still be beneficial to your site? What do you think?

Yahoo Search Marketing Adds Enhancements to Sponsored Search

Yesterday Yahoo Search Marketing made this announcement on enhancements to the system:

• All names of objects (campaign, ad group, keyword, etc.) that are offline are displayed with red text for easy recognition.
• The “Top Campaigns” and “Watched Campaigns” tables on the Dashboard page now include a “Status” column to help you identify if and why any campaigns are offline.
• Minor updates to the “Campaigns” page have been made, including a new “Status” column, the ability to filter by “Status” when using the Advanced Search function, and replacing the “Campaign On/Off” button with individual “Pause” and “Unpause” buttons.
• We made minor tweaks to the Ads table on an Ad Group page, including adding a “Status” column, and replacing the “Campaign On/Off” button with individual “Pause” and “Unpause” buttons.
• New status settings have been added on the Search page, under the Campaigns tab.
• The addition of the “Status” column to the Ad Group, Ad and Keyword Search screens under the Campaigns tab.
• The ability to export (using the “Download” button) account information has been added to account-level Ad Group and Keyword pages, under the Campaigns tab.

Like Yahoo says, they are not the biggest ground breaking enhancements, but these still add to the usability of the system.

A Funny Reciprocal Links Image

I thought this was kinda funny. Someone thought that Google was taking stronger action on excessive reciprocal links. So did they ramp down their reciprocal linking? Nope. Instead, they put their offer into an image thinking that Google wouldn’t notice: Read Full Article Here

Microsoft Puts New Yahoo Deal on Table: Full Text

Microsoft (MSFT) released a statement on Sunday that it has made an alternative offer to Yahoo (YHOO) that wouldn't entail a full acquisition. In the unexpected move, Microsoft would be acting as something of a white knight, saving Yahoo from fighting a proxy battle with billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Microsoft Corp. today issued the following statement:

“In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties.

“There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions.”

Yahoo Quick To Reply To New Microsoft Statements

Following a Microsoft press release today - detailed in the story below - Yahoo has replied to reinforce Microsoft's confirmation of not wanting to buy "all of Yahoo" - but that it may be interested in doing something with Yahoo.

"Yahoo! Remains Open To Value Maximizing Transactions" the press release was titled. What type of transactions given Google is already supplying PPC ads and WPP just signed to distribute other media.

The most interesting part of the press release was the note about how shareholders can assign proxy votes - given the threats to the current board investors have presented.