It’s been some time now that the algorithm update ‘Penguin’ devalued the rankings of thousands of websites giving sleepless nights to many a businesses. SEO masters are coming to terms with the working of the updated algorithm, albeit slowly. It has been realised by many that not all keyword-rich websites became victims of this onslaught. And, logically enough, keyword-rich domain names have withstood this onslaught much better than the websites stuffed with keywords elsewhere.
What’s it with keyword-rich domain names that’s made them resilient to such updates? What’s it with them that makes Google to consider them as websites built with white-hat SEO techniques rather than those with black-hat SEO tactics? An in-depth analysis of this case will open the floodgates of knowledge on how the algorithm, especially the updated algorithm returns the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). For e.g. Let us consider the search phrase, “SEO Services India”. Let’s say there are two organizations with the same first name, ‘XYZ’, offering SEO services in India: XYZ SEO Services and XYZ Softech, owning domain names www.xyzseoservices.com and www.xyzsoftech.com respectively. Naturally, among the two, the search engine will assign a higher rank to the one with a domain name containing the search phrase. Moreover, it’s not just about ranking! As the search phrase in domain names are presented in bolder fonts (i.e., www.xyzseoservices.com) on SERPs, the probability of getting a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) increases as well. This is something akin to hitting two targets with one shot! And also, suppose a website is ranked seventh on a SERP and has a CTR higher than the previous six sites, Google will assign a higher ranking to that website automatically, ensuring higher traffic. This is one SEO technique that’ll never be relegated to oblivion that businesses and webmasters can bet on. It’s completely white-hat!!
Having a keyword-rich domain name has lots of plusses, alright; but it’s not without its own set of minuses! The paragraph above has focussed on the positive side of having keyword-rich domain names. Given below are some negatives that are to be avoided, to the extent possible, while considering Search Engine Optimisation options.
Keyword-rich domain names may have a negative bearing on the brand value of products and services being offered by an organization, as the domain name may not give any hint whatsoever about the brand that the organization is trying to promote. In that way, the organization will be losing out on an important marketing tool for its brand by opting for a keyword-rich domain name rather than a domain name that highlights the brand. This negative can be overcome by having the brand name and description mentioned effectively in the title tag and Meta description sections of the webpage. Another important thing that has to be kept in mind while opting to go in for keyword-rich domain names is that such websites need not be stuffed with the same keyword ‘n’ number of times elsewhere on the webpage. One has to note that it’s such websites that have taken a very bad beating, post-penguin.
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