KEY WORDS IN DOMAIN NAME URLs. MATT CUTTS EXPLAINS - MORE. . . . . and COMPARED TO WHAT???
Have you read Lenn's Key word blog?
If Active Rain has a queen it is Lenn Harley! Her posts are always well thought out and informative. She has years of experience and it shows in her posts. As a newer agent (in the biz for about a year) I often search her out and read her posts.
Reading her post, I understand people don't always agree, but you don't fight with the queen. Not saying might is right, just saying there are many ways to approach every situation and confrontation is not the best way.
Here are some suggestions for AR newbies from a "been here for a short time newbie"
1. Read the post fully. Don't be so quick to jump and make the mistake of putting words in someones mouth.
2. And this is really big. Come from contribution! Agents have the ability to refer to you! Work with them, in this case its an SEO company. Think about why your here in the first place! Confronting the queen is like confronting the community. With just a post or two, this company may have lost a huge amount of business.
3. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The agents here get it! They want to share information and knowledge. Together we all achieve more.
THE DEBATE ABOUT KEYWORD RICH DOMAIN NAMES RAGES ON. I recently offered a number of real estate related (mostly) URLs or domain names for sale and suggested that, IMO, selecting a keyword rich domain name is the first step in SEO when building a new web site. SEE: YOU'RE LAUNCHING A NEW WEB SITE. THAT'S EXCITING. WHERE TO BEGIN?? SEO BEGINS WITH A GREAT DOMAIN NAME!
That ActiveRain post generated a good bit of disagreement from a couple of SEO companies on ActiveRain. They not only disputed my premise that keyword rich domains had economic value, they disputed that they have SEO value. I thought their comments to my post were harmful to my effort to sell real estate related domain names, I also thought that they were using comments to my post to generate links to their ActiveRain blog and generate business for themselves, therein violating the ActiveRain guidelines. I eventually deleted their comments. HOWEVER, THE DEBATE RAGES ON and I usually see Matt Cutts "REFERENCED",usually by SEO companies.
EUREKA! This morning I was led to a video (YouTube) of Matt Cutts himself clarifying this issue.
The debate about whether or not keyword rich URLs have a value in Google SERP rages on with SEO companies saying that they do NOT and Lenn saying that, IMO, they DO. Reference is always made to MATT CUTTS, a spokesman for Google who, IMO, clarified the matter in a short video. Watch or at least listen. It's right on target. Matt Cutts stated: Matt Cutts stated . . . .
The uproar over my article would have us believe that having a keyword rich URL for our real estate advertising was HARMFUL to SERP. Far from it. The debate, from what I hear FROM MATT CUTTS (dropping the name) is a matter of degree a keyword rich URL will help. There is no information that having a keyword rich domain name or URL is harmful, as is the direction far too many web site developers go.
I've noticed that many "SEO experts" love to quote Matt Cutts. Aside from the value of name dropping, they often to fail to quote the published source of what Matt Cutts said or quote precisely with a link to Matt Cutts saying what they said he said. So, I watched and listened to the video published by Matt Cutts and found the following::
KEY WORDS IN URLs (domain names). ADVANTAGE??? As of today? YES.
IN THE FUTURE?? Perhaps not so much.
IS THAT REALLY THE QUESTION??? I never claimed that a web site with a keyword rich domain name was the panacea to SERP dominance. I only stated that I believe that good SEO begins with the selection of a good domain name (URL).
COMPARED TO WHAT ???
THAT IS THE QUESTION. What's the answer. The value of a keyword rich URL (domain name) is compared to a BRANDABLE URL.
KEYWORD RICH URL or BRANDABLE URL??
AH HA!! Notice I did not write BRANDED!!
FACT: A keyword rich URL or domain name does not have to be BRANDED.
FACT: A URL with no keywords may be BRANDABLE and eventually, BRANDED. That is clear. However, AT WHAT COST???
EXAMPLE OF BRANDED DOMAIN NAMES - Google, Zillow, Facebook, Twitter. These BRANDED URLs are at the top of SERP even though the URLs are not topical. All do have some things in common:
They are short.
They are "catchy".
They all have a tremendous number of back links.
They all have many aspects of a "portal".
They are all BRANDED.The other thing that they all have in common is that the companies that the domain names represent have MONEY, LOTS OF MONEY to pay for BRANDING of their DOMAIN NAME. They all had and have huge sums of investment and often Venture Capital to seed the BRANDING of their URL. They also have an advantage in getting backlinks. Think of Homes.com. HA! How many backlinks do they receive from every subscribers?? This is a trick that many web site developers use. The "quietly" insert backlinks to their company when developing a web site for a real estate agent. How many backlinks are you giving your web site developer in that little "Site Design by XYZ.com"???
As the owner of a number (424) of URLs (domain names), I learned (to my satisfaction) early on that topical, real estate and location descriptive keyword rich domain names would, at the least, help a web site's production in Google. Before Google a site had to be accepted and included in a directory. The few search engines that existed at that time still rquired registration and indexing. Google crawls and indexes just about any URL that has at least one backlink. Go ahead SEO experts, dispute that if you wish. My question would be, were you even around before Google???
EXAMPLE: Search for "find homes loudoun county va" and the search result will produce at the top (following PPC) in
- Loudoun County VA homes and real estate, new and resale homes for ...
- Loudoun County Homes For Sale & Real Estate - VA | Homes.com
- REAL ESTATE AND HOMES FOR SALE in Maryland and Northern Virginia ...
#1 is one of my web sites with the URL- loudoun-county-va-homes.com. The domian name is keyword rich with "homes" and the location "loudoun county va". This site contains about several hundred pages of content (not IDX generated) related to real estate in Loudoun County, Virginia.
#2 is a web site for HOMES.COMwhich can be considered both keyword rich (homes) and branded. It's a site that dominates in Google SERP because of the volume of the content and huge number of back links.
#3 is Homefinders.com,a name that is not keyword rich because it has no location identification and, while the word "homes" is a part of the name, why does the web site, Homefinders.com, produce consistently high in Google SERP? The name is BRANDED, or about as BRANDED as a domain can be for a local site. Homefinders.com also has a few hundred pages of content (not IDX generated).
Listen to Matt Cuts carefully. He does NOT say that Google downgrades the value of a keyword rich URL. He says that they are "THINKING ABOUT IT", or thinking about reducing the benefit that comes with a keyword rich URL.
Lesson for Lenn. When posting an article, if you include "SEO" anywhere in your article, expect to be attacked by SEO companies. They are all the "experts", arent they???
Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988.
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