Which Domain Name to Choose
-
A non-profit I run owns two domains - ChristianSimplicity.com and SimpleLivingWithGod.com.
I have just started producing content under ChristianSimplicity. These are long-term projects and we have resources to commit to them. They do not need an economic return and that is not going to be sought.
Ultimately I want the sites to rank high on the key words like -
Simple Living
Living a Simple Life
Living Well
The Good Life
Christian Lifestyle
Christian Simple Living
I have a two part question. . . I'll ask the first part now. The second may be irrelevant depending on the first answer.
**Which domain name of the two is best to start out the site? **
We already have some content on the first site, but are early enough in the process that it isn't a big deal for us to switch and I don't think we will lose too much with respect to rankings.
Will the second domain name partial match on key word phrase help significantly more in ranking for the harder term Simple Living? I already rank 14 for Christian Simple Living - and I'm willing for that to drop to have the longer term goal of ranking higher on Simple Living.
Thanks.
-
If I'm understanding you correctly you are suggesting the following . . .
<title>About | Simple Living with God</title>
simplelivingwithgod.com/about/<title>Guide | Simple Living with God</title>
simplelivingwithgod.com/guide/<title>Books | Simple Living with God</title>
simplelivingwithgod.com/books/<title>Consider the Birds of the Air | Simple Living with God</title>
simplelivingwithgod.com/consider-the-birds-of-the-air/<title>The Place of Praise in Simple Living | Simple Living with God</title>
simplelivingwithgod.com/the-place-of-praise-in-simple-living/<title></span><span>Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life | Simple Living with God</span><span class="webkit-html-tag"></title> simplelivingwithgod.com/books/compassion-a-reflection-on-the-christian-life
Would the above be ok? Any of them too spammy?
Wondering if I should add make books and guide Simple Living Books and Simple Living Guide or is doubling that with my Brand in the title too much?
Also does it matter if I use | or - as the separator?
-
I think SimpleLivingWithGod.com will help you rank faster for simple living queries. Titling with your brand name at the end is a best practice in my opinion but definitely not required. I never recommend leading with the brand name unless you are Sears.com or WalMart.com. Those brands are recognizable to the point it makes sense to lead your titles with the brand b/c the brand actually drives CTR. If you're brand isn't known and you aren't investing heavily in the brand they I think your keyword targeted approach is the best option. Just don't get carried away and spammy with it and make sure your page titles reflect the actual content on the page and you should be good to go.
Thumbs up if this helps!
Thanks,
-
Hi again
You can title your pages as you see fit, the example you are using :
<title>Simple Living in God's Care - About Christian Simplicity</title>
http://christiansimplicity.com/simple-living-in-gods-care/Is fine to use, you just need to make sure the content on that page reflects the title you are using. and that the content you do use is unique.
Personally i do not use the brand name at the end of every title, i see no need to do this, as your domain states who you are and there is no need to have it on the end of every title. I only have on a title what i want to target and whats on that page.
Others do tend to add the brand at the end, some use it at the start, and they rank too, so there is no " correct " way of doing that in my opinion.
-
Ok, if I go with Christian Simplicity. . .
Is it appropriate to title my pages like they are now?
<title></span><span class="webkit-html-tag">Simple Living in God's Care - About Christian Simplicity</span><span class="webkit-html-tag"></title>
http://christiansimplicity.com/simple-living-in-gods-care/That is what the "About" | "Christian Simplicity" menu item points too.
Also, since I'm not as much worried about Brand as I am about key words Simple Living and things like that, should I lead with the Keyword in the Title and put the brand at the end instead of the other way around?
That is
<title>Simple Living Guide - Christian Simplicity</title>
instead of
<title>Christian Simplicity - Simple Living Guide</title>
I'm surprised though - I thought if my goal is to ultimately make it to the first page in ranks for Simple Living, that having Simple Living in the url and every title (as the brand) would help it rank higher for that.
<title>Simple Living - My Favorite Post Title</title> http://simplelivingwithgod.com/my-favorite-post-title
Versus
<title>My Favorite Post Title | Christian Simplicity</title> http://christiansimplicity.com/my-favorite-post-title
Granted I am a novice and there is so much information online that is either confusing or contradictory.
-
In my opinion the domain name that is best is the one that reads best and is easy to remember. Having a keyword in a domain isnt as useful as it once was after the EMD update.
Personally i would use the first of the 2 as it is easier to read and remember. Which in turn has longer term benefits.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Which domain/subdomain strategy would be better?
I have multiple subdomain based news website. Each subdomain is in the format languge1.newsdomain.com, language2.newsdomain.com etc. These are not mere translation of one site into another but giving content tailored for the language and culture of the audience it serves. In essence they are related but different. When it comes to "english" I have two options. Option1. Create english.newsdomain.com using the same format and use the main www.newsdomain.com as a launching pad (navigation site) which allows the user to choose language and goto appropriate site. This gives the advantage of creating a common brand of newsdomain.com for all languages. There won't be any other content on this www.newsdomain.com Option2. Use www.newsdomain.com for english content and only allow the list of other sites as footer or part of menu. This gives the advantage of having main domain with content (and links and other benefits) but makes it a bit difficult for users who do not speak english, to find their destination. Any thoughts which is better or worse?
Branding | | Maayboli0 -
How to market a brand when the brand name is constantly changing?
I work in an industry where companies are often being bought up by other larger companies. When this happens, there is often a change in the company name to incorporate the parent company name as well. My company is a distributor of these products and I'm wondering if there are best practices for marketing both the original brand name and the new brand name for the same product? We're trying to avoid any duplicate product detail pages, so dynamically generating the same page for two different names is not ideal. Anyone have any tips? Thanks!
Branding | | GalcoIndustrial0 -
Short Custom Domains for using instead of bit.ly etc
Hi Can anyone recommend any good sources/sites for quickly trying to find good shortened custom domain options for using instead of bit.ly etc Any hints and tips at trying to find suitable ones too ? since ive tried a few sites and cant find anything suitable and keeps suggesting options with subfolders Thanks Dan
Branding | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
International domain query
my client is a financial services company with some ccTLDs for brand name but does not own the .com eg: brandname.ch, brandname.ro etc we need to launch a brand UK site plus a global site. should we go for another name on the .com: brandname_financial.com_, and: brandname_financial.ch_, brandname_financial.ro_ etc or could we go for instead brandname.uk.com and brandname.eu.com? i'm worried the owner of brandname.com will build a site and out rank us.....however the alternative is a longer url but owning the .com hope that makes sense and any advice would be gladly received! Many thanks
Branding | | bisibee10 -
Buying a used domain - redirecting, pluses etc?
Hi, I have a 6 year old domain which has been the basis for my main business website operation. http://www.kent-website-designer.co.uk/ Im in the process of cleaning up some messy sitewide footer kinks that come to the notice of Penguin update. I think I can clear up a lot of links but obviously need to add some better links for the future to improve. Ive gone from #1 to #60. I was thinking of a rebrand as the EMD isnt doing much good anymore in benefits plus the drop in rankings and also Google definately favouring brand links over concentrated anchor texts. So maybe the time is ideal. The design needs a refresh anyway.... I have found a 1999 .co.uk domain which has some non keyword related 1999 links to it...nice. Its a very reasonable price. Its not going to have inbounds from my related markets, not ideal but it has no negative stuff either. Also its a very simple but rememberable name like Google or Yahoo. Great for branding. Its parked but Waybackmachine shows indexing back to `99 and google cache has some content on it. However OSE shows low domain / page authority. Im thinking of redirecting my current domain to the new one, passing some of the positives of age and titles...and replicating the site through 301`s. Is this worth doing in anyones opinion? Only thing with my domain isany branding words are anchor text words too. I cant win.
Branding | | xtopher660 -
Organic fluctuations after domain migration ?
I'm working on the rebranding of an ecommerce site We're going to do a domain migration and since half of the current traffic is coming from organic searches I'd like to estimate possible fluctuations on this channel. **Do you have any rebranding experience? or can suggest good case studies on this? ** (Technically speaking we know the protocol and also on the communication/strategy side we're covered.. we just need an estimate of the organic drop.. in the worst case scenario)
Branding | | homeonline0 -
Protecting Your Domain/Brand
Hi All, We've registered our domain with register.com they will not all us to buy .ca unless we reside in canada, same fro uk. Has anyone run into this problem? I wouldnt want someone to snatch it up and use it to their advantage.
Branding | | TP_Marketing0 -
Do you buy keyword strong domains around your brand?
Do you buy keyword domains around your brand? If so do you do this for future use or for redirecting to a sub domain off your core site or for other reasons?
Branding | | charlesgrimm0