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
-
Migrating educational resources for a SaaS product to an existing domain?
Odd situation I'm hoping some folks may have insight on. We have a product site and an educational site (two entirely separate domains). The educational site has: Existed for longer (24 years vs 13). Currently ranks for far more keywords and drives more traffic. Is an entirely separate brand from the product. Has historically driven sales to the product site (through email and onsite ads) but that channel has diminished over time. The product site Also has educational resources Is a more recognizable brand When prioritized resources here often drive far more revenue The Challenge
Branding | | pasware
Both sites cover very similar topics, making prioritization challenging and splits our topical focus. We are considering making the educational site our sole place for resources, migrating content from the product site, and rebranding the site to line up more closely with the product. Basically retain the domain, make it our sole focus for updates and new content, but align it with the strength of our more recognizable product. The Questions Does anyone have any experience with this type of rebrand where a separate domain is retained? Are we risking the loss of branded search queries in the process or some other risk? While potentially risking ranking/traffic loss would it make more sense to migrate all valuable content to the product site instead? Sorry for the long-winded questions here and appreciate any thoughts/ideas!0 -
Domain Transition: Moving over paid traffic campaigns first
We're planning a domain name (rebrand) transition, and considering our options. We rely heavily on paid traffic. To reduce risk, we’re considering moving AdWords and Bing Ads over campaign-by-campaign to the new domain first, while organic traffic continues to direct to the old domain. Each of our ad groups has a custom, noindex’d landing page. In order to serve paid traffic, we’d at minimum need a front page, and likely a privacy policy page in addition. Here’s a rough outline of what I think a transition like this might look like: Launch new domain with a simple front page, and privacy policy. Move over ppc landing pages on the new domain (noindex'd, robots.txt) Create new ads in existing ad groups directing to the new domain. Monitor ad groups for some time period to verify sustainability. Once we're satisfied with ppc performance, and planned the rest of the organic page migrations, 301 redirect everything to the new domain. Is there any problems or things we should be concerned about with this approach? I'd think it should be fine, but I've been bitten enough from large-scale redirects in the past, that I know I should be nervous.
Branding | | dsbud0 -
How to rank #1 for brand name when its 2 competitive keywords?
Hi Mozzers, I have recently began the SEO on a website which is a few years old, with little SEO done beforehand.
Branding | | Silkstream
I really want to get this domain ranking #1 for its brand name, however the brand name also happens to be a combination of two highly competitive keywords - one of them being "hire". I have done everything I can think of as a recommended step to signal Google, but it still sits between position #20 and position #15 (on a good day). So far I have:
Set up G+
Linked the website
Added Rel=publisher
Submitted site to Yell.com and a couple of other business directories
Added branded links from every the bio of each article on the blog pointing to the homepage.
Built a handful of branded links from related niche websites.
Set up social pages. Question:
What else can I do to improve on its position in the SERPS? More info:
The site ranks number 2 in Bing for the brand name. The domain is an exact match of two keywords without a hyphen between them - the site ranks position #1 for that search on Google. Question:
Would a hyphenated domain make any difference at all? Thanks everyone!0 -
Domain Buying Service
I am looking for a service that handles clients who want to purchase domains that are owned and in use and someone wants to purchase them incognito. Does anyone know of (preferably have experience with) a service that will handle this type of domain purchase activity. An example would be if I knew of moz.com but wanted to buy it because I had invented a Moz machine that was worth zillions. I only want the .com and I do not want the owner to know who is purchasing.
Branding | | RobertFisher
Thanks for any assist you can provide. Robert0 -
No Domain Link In Press Release, What About Yelp?
Hi Moz, I understand that using a PR for SEO benefit is old-school, black hat, and largely outlawed by Google. We are simply trying to get our name pushed further into the local market, i.e., using a press release for it's natural intention. Our company offers free quotes through our site and the scheduling of jobs with new clients is largely done online. I think it seems silly NOT to have a link to our URL in the press release, but rather than poke Google, we're fine omitting it. However, would linking our Yelp near the end be a big deal? Yelp no-follows their URLs back to the company site so there isn't a risk with pumping up a support link through PR and we can provide SOME clickable link to our information. Thoughts?
Branding | | kirmeliux0 -
Big Problems Using &'s in Business Name?
One of my clients is a law firm with a Business name like the following:
Branding | | gbkevin
Rosenberg & Dalgren, LLP They get A TON of organic search traffic on their brand name above, but most people (95%) search "Rosenberg and Dalgren" instead of "Rosenberg & Dalgren". **Notice use of ampersand being used and alternatively, the word "and" being used. ** Currently, their local citations across the Internet (G+, YP, Yelp, etc) use the business name, "Rosenberg & Dalgren, LLP" (with ampersand). Here is the dilemma we are in... When someone searches "Rosenberg and Dalgren" in Google (which the majority of our search traffic does), Google does NOT show our local one-box on the right hand side of the SERPs (see example of a one-box I am referring to here http://blumenthals.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Screen-Shot-2013-09-28-at-9.59.58-AM.png). But when someone searches "Rosenberg & Dalgren" in Google, it does trigger our local one-box with photos, review ratings, links to our Google+ Local page, etc. WHICH IS GREAT! They have AWESOME reviews that command powerful social proof. We want that local one-box to show up! So my question is, what can I do to trigger that local one-box for both brand name searches for "Rosenberg & Dalgren" as well as "Rosenberg and Dalgren"? I am considering changing our NAP citations to have the business name be "Rosenberg and Dalgren" since that is what 95% of people search in Google to find them. I am guessing Google doesn't quite understand that "Rosenberg and Dalgren" is linked to "Rosenberg & Dalgren" via what it sees in the knowledge graph of the Internet (citations, website, etc). So how best should I handle this and get that local one-box triggering for the majority of our branded search traffic? Lastly, what is the best advice for including company/corporate designations in the NAP citations? (ie. LLP, LLC, Inc, etc) Thank you for any help and guidance! We appreciate it!0 -
Can creating a subfolder and seperate domain blog build external links?
So I am currently going through the creation of a blog with a client that has a company that sells tennis equipment. I have talked to their development team, who is a third-party ecommerce platform, and come up with an idea to create an sub-folder (domain.com/blog) with an article page using their existing framework that would feature full articles in a blog format. Then I would create multiple blogs for them using tumblr and wordpress with their company name and a few with unique names targeted to their niche. These would feature snippets of the content taken from their article page (domain.com/blog) with some responses or reviews on the full articles to further their outreach and then link to the main articles on their article page. These snippets would be divided up amongst the blogs and posted on different days of the week to divide the traffic. Each blog will feature fresh content and focus on a rotating schedule of the latest videos, re-blogs, memes, photos, highlights, scores, upcoming tournament reviews, etc. I will set each one up to rotate through these different topics on different days and times to create a steady stream of traffic. I want to make sure that I stress the fact that I wont be stuffing the unique blogs with links only to the clients company store, I will be making sure to keep it to an amount that isn't spam worthy. Now if these blogs feature rich content including the snippets of the articles from my sub-folder page (domain.com/blog) will these blogs pass link juice to the blog set up on my sub-folder? Also is this a good way to ensure brand awareness and create external links without damaging their reputation? Are there other risks that people have encountered by doing something similar? Please share your experiences so I can make an educated decision.
Branding | | cscoville0 -
Google Displays Domain / URL Above Description?
I am seeing a new SERP format from Google. (new for me at least) In the past the title tag would display as the first line of a listing, followed by description and domain / URL. Today I see the domain / URL as the second line. This is placing an emphasis on "Who". If you have a big brand or a great URL this might be helpful to your CTR. Are you seeing this? What do you think of it?
Branding | | EGOL0