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2014-04-01

Domain Names: Brandable or Keywords?



As noted in the article link below and 2011 video above, Google's Matt Cutts says there are two routes when choosing a domain name: one that is brandable, e.g., “twitter.com” OR one that is keywordy, e.g., “short-message-service.com” --

Is it important to have keywords in a domain name? | Codesign: "As Cleveland, Ohio-based designers and brand identity consultants our advice on effective domain names is unchanged:
  • Be brandable and unique
  • Keep it short and memorable
  • Make sure it’s easy to spell and pronounce
  • Avoid clumsy dashes
  • And, if possible, stick to .com if for no other reason than familiarity." (read more at the link above)
And of course, for keyword domain names there is also the Exact Match Domain Penalty that Google introduced in 2012:

Google: EMD Update | Search Engine Land: "The EMD Update — for “Exact Match Domain” — is a filter Google launched in September 2012 to prevent poor quality sites from ranking well simply because they had words that match search terms in their domain names....."

Good luck domaining!