Has Google Devalued Domain Rich Keywords?
When I first entered the world of SEO it didn’t take me long to come up with the name Belfast SEO. It was a simple case of following the ABCs of optimising a website.
Strong keyword rich URL
- – In the domain if relevant or in the sub page with named permalinks
Highly Optimised Title
- – Having your targeted keywords at the start of the title is a must
SEO rich content
- – Making use of <h> and <strong> tags etc with natural content with a strong keyword density
The fact that my keywords were in the domain was an added bonus as I knew it would put my website above stronger competition around me as it was common knowledge that keyword rich domains held a lot of weight in terms of SERPs. Looking back now I sometimes feel I could have been a little more creative and chosen a more original name to prove my skills but it served its purpose at the time, got me my earlier clients and made me the SEO that I am today.
Unfortunately for anyone thinking of following a similar path to myself their days may be numbered as over recent weeks I’ve noticed that some keyword rich domains have fallen dramatically. At first I thought that this was maybe due to a penalty but they didn’t appear to have the characteristics of a penalty. Namely the fact that they were still on page 1, rather that they have fallen from top spot right the way down to the bottom of page 1.
For those people out there who already have a keyword domain name I wouldn’t panic just yet…
Legitimate websites shouldn’t have anything to worry about. It’s the websites that have been set up purely to abuse domain names power with little to no fresh content and tend to be redirecting to somewhere else that appear to be getting hit. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on.
Written by Barry Connolly
