Full stops and SEO

[TheShortStack]

Ok, I've been looking through a few of the search terms that vistors to my site have been using, and a few of them include terms like pokerstars.com bonus code.

It's got me intrigued.

If (for example) I was wanting to start a mini site around that phrase, how does Google handle the '.' in the search phrase?

Does it just ignore it? In which case would it consider a domain pokerstarscombonus.com an exact match?

I'm not sure I've explained that too well, so if it hasn't made any sense then just let me know!

[CK]

I would definatly find another room to use and stay as far away from creating that domain as possible. Unless you want your earnings wiped out

Not sure if you knew but thought I would post anyway just in case.

[TheShortStack]

Thanks Kaus,

No, I'm just using that as an example. Certainly wouldn't dream of putting anything on a domain like that.

I've just used that to try to illustrate what I'm talking about (not sure if it worked!!)

[Michael Martinez]

Stuffing a domain name with keywords is no more effective than placing keywords strategically in a page URL. Don't think in terms of how you can name the domain. Think in terms of how you can name the landing page.

Page URL is only one of hundreds of factors that influence Google's IR relevance scores.

[CoolDog]

Stuffing a domain name with keywords is no more effective than placing keywords strategically in a page URL. Don't think in terms of how you can name the domain. Think in terms of how you can name the landing page.

Page URL is only one of hundreds of factors that influence Google's IR relevance scores.

Are you saying that domains with keywords in them are not effective?

[Michael Martinez]

Are you saying that domains with keywords in them are not effective?

I am saying that, algorithmically, the search engines have been telling people there is no difference between putting your keywords in your domain name and putting your keywords in your URL.

A domain name may be all or part of a URL, but only one page on a site normally has a URL that consists solely of the domain name (technically, example.com and www . example . com could be different pages).

The search engines are saying that www . example . com is just a URL (to them), not a domain name.

Hence, if they are only looking at URLs, then it doesn't matter where the keywords are found.

I've tried it both ways many times through the years and I don't find any advantage in fussing over a domain name's ability to include keywords. You get to take more liberties with the full page URLs anyway (only long domain names have come under close scrutiny).

[Prenut]

Any test that I have ever done with this has had quite the opposite results. I think there is plenty of value in having your keywords to the left of the tld, and I rank quite well for terms with exact match single page sites with no links pointing to them. There is absolutely more value in having keyword.com as opposed to joesdirtsite.com/keyword.

I am saying that, algorithmically, the search engines have been telling people there is no difference between putting your keywords in your domain name and putting your keywords in your URL.

A domain name may be all or part of a URL, but only one page on a site normally has a URL that consists solely of the domain name (technically, example.com and www . example . com could be different pages).

The search engines are saying that www . example . com is just a URL (to them), not a domain name.

Hence, if they are only looking at URLs, then it doesn't matter where the keywords are found.

I've tried it both ways many times through the years and I don't find any advantage in fussing over a domain name's ability to include keywords. You get to take more liberties with the full page URLs anyway (only long domain names have come under close scrutiny).

[Buypokerlinks.com]

Yes indeed it has some important value. Google does not rank it higher automaticlly, but all the inlinks which have been linked with domainname.com does. Also mentioning words like poker around the link has some value like "anchortext" - pokersite.com.

[Michael Martinez]

I'm sure you've run the tests you refer to. However, there is plenty of documentation about how Google handles URLs and I like so many other people have run my own tests.

Furthermore, you can see how keywords in page names work just fine with the millions of blog posts that rank for active queries. That's just the way it is.