Keyword in the domain important

[nate_king1]

Is the Keyword in the domain important? I have a site that is in semi-competitive field and I was wondering if I should put

keyword1-keyword2.mysite.com rather than mysite.com/keyword1-keyword2.html

Is it worth it? A lot of spamers do this..

[veridicus]

It does seem to help a tiny bit today. The theory is that the earlier in the URL the keywords appear the higher it's ranked. But generally having the keywords anywhere in your URL is enough. Inbound links to that URL are way more important. Plus managing all of your subdomains (in DNS or in code) is a pain.

Thinking bigger picture, though... if you're asking yourself "what do spammers do?" then you already know the answer is "no, don't do it".

[webprofessor]

Nate why don't you test it yourself.
Search for some term you know real well in all the engines. See which ones have the terms in the url ad not which engines seem to prefer them.

Then set up a test page on a few sites and see what happens. Set up a subdomain and buy a domain or two that are keyword rich. THen come to your own conclusion.

I think you'll be suprised & pleased at what you see and you won't have to take my word for it.

And to answer your questions:
Yes. it does matter, some of the engines it matters more than others. It also affects Adsense ads.

[veridicus]

Originally Posted by webprofessor

It also affects Adsense ads.

That's a good point. When Google sees words in your domain and subdomain it uses them to place better ads. The logic is probably that if your subdomain/domain has keyword1 then your site's about keyword1 and ads about it should be placed there.

[Mong]

Its importance is not more than 0.05%

[Johan007]

Originally Posted by Mong

Its importance is not more than 0.05%

I sort of disagree and agree. Without link text in the equation its importance is indeed like 0.05% (or any low figure). However there is a power that can be used but only if the domain name should reflect the company name or a ideology.

Ideology is an interesting one. In the UK the major DIY (Do It Your Self) company B&Q are under www.diy.com and rank number one for DIY. DIY is a very common UK acronym. Its links like the above that help it rank number one.

Search for “Coffee” show lots of key words used in the domain ranking 2,3,4,5 etc... like coffeebreakarcade.com because people are linking to it via the link text “Coffee Break Arcade” however look at the number one spot and you have Starbucks.com because of the link text used by the general public.

Personally I feel the domain name should be chosen not because of SEO but branding through the company name because in reality Search Engines don’t bring nearly as s much traffic as people think and direct marketing or viral marketing are much more powerful if you have a good product. The traffic that does come from Search Engines are also not nearly as valuable as people are lead to believe with conversion rates many times less than direct marketing.

Good luck.