Domain name help, please

Everything to do with using your own website to advertise your rental property. Design, usability, hosting, getting listed on the search engines, optimising your site, pay-per-click, etc, etc.
User avatar
pjmatos
Posts: 126
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:10 pm
Location: Lisbon
Contact:

Post by pjmatos »

Thanks Wendy, Elisa and Bassman (definitely dropping Tagus in favour of river was on my recent thoughts)

I've been researching a little more about SEO metrics and Google AdWords Keyword Planner and found some things that might interest everyone who shared here their ideas about EMD (Exact Domain Match) and PMD (Partial Domain Match) names.
  • Google seems to penalise a little domains with hyphens (moz.com/search-ranking-factors)
  • 3-4 words max for .com EMD’s (moz.com/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a-guide-and-best-practices-for-emds)
  • Google seems to penalise a little domains with longer names (moz.com/search-ranking-factors)
  • It is recommended that the keywords don't have much competition.
    This can be checked with Google AdWords (low or medium competitive keywords at most), but it is also recommended the use of another tool to check the keyword difficulty as well, such as Moz Pro (they have a 30 day trial)
  • EMD and PMD websites have lost some impact in the last couple of years (moz.com/blog/searchmetrics-ranking-factors-2014).
  • EMD and PMD websites are under a more rigorous Google scrutiny.
    Therefore the keywords effect is only relevant if Google considers the website content worthwhile (of good quality).
    Here are just a few examples of EMD websites with a poor performance:
    Searching for wellington terrace apartment gives on 1st the website wellington-terrace.com (despite the hyphen) and on 21st the EMD wellingtonterraceapartment.com.
    Searching for holiday lisbon apartment the EMD holidaylisbonapartment.com does not even show up in Google search (holiday and apartment are highly competitive keywords).
That said, I found terraceviewapartment.com to be a good compromise between a keyword based and a not too long domain name.

However, I decided to give more importance to a branded name over the use of something as generic and decided for tagusterrace.com, in order to maintain a good connection with past customers (with the word tagus), but most importantly, in order to provide a stronger and confident image.

I would like to know your opinion on this decision and whether tagusterrace sounds good to you, especially to those who are fluent in English.
User avatar
CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

Have to say pleased that you dropped terraceviewapartment. It says more like you have a view on a terrace.
Know nothing about tagusterrace all the rivers in Spain or Portugal. This thread has got us looking!
Form what you have already named the business and where it is located. This seems a good link between the two.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Cotto
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 6:35 pm
Location: Tuscany

Post by Cotto »

Take a short domain with your brand name, pay a professional web agency to make your web site and focus your efforts on content. In 2015, keywords in domain names are no more that useful for SEO.
e-richard
Posts: 5008
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:33 am
Location: Algarve, Portugal
Contact:

Post by e-richard »

pjmatos wrote:I would like to know your opinion on this decision and whether tagusterrace sounds good to you, especially to those who are fluent in English.
Those of us down south may think first that "Tagus" is a brand of beer before the name of the river.

So, perhaps yes tagusterrace does sound good in a way :D
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
Post Reply