A Reddit thread about generic keyword domains and SEO, received commentary from John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate.
The thread discussed the effectiveness of generic domains, such as Swimsuits.com, as sale points for the matching product, e.g. swimsuits:
“Does having a relevant keyword as the domain name do anything for seo? I have a domain like keyword.com for the exact item I am selling. Selling swimsuits and having the domain swimsuits.com. The keyword in my country has over 10000 searches monthly with medium comp.”
One of the comments was left by John Mueller, whose Reddit account reflects his personal opinions.
Said Mueller:
“If you’re planning on using this for the long run, I would not recommend using just a keyword domain name. It makes it weird to start targeting other terms, and it makes it almost impossible for people to find you by your name. A keyword domain name is not going to give you any recognizable SEO advantage on Google.”
Oddly, the original post and Mueller’s response have both been deleted since the exchange took place in December 2023; some commentary remains.
You can view the exchange on Search Engine Journal that preserved the post and comments in a screenshot.
While generic, keyword domains can generate direct type-ins, this navigation method has been taken over by Google searches of the “keyword near me” kind. In that sense, domains with good SEO rank better.
everything is so F’d up it’s near impossible to say with any degree of certainty what works or doesn’t.
So much emphasis still on pleasing the Google monster.
Two issues
1) Google search to AI search is like CGA to VGA
2) So much emphasis on the gotta win Google hype obscures the peripheral benefits of owning an EMD that is not only easy to remember but also easy to share.
Just this weekend I told my associate about finding the top five businesses that provided a specific gaming service
the BIG takeaway was these
1) I got the info I needed without ever visiting Google
2) I’m convinced that had I use Google I would have never been able to see enough search results to find those five companies I was looking for. Mostly due to the crappy 10 best Yelp or Best this or that or thousand sponsored ads that is the sewer that Google algorithm has become
my .02
WOW so they made bag holders out of many many domainers who swear by the Keyword Rich domain name as the ultimate tool for dominating the SERPs
But one thing that experience has taught me is that do not believe what Google or any of his cronies says. Matt Cuts (yes on purpose typo) was the one who started throwing out decoys for people to target so that their lousy Algo could not be taken advantage of.