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example: www.keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com
Is there keyword precedence, eg will keyword1 be more important that keyword3 in the domain name.
Does the number of keywords in the name affect the quality of the keyword? eg too many words, less density per word, is 2 keywords better than 3 keywords?
Adding hyphens, do they have any affect?
I would also be interested in any other opinions and ideas on the matter.
Cheers!
SEs try to match results to the search term, and these days they are pretty good at it. So test-domain is no problem; SEs treat hyphens as spaces.
Underscores are poor; they are parsed as, er, underscores. So unless someone is searching for test_domain, that would be a poor domain name for the domain folk. Additionally, with a blue underline, it looks like 'test domain', so type in errors will occur.
Convention says go for testdomain, but I'd suggest that for some names, that's riskier than the hyphen - SEs are getting better at parsing merged terms, but there's still room for error, whereas hyphens are quite safe and non-ambiguous.
But there are other key factors; brand building, avoiding clashes with other people's brands, and "the look of the thing":
Quadrille's Oft-Quoted 14th Law says: More than one hyphen is international shorthand for idiot webmaster; More than two hyphens is Galaxy-wide shorthand for "I'd be a spammer if only I knew how".
Yes, I exaggerate ;) But just as test-domain isn't as cool as testdomain, so multiple hyphens do appear to many as cheap and nasty. Especially in .biz and .info names.
Finally, buy protectively; ALWAYS get the .com, even if you don't want it, and forward it, to .net (eg) if that is preferred.
Buy BOTH test-domain AND testdomain, and forward one to the other.
Buy your country TLD - eg test-domain.co.uk
These are defensive moves -if you don't get them, someone else may. If the .com is in use, move on, try another name.
When forwarding, use the 301 permanent redirect.
