Keyword domain names are still a thing, even if they are not as popular as they were. By carefully selecting a domain name which has a specific keyword within it, you can more easily rank your website for that chosen keyword. That’s not to say a keyword domain name guarantees you a ranking. It definitely doesn’t. But keyword domain names do appear in the search engine results pages (SERPS), and more so if there’s not much competition.
This website, for example, has been built around the keyword ‘affiliate marketing mentor“. And although there’s not many searches for this particular keyword, there’s not much competition on the SERPS for it either. This means the site has been able to rank on Google for that particular keyword quite quickly and with a relatively small amount of work.
Keyword Domain Names: Finding Your Keyword
So, building a keyword domain name website can work quite well if you are careful about which keyword/s you go after. If you are trying to rank your website for a very competitive keyword, it will be much more difficult. To find your keyword, it’s a good idea to know what topic you’re going to create a niche website in.
Ideally, you should choose a topic you know something about. That way, you can build a lot of content in it and continue to do so over a long period of time. This will give you more authority with the search engines and you should get some free traffic. You’ll also be able to target long tail keywords in your blog titles which have less competition. These are the keywords which may have less monthly searches, but they will also usually have less competing websites too. This gives you more chance of getting noticed in the rankings.
To find a keyword you want to build a site around, start with your main “seed” keyword. This will depend on your niche, but ideally choose a topic you’re passionate about and find an affiliate product which you can get behind. Type your seed keyword into the Google keyword planner and search through the results, looking for a suitable keyword phrase. Once you find one, you can buy a domain name which contains you phrase.
Keyword Domain Names – How Many Words?
How many words your keyword contains should give you an idea about the relative competition. A two-word key phrase will typically have a lot more competition and be much more difficult to rank for. I would recommend a three or more word keyword combination to build a niche website around.
The more words you have, the less competition you’ll find. However, you don’t want too many words in your domain name because it will start to look spammy and messy!
Although it might be tempting to aim for a two-word combination in your domain name (because of the larger volume of traffic) there’s a couple of problems with this. Although you’ll see a larger volume of traffic when using Google’s keyword planner (for two-word keywords), there’s little chance of ranking for those terms (depending on your niche of course). Also finding a two-word domain name is difficult, since many of them are already gone. To buy one you’ll be most likely paying above the odds. So look for one which is more affordable and has 3-4 keywords in it.
Choosing A Domain Name
You’ll also need to check whether the domain name you want is actually available. When I came to build this site, I looked initially for “affiliatemarketingmentors.com”.
But the domain wasn’t available so I choose this one instead. Ideally choose a domain which contains your chosen keywords in the first part of the domain name, rather than prefixed by another word. Adding something to the end of your domain name is better than prefixing your keywords with something.
If your business is international, go for a dot com. If you’re local pick the country you are in. So in the UK where I am, if I had a locally based business it would be a .co.uk.
I use Namecheap.com to buy domain names and they can be picked up for less than $10 a year.
Keyword Domain Names – Keyword Research
The most difficult part of this process is to find a good domain name which is a good match for what you’re going to create. This will depend on a few factors and it’s worth getting all your “ducks lined up” before starting this process. You should decide on your topic for your website according to your interests and the products you’re going to be promoting. If you’re not interested in your subject matter, your site is going to be more difficult to create. See also best blog niche for affiliate marketing.
You also want to choose an affiliate product first before commencing on your site. I tried this process a number of times to no avail before I figured out what I most enjoyed writing about. Once you find your topic and product, it’s much easier to make a success of a keyword domain name site.
Once you’re at this stage, enter your main keyword into Google’s Keyword planner. Look through the results for an appropriate keyword combination. It should already have some traffic to it, and be not too competitive for this to work. Don’t be too greedy and go for the high traffic keywords; they are likely not to rank. But don’t build a site around a keyword which gets no traffic either.
You can look on Google search to see the number of competing webpages for any given keyword. Try first an open search and then try a phrase search with your keyword in quotation marks “like this”.
Keyword Domain Names – Building Your Site
I’ve written a few posts on building a niche website in which I’ve shared some ideas. To build your site and get it ranking, you need to show the search engines that you are offering some content which is valuable to its end users. Otherwise, your site is unlikely to rank at all. I went through a stage of just throwing up websites which were super thin and had nothing worth reading on them! Needless to say, they didn’t rank and I wasted my time – apart from the valuable lesson it taught me!
To build a niche website and have it ranking, you will want to create some useful content which (ideally) outperforms the others in the niche. Put your main article on the front page of your website and make it as good as you can. Ideally it should be longer than 1000 words. Then build out more posts using other keyword phrases (related to your “seed” keyword phrase) which you have seen during your keyword research.
I use an SEO tool to help me write SEO friendly content on my sites. Checkout that and my other recommended free blog plugins for WordPress.
Summary
I have several keyword domain name websites and have made affiliate sales from some of them. Others haven’t done as well. The key is to keep at it and learn from your experiences. If you can find a topic you enjoy writing in, the best advice I can offer is to zone in on that!
Build a keyword domain name around your chosen topic and build out the site over several months. Your site won’t rank straight away and Google has a sandbox in which it keeps the new websites. Be patient. The more content you put on a new site the better. Google sees this a sign that you are committed to your website. A thinly built website will seldom do very well, even in a low competition niche and with a keyword domain name.
Monetising your site can be done later, although you’ll want to have looked at and chosen a product you can promote which matches your target audience first, before you build your site.
The most profitable digital products to promote are high end coaching courses. However, you should choose a product which fits your niche, so your audience will naturally be interested in what you have to offer.