Is using keywords in a domain enough to ensure a top position in Google?

Question

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What are the best ways to increase your site's position in Google?

If I want to be listed top for the query "where is obama from", what more do I have to do beyond registering a keyword phrase domain such as whereisobamafrom.com?

Answer 1

Using keywords in your domain name will improve your chances of being well ranked for those keywords, but you need to provide useful content (that also contains those keywords) in order to rank well.

Google's mission is to order the world's information by returning relevant information to anyone who seeks it. If your site provides nothing of relevance beyond the domain name, Google has little reason to return it in search results.

Also note that Google is considering reducing the weight placed on keywords in domain names so, even though you might benefit now from using this approach, don't bank on it lasting forever.

For general advice about improving page rankings, see this question.

Answer 2

You need to:

• use the words "where is obama from" in your page text
• use the words "where is obama from" in image alt text
• use the words "where is obama from" in your meta description, meta tags etc.
• Get important websites to link to your site using the words "where is obama from"

The actual text in the domain name itself is only of minor importance compared with the factors listed above.

Answer 3

A simple SEO check list is:

1. Unique, appealing content (this matters 80%)
2. Good keywords in URL
3. Use meta tags well
4. Submit a sitemap to search engines
5. Make sure to use HTML carefully (h1-h6 tags matter)
6. Have descriptive file names (specially for images)
7. Do not cheat