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Update to Keyword-In-Domain-Name Experiment


There have been some changes that I’ve noticed lately in my site’s rankings (no, not this blog) on both Google and Yahoo with regard to my little experiment about the Power of the Keyword-In-the-Domain-Name, that it prompted me to draft up an update post about it. Veteran bloggers need not read further because I know you have been there and proven this time and time again.

The following is a summary of the previous actions and events surrounding the experiment:

  • August 1, 2009
    • launched the site.
  • August 5, 2009
    • Google indexed the main page only. There were 3 initial pages.
  • August 5, 2009
    • Slipped through Google’s fingers. “site:mykeyprase.tld” produced ‘no results…’ as if Google has never seen it yesterday.
    • “cache:mykeyphrase.tld” however says google has taken a snapshot as early as 8/2/2009.
    • 4 hours later, “site:mykeyphrase.tld” showed main page again as indexed.
    • 10 seconds later, disappeared again. What the…
  • August 6, 2009
    • Did a little backlinking work.
  • August 7, 2009
    • Google showed again that it has indexed the main page. A search for its main keyphrase showed it at number #7!
    • Yahoo showed that it has not indexed any page yet, but has detected 4 backlinks.
    • Bing has not indexed site yet. I submitted the site url to bing.
    • Did some more backlinking work.
  • August 8, 2009
    • Yahoo, no indexed pages yet but has detected 7 backlinks.
    • Bing, no index.
    • Google indexed 2 pages now: the main page and the sitemap.
  • August 9, 2009
    • Yahoo: #1!
    • Google: still #7
  • August 10, 2009
    • A few more backlinking work.
  • August 11, 2009
    • No changes to status.
  • August 12, 2009
    • Google: demoted the site from #7 to #632! An hour later, to #273.
  • August 13, 2009
    • Google:- still nowhere. Didn’t care to check specific location.
  • August 14, 2009
    • Google: still nowhere. Didn’t care to check specific location.
    • Bing: showed signs of having indexed main page, but fluctuates every now and then.
    • Editted the Meta(descriptions) content in all pages, because previously, 80% are redundant in all pages.
    • Editted the Meta(keywords) content in all pages, to make sure no phrases are redundant.
  • August 15, 2009
    • Google: indexed 6 pages. Site was # 246.
  • August 18, 2009- Google: #280.
    • Yahoo: slid to #2. #1 was occupied by a yahoo.com subdomain! Oh well, it’s there search engine.
    • Bing: #1!
    • Editted the main page to correct some Google rules violations. The adsense block was directly below the title and some other adsense links have left-floated images right below them. So, I inserted a line of text to separate them.
    • Editted the main page to increase main keyphrase density from 2.05% to 4%.
  • August 19, 2009
    • Yahoo: #2
    • Bing: #1
    • Google: #3!
  • August 20, 2009
    • Yahoo: #1
    • Bing: #1
    • Google: #3!

Notice that after 5 days of simmering under the depths of the Google abyss, it resurfaced to #3. I still am not sure what really happened when from its perch at #7, it plunged down to nowhere and stayed submerged for a whole week, only to resurface at #3. My guess is either:

  1. It simply is part of the ‘Google dance’. Or,
  2. It dropped because Google noticed the violations. So when it was rectified, Google immediately brought it back up where it rightfully belonged. (However, I see a lot of ranking websites which shamelessly violate Google’s rules up front and yet get away with it.  Somehow adds more to my confusion).

Prior to the plunge, I was neck-deep in backlinking work and so when it dived the day after, I somehow subconsciously related the plunge to my backlinking work. Thus, now although I know better, I still am slightly link-phobic and have momentarily minimized all backlinking activities.  I’ll resume as soon as the phobia disperses.

I’ll be monitoring it to make sure it is stable in its position. Note that the target here is free traffic. That means that I never submitted any material to article directories for the purpose of driving in traffic. I only did 2 things:

  1. On site optimization (e.g. optimizing tags, increasing keyphrase density), and
  2. Backlinking.

Again, I’ll be closely monitoring it for signs of stability. Once stable, I’ll see if I can drive it to the top.

One more thing: Yeah, it’s indeed true that what counts is being within the top 5 spots. When the site was at number 7, it garnered considerable traffic. But when it went to number 3, traffic spiked up five-fold.


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The Power of the Keyword-In-The-Domain-Name

Here’s another most often-preached principle by the gurus that I personally have the benefit of proving to myself to be true – the power of the keyword in the domain name. Like I’ve said in a previous post, I’ve just recently taken keyword research seriously. Pessimist as I am, I often find myself wondering if the preachings of the web gurus, one of which being the effectiveness of keywords in the domain name, are true. I guess there are several ways to find out, but there’s only one way to go about it where the result of which I will believe a hundred percent. And that is to try and see it for myself.

I got to my computer and did the usual procedures someone who has just learned about keyword research would do. It might have been very easy to just pick any keyphrase that doesn’t have any commercial value because it would have the least competition, if not none at all. But I said to myself, it would be a much better proof, should it succeed, to try a keyphrase that not only will appear within the first page of a google search but also earn as well, say, in adsense.

Long story short, I came up with a keyphrase that I fancy to have some commercial/adsense value. It’s got the markings of a good keyphrase as defined by the seo masters. It has a considerable search count value (well, at least it’s got more than a thousand); has low competition; has low search returns when searched with quotes around the keyphrase. And most importantly, the domain name is still available without me having to resort to the use of hyphens.

One seo master boasted of his site appearing in the first page of google on the third day after he launched his site in his server. This really got me worried because I can’t even find my site using “site:mykeyphrase.tld” on google for 5 days. Google got it indexed on the 6th day and only the main page (I had initially uploaded 3 pages in all), although “cache:mykeyphrase.tld” says it was cached on the second day after launch. I remember how elated I was to see that the site was finally indexed. The next day however was a downer in that it appears that google forgot about it and says it has not indexed the site. I searched frantically for some advise about the matter online. Some discussions say this situation is normal and is no reason to worry about. Google is not only not human, but is also not perfect. Some say this situation reeks of the smell of a site being banned for some reason or another.

Somehow, the impatient part of me (the dominant one) surprisingly agreed not to conclude just now that the experiment is a failure. It turned out to be one good decision because the very next day, I found out that it had re-appeared in google’s index. Not only that, it is now in the first page of the google search results for the keyphrase. Conclusion? The SEO gurus are right. A keyphrase in the domain name does help a lot. My site is among the entries in the first page of google! Number 1? Nope. But the conclusion of this experiment brings me to the beginning of another experiment. And that is to prove that backlinking work will help push a site up the rankings.

And oh, let me add that it earned $2.35 in adsense on its first day. A measly earning you might say but it puts the $ sign to my little $uccess.