Study shows that domains with keywords matching a search query get more clicks.
Verisign has published the results of a study showing that keyword-rich domain names matching a search query are more likely to get clicked in search results.
For example, if someone searches for “How do I create a personal brand online?” the domain PersonalSpaceOnline.com has two matching keywords from the search query.
Verisign looked at the click-through rates of the top 20 search results for 11 million search queries.
Results that didn’t have any matching keywords in the second level domain had a 12.44% click rate. Those with one matching term were clicked 21.79% of the time, and two or more words 25.30%.
As best I can tell, the study didn’t consider the search placement of results.
These results are not surprising. It’s well known that repeating the keywords in a Google Adwords ad increases CTR.
R P says
Newsflash!!
This has been a known fact by internet marketers for well over a decade
Mark Ayres says
Yes, but in the current search arena there are people who challenge this, including our friends over at MOZ, where a recent article dismissed this thinking. As always though, hard to get any real evidence, but it still seems valid to me, in most cases.
Joseph Peterson says
@R P,
Even common sense needs to be substantiated. Things we all “know” are worth testing and measuring precisely.
Sure, many people already guessed that having matching keywords in a domain will boost click-through rates. But how much?
It’s worth knowing how 1 variable affects another. Comparatively few people have measured this. Even fewer have attempted scientific studies. Even those that have will want to compare findings.
Joe says
@Joseph Peterson. Great point on… “Comparatively few people have measured this. Even fewer have attempted scientific studies”. Joseph our company has measured your point for the last few years with irrefutable results.
You can see our r&d efforts @ (domainnameforsale.co).
Another great article that came out in the last few days is at cnbc.com make it called “What to do when your dream website name is taken”.
Stephen Stankiewicz says
All I use are Keyword Names – I have a Keyword .net outranking every gutter company in NJ taking a slice off numerous multimillion dollar corporations CleanupService.net