Need Feedback On Domain Name Please

[sheriesmith]

Background: my blog is http://homeappraisaltips.blogspot.com
Lynn wants me to choose a domain name ASAP and get these hosted on my own site, instead of blogger. (I totally agree!)

Here are the 'facts':
homeappraisaltips.com (already taken)
home-appraisal-tips.com (don't think hyphens do as well)

Two options I'm considering:
best home appraisal tips.com
home appraisal value tips.com

Wordtracker:
home appraisal tips - 78
home appraisal value - 79

Google:
home appraisal tips - 1300
home appraisal value - 6600

I would be adding an additional word to both options (BEST on 1st; TIPS on the 2nd). I'm leaning toward homeappraisalvaluetips.com since there is a HUGE difference in the Google #'s. Wordtracker seems to show them about the same.

Even though I'm adding 'tips' to the end of 'home appraisal value', it still looks like I'd be better to go with homeappraisalvaluetips because of the Google #'s. Am I correct?

Thanks everyone,
Sherie Smith

[AlexNewell]

Loads of SEOs agree that using your best keyword as your domain name gives you a boost in the search engines. It is called the exact match boost and it must be an exact match -so try to find a good keyword that is not taken.

if the hyphenated domain is available then grab it - there is no problem with domain names using hyphens. You could even redirect it to any other domain name you like.

Get an up to date keyword list from Google adwords tool and see what you can come up with and get any top level domain - dot net / org or com - it is search engines that will find you and they do not care about your domain extrension.

All The Best

[sheriesmith]

Alex, these are current research #'s, from this morning actually. Thanks for your ideas.

[lisamariemary]

I think he's saying to get a list of more keywords to brainstorm about - from Adwords.

And also, Alex - as far as the dashes go, 'people' don't like them, but, search engines do, right? I know that's kind of an old thing to do (several yrs ago) and people aren't doing it anymore, but, it's still good for search right?

[Engage]

Please remember you are trying to create a brand. Personally, I favor hyphenated domain names simply because they are far easier to read, especially as the number of keywords grows beyond one or two.

Ideally, someone should be able to read your domain name, and know immediately what you have to offer. If they can't actually read your domain name, this is lost.

Best of luck!

[lisamariemary]

I got my husband http://reliable-home-repair-and-remodeling.com and he hates it. LOL And his customers can't stand it. They said they love the name - that's why they call - but, they don't like the domain. (When he had an ad in the paper, that is.)

I bought him the non-hyphenated version, but, it is messed up right now.

(Kinda funny that non-hyphenated is, in fact, hyphenated. Heh.)

[chickblogger]

Hey, Sherie:

If you're going after home appraisal tips and I gather you are. How about homeappraisaltipsblog.com? If available. I did not check.

Yes, its kind of long. 4 words. But unless you change your main keywords, it will have to be 4 words.

Let us know what you decide. And great question.

p.s. Nice touch with the videos on your blogspot blog. Very web 2.0

Cheers,
Missy

UPDATE: I did check and the dot com is available.

[angienewton]

Honestly Sherie, don't worry about the keywords for domain. I would choose home appraisal tips over the other though. No dashes or the fewer the better. I bought one recently with one but it's best for your readers not to have to remember dashes.

Lisa Marie, ouch on that domain LOL

[marksierra]

While hyphenated names are not necessarily user-friendly, search engines don't care. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they LIKE them because they're hyphenated, it's just that they don't care.

Also, while there is some benefit to having a domain name that people can get the meaning of, that alone is not going to cause your business to fail, unless of course you name it something REALLY off the wall or offensive. :)

Consider: Google, Yahoo, even ClickNewz. What do those names mean? Answer: who cares? They're all very successful sites whose names don't convey what they hold behind them.

So anyhoo, back to your domain names...

Boy, this one is a tough nut to crack! I did some research on my own and was disappointed in the search numbers for practically the whole lot.

And while adding "tips" to "home appraisal value" makes it unique, you're still competing for a keyword phrase that's pretty competitive by my calculations.

BUT...

There is one keyword phrase that's laser-focused though it does have low search. That phrase is:

tennessee home appraisal (.net is available, btw)

It comes out to about 16 hits a day, which is about 480 a month. But over time and hopefully steady traffic, that could amount to a nice, targeted list of people (have you considered creating a mailing list to reach these people regularly?).

Now, of course, if you decide to move to another state, you're sunk. :(

P.S. Fantastic job on the video while you're driving. If I tried that I'd be all over the road. LOL

[cindybidar]

Regarding dashes or not...think about where and how you will market your site. Will you be doing podcast interviews? Speaking "home dash appraisal dash tips dot com" might be a little cumbersome. :)

If, on the other hand, you'll only be doing written marketing, it won't matter so much.

[Debra Conrad]

I agree with Tina - The first time you have to say your domain name using the word dash - the listener (who is not an Internet Marketer) will look at you like you are a total "edgit".

(don't even ask what "edgit" is LOL... let's just say - it's Not "A Good Thing").

I made this mistake on my first website (because someone said it was good for SEO purposes) - then everyone of my friends and family that asked me "What's your Website?" and I had to say the dash word 3 times.

I knew right then - I'd made a mistake (even as new as I was 5 years ago) and found a new domain name.

My advice is find a great keyword phrase without the dashes. Nuff Said... :0)

[russell]

depends on the marketing strategy you will be using too. If you plan on doing article marketing and other stuff to get it ranking well in google, which it looks like you have a good chance of doing, then I would worry about the dashaes that much.

If you plan on doing some offline promotion, podcast, radio, etc, then you may care more about pronouncing it, and being understood and remembered.

[sheriesmith]

Wow, such great ideas from everyone! Hope I didn't step on anyone's toes as I just now had a chance to read all of your comments. I needed to make a decision yesterday so here's what I did:

homeappraisaltips is already taken
home-appraisal-tips is ALSO taken

(Sherie now punts & checks option 2) home appraisal value gets a lot more searches than home appraisal tips anyway. That's the way I'm headed since my tips are all about things a homeowner can do to get the highest value possible out of their home appraisal. (cheap, quick, free or either low cost ideas, by the way)

I knew homeappraisalvalue was already taken too. So I bought home-appraisal-value.com (yes, I know - the all hated hyphens) I'm assuming the search engines will pick up on that one when they pick up on homeappraisalvalue owned by someone else. I will use the hyphenated version to hopefully grab some traffic from the homeappraisalvalue searches. Then redirect to my 2nd domain purchase yesterday and soon to be my main domain: homeappraisalvaluetips.com.

Decided against using Tennessee in the domain because my free information and eventual income product are appropriate nationwide. My videos will be on 2 Florida real estate sites and 1 Louisiana site, that I already know about. Hopefully I can get on some others two. Using Tenn will limit my visitors, I'm afraid, since they'll think the info is only applicable to Tenn residents.

My strength will be the videos on my website, supplemented also by written posts. I'm getting positive feedback on my video style and they seem to generate more interest than on my written blogs. Since the videos w/be my main marketing strategy, it also comes down to what I can say most gracefully (without being totally tongue-tied) on the video. Hyphens don't work if you are doing videos so I using it only as a redirect. It's still worth the $10 to maybe pull some interest from the other owners' unhyphenated version.

Still related to keyword phrases - other main related searches are:
tips for a good home appraisal
how to get ready for a home appraisal
how does a home appraisal work
what are home appraisals based on
prepare (your) home for appraisal
home appraisal process

So I'll make sure to have a video on each of these phrases. Will also do a written post on each phrase since I understand the bots can't 'read' video speak. That way I'll use videos for the people and the written posts for the bots.

Will make sure I have links from those 3 real estate websites and as soon as I get the blog moved to the main domain name, then I'll figure out how to add the watermark. In future videos I'll actually be saying my website name during the intro and at closing as well as have the watermark on the video.

How am I doing so far?

Sherie Smith
http://homeappraisaltips.blogspot.com

[lisamariemary]

Love your videos, Sherie! I'm excited to see you launch this on its own domain!! :)

[sheriesmith]

Thanks Lisamariemary, that's so sweet of you! (Yea, I'm excited too - once I figure out how to connect the blog to the domain & redirect! hehe) Then I can really start cranking the videos out.

[cindybidar]

I made this mistake on my first website (because someone said it was good for SEO purposes) - then everyone of my friends and family that asked me "What's your Website?" and I had to say the dash word 3 times.

And EMAIL. Completely forgot about email addresses. In my day job I work for a company with a dash in their domain name. So every single time I'm giving my email address over the phone (which is a LOT) I have to explain it. Company dash name dot com. No, it's not an underscore, it's a hyphen. Yes, I'm sure.

Bah!

[sheriesmith]

Hi Cindi, I absolutely agree. I purchased home-appraisal-value.com simply so I could redirect to homeappraisalvaluetips.com. Even though homeappraisalvalue.com is already taken, it gets a good amount of searches within this niche. So I wanted to grab the hyphenated version to hopefully steel a little traffic. No matter who visits, it will redirect to homeappraisalvaluetips.com after I have it all set up. Besides no hyphenated version rolls off the tongue easily and gracefully in a video, I don't care how cute, clever or powerful the words are. It's still clumsy to say.

Thanks again,

Sherie Smith
http://homeappraisaltips.com

[sheriesmith]

OOPS! Wrong link - NOT http://homeappraisaltips.com (They want $1500 for it -ha!)

I meant to sign as:
http://homeappraisaltips.blogspot.com