Keyword order in domain

[dashu1]

I think it's pretty evident that having keywords in the domain name is very beneficial for natural SEO (ie not having to build zillions of links), but whats peoples views on the keyword order in a domain name?

For example, if you sold gold widgets you might want goldwidgets.co.uk, but would widgetsgold.co.uk be worth bothering with for SEO purposes?

It still conains the same keywords, albeit in an un natural order as far as language is concerned.

Matt Cutts recently suggested the keyword order isn't important, but does anyone have any examples of this in practice at all?

 

[doodlebug]

I've played around with this a bit and tested gold scrap in Google search engine but then thought maybe there are results for this way round anyway ?
I then tested suites piece three leather which wouldn't make any sense normally, it said something like 215,000 results for leather three piece suites

I think the only time you would benefit from the backwards version would be when web users type it in backwards otherwise Google etc just turn it round the correct way and find that instead

I personally don't see much use/value in these backwards names

Just my 2p

 

[dashu1]

I was wondering how it would effect ranking for short say 2 word domains when you have links pointing back to your site with the keywords in the anchor text.

For example, what would google make of the domain widgetsgold.co.uk having the anchor text "gold widgets" pointing at it?

Would it matter that the 2 keywords are shuffled around?

I can see that maybe for "suites piece three leather" you might not have a lot of joy, possibly since with 2 keywords the total possible combinations is 2 (2 x 1), with 3 keywords it is 6 (3 x 2 x 1), & with 4 keywords as in your example, it is 24 (4 x 3 x 2 x 1).

I was thinking that the more keywords the more accurate your anchor text needs to be since it quickly loses relevance, whereas with 2 keywords it will have at least 50% relevance even with them mixed up?

 

[redbird]

Matt Cutts recently suggested the keyword order isn't important, but does anyone have any examples of this in practice at all?

If you want to see the man himself explain.....youtube.com

 

[dashu1]

I like Matt Cutts videos but I can't help but wonder how much he's really revealing & if he's being completely "truthful"

 

[paymatters]

MAny years ago I registered debt consolidate co uk.

It appears on the front page for debt consolidate but not in top 5 pages for consolidate debt!

 

[dashu1]

That's interesting, but I notice that you haven't optimised it for consolidate debt, only for debt consolidate.

I onder what would happen if you did

 

[Shogun]

If you have an exact match domain you get a bonus in Google and its way easier to rank. Lets say you're trying to rank for "credit cards".

These domains will get you this boost -

• creditcards.com
• creditcards.net
• creditcards.org
• creditcards.co.uk (in Google.co.uk only)

These domains won't -

• credit-cards.com
• creditcards1.com
• goodcreditcards.com
• creditcards.info

If you add ANYTHING at all extra into the domain, including a hyphen, you lose that bonus. Please note even with the exact term on a spammy domain extension and you won't get the bonus either - .us, .info, .me.uk etc

So in answer to the original question, the order of the words matter massively. Allclear if you had registered those words in the right order you would be sitting on a page 1 ranking for that term right now.