Since I joined a bit late, and the niche had already been chosen, my first step in the Niche Rivalry was to choose a domain name. One of the aspects of the challenge is to build an authority site, and when I think authority site, I think .com’s. Whether a site is a .com, .net or .org has little if any affect on SEO and ranking, but .com’s just carry a greater sense of authority. I would, however, ignore that if I could get a solid .net or .org EMD (exact match domain).
My process for choosing the domain name was pretty simple. I entered our main niche keyword – “kitchen gadgets” into the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (GAKT), adjusted my constraints to anything with 100 exact local searches or more, and downloaded the results which gave me a total of 15 potential long tails that might make a good EMD domain name.
How to Take a List of Keywords and Do a Bulk Domain Search
Next, I open the CSV, copy the keywords, and then paste them into a text file. Once the list is in the text file, I change it to plain text, and then do a “find and replace all” function that finds all spaces, and replaces them with no space which deletes the spaces and turns the long tail keywords into one word. I also do the same for the [] brackets that you get from downloading them from the keyword tool.
Next, I copy and paste the list into the mass domain checker at Name.com/Names, I make sure .com, .net & .org are checked, and hit enter. This will list all of the potential domains and whether or not the domain is available.
Looking down the list, the first one available was kitchengadgesstore.net. It has “store” in the name, which probably targets people looking to buy, but it’s a .net – not a deal killer, but not ideal.
Next, I wanted to see if there were websites on the .com & .org (which were taken) The .com didn’t have a site, but the .org has a fancy little site with the Elegant Theme “eStore” on it. This makes this an unappealing prospect for a site name because the search volume for the EMD isn’t worth the potential battle, especially for a .net.
“Fun kitchen gadgets” was the next keyword to get a hit with both the .net and .org available. Again, there was already a site on the .com, so I moved on until I found one that worked.
Why Buy an EMD Domain Name With Such Low Search Volume?
The local exact search volume isn’t exactly going to bring in the big bucks. I went with this one because as I said, it’s brandable & it’s a .com. I think it has a very gifty “share this” feel to it which should help the social media aspect of things. I’m not sure yet if this will have an affect on clicks or sales.
Even though it’s a low volume long tail, it’s still a long tail, and doesn’t have any unnecessary words in it. This should (based on my experience) give the site more authority for the main “kitchen gadgets” keyword. This is also the reason why my tagline is what it is – “cool kitchen gadgets” is another long tail that I’ll rank for long before “kitchen gadgets.” Both will give me authority for that main keyword.
One final note on low volume EMDs is that I only buy them when it does have an authoritative and brandable sound to it. I wouldn’t go buying something like kitchengadgetstodaybuy.com or anything else that looks and sounds stupid & unnatural. There’s no reason to undermine your site’s trustability for the trickle of visitors you might get from that keyword.
So, that’s how I went about choosing a domain for my niche site for the Niche Rivalry challenge. Nothing mind blowing – pretty simple stuff.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Just stopped by to check out my competition. I like your layout.
I’m finally getting some content up, so watch out!
Thanks. Good ole’ Thesis looks sorta sharp right out of the box.
I’ve been stalking your site too, and you really ramped up the content production – it’s looking great.
Looks like now I’m the one who has some catching up to do.