I’ve always believed that SEO starts with a domain name, it is the first ingredient in driving traffic to your web site and making it successful. Exact keyword domains have its advantages, having said that, abuse has its disadvantages. While I’m a fan of hyphenated domains as mentioned in a previous post: Are Hyphenated Domain Names Dead?, too much of this practice can be a deterrent to your web site.
Today, domain name spam is very a common practice which is frowned upon by web surfers and search engines. The general belief among SEO experts is a domain spam is flagged by search engines, resulting in the site not being indexed and possibly blacklisted. What are the basics in spam detection for a domain name? Here are a few good pointers.
- Long tailed domain names: visitors have a hard time spelling or remembering a domain with too many characters which may be intentionally overlooked in search results.
- Alternative extensions such as .info, .cc, and other cheap, easy to grab TLDs can have a negative effect at the way a site makes its first impression.
- The use of common, high-commercial value spam keywords in the domain name, i.e. poker, games, casino, drugs..
- Spam domains are more likely to contain multiple hyphens. General rule do not use more than one dash.
- They are less likely to have .com or .org extensions. Org and com are usually seen as trusted sites, but throw in the mix any of the above mentioned and you risk as being flagged as domain spam.
- Almost never have .mil, .edu or .gov extensions. These site are regulated and are considered highly trusted.
A few examples of what domain spam may look like.
amazing-new-discovery.com
be-your-own-boss.info
earn-a-college-degree.com
get-rich-quick.cc
What is your spam score? SEOmoz Labs has great tool for determining a spam domain. The tool is a bit dated but it does the job. To find out if the domain name you’re using is considered as spam visit. SEOmoz URL Spam Detection Algorithm
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re pretty spot on with this post. Even if they do rank high on google, I tend to not even bother clicking links that are long tail or have alot of dashes because it just gives off a spammy vibe.
@ Custom Domain – like the way you describe it “spammy vibe”
agree, just an inkling suspicion of spam turns me off..
thanks a lot for the information…
nice blog….