Question about domain name

[Landofbetting]

Hi,

I'm currently building my website and I have purchased a few domain names but the one I'm thinking of going with is winningbettingtips . co . uk

I know that what I do with the site will determine the success of it but what do you think of the name? any disadvantages or advantages to it?

Thanks for any feedback

[MMM]

Don't have sports-betting sites, but seems like a good domain. Good luck!

[Aidan90]

I'm pretty new to the sports betting affiliate scene but that domain name seems good to me!

Good luck!

[golfbettingsystem]

If your objective is to quickly rank for the term 'winning betting tips' then worth considering google's EMD Update which makes this kind of thing trickier than years gone past. Not to say you can't rank for the term if you've got loads of decent content on there but it's not as easy as it used to be to rank quickly due in a large part to the domain name itself. Anyway, best of luck

[Landofbetting]

If your objective is to quickly rank for the term 'winning betting tips' then worth considering which makes this kind of thing trickier than years gone past. Not to say you can't rank for the term if you've got loads of decent content on there but it's not as easy as it used to be to rank quickly due in a large part to the domain name itself. Anyway, best of luck

Thanks for that, I was aware of the EMD update but hope that with a lot of decent content it will give me some sort of advantage. The whole project is a marathon not a sprint slowly slowly catch the monkey and all that!

[RacingJim]

Agree with golfbettingsystem. I'm really wary now of launching EMDs as Google can be pretty harsh on them, it's trickier to build links for them and I think the 'line' is lower for such sites so if anything is perceived as dodgy you will trigger a punishment sooner. Maybe go for something partial match/branded e.g. Betting Tips Winners (just an example don't kill me), something that you can build links on the brand term and won't get a punishment for it being an exact match keyword term.

[PromoteCasino]

Hi Guys,
I didn't realise about EMDs until I was reading this post. I recently purchased premierleaguetips.football and was hoping to develop in the near future. Do you think it would be liable for Google's penalty, or is it the case load it with quality content so that it would escape any exact match penalty. It seems crazy that anyone could get penalised for being lucky enough to get a great domain name.

winningbettingtips . co . uk is a great name and can be used for any sport. Or are you looking more at a single sport. i.e racing or football

[Landofbetting]

Agree with golfbettingsystem. I'm really wary now of launching EMDs as Google can be pretty harsh on them, it's trickier to build links for them and I think the 'line' is lower for such sites so if anything is perceived as dodgy you will trigger a punishment sooner. Maybe go for something partial match/branded e.g. Betting Tips Winners (just an example don't kill me), something that you can build links on the brand term and won't get a punishment for it being an exact match keyword term.

Thanks for the input, surely though if the site is done right it should be ok? I'd understand if someone made a really thin affiliate site but that's not what I'm doing a content will be the king of the site. I actually really like the domain so don't really want to change it but at the same time don't want to be screwed by google either!

[Landofbetting]

Hi Guys,
I didn't realise about EMDs until I was reading this post. I recently purchased premierleaguetips.football and was hoping to develop in the near future. Do you think it would be liable for Google's penalty, or is it the case load it with quality content so that it would escape any exact match penalty. It seems crazy that anyone could get penalised for being lucky enough to get a great domain name.

winningbettingtips . co . uk is a great name and can be used for any sport. Or are you looking more at a single sport. i.e racing or football

I'm going to do a bit more research it sounds crazy and harsh that as you say having a good domain can do you more harm than good, obviously if it's a spammy site I understand but I'm trying to build something quality with good unique content.

Your right about the domain being suitable for any sport, The two main sports to start with will be football and darts but I'll then add racing, tennis & snooker

[DaftDog]

Hi Guys,
I didn't realise about EMDs until I was reading this post. I recently purchased premierleaguetips.football and was hoping to develop in the near future. Do you think it would be liable for Google's penalty, or is it the case load it with quality content so that it would escape any exact match penalty. It seems crazy that anyone could get penalised for being lucky enough to get a great domain name.

winningbettingtips . co . uk is a great name and can be used for any sport. Or are you looking more at a single sport. i.e racing or football

There is no penalty for using EMD's. Previously there was an advantage and now there is very little advantage. So it's neither a bonus nor a penalty. If it were a penalty situation then domains like poker.com, casino.com or bingo.com would be penalized too, which doesn't make sense.

[DanHorvat]

I prefer EMDs over brandable names myself. Don't worry, you won't get penalized by Google.

You got a good domain, my only objection is that it's a little long. When you include the http://www. and the / in the end, you actually wasted 36 characters already. And the preferred length of any URL is less than 75 characters, and definitely less than 100.

So you got a total of 30-65 characters remaining for everything else - folders, page title, extension. You're going to have to cut corners somewhere if you want the URL to look tidy, especially in SERPs.

[justbookies]

Nothing wrong with EMDs, certainly judged by the serps in our industry they are flourishing. Freebets.com and freebets.co.uk are top of the serps for erm 'free bets' and there are many other examples I could give of webmasters who are on this forum who are doing very nicely with them. I don't think it is difficult to build links for them either, just be careful with the anchor text. Using your URL or variations of it for the anchor text you can control should not cause any problems (ie: winningbettingtips.co.uk or winningbettingtips as anchor text is not spammy). Also, remember your decision is not irreversible. If for any reason you begin to hate your URL in a year or two, just migrate your existing site to a new domain you prefer and if you set up htaccess so all old pages 301 redirect to their new URL then you wont lose any rankings for doing it. Google even has the section in webmaster tools to tell them about the move. So I reckon your proposed domain is fine and you can always change your mind further down the line if you want more of a brand name.

[baldidiot]

As a couple of the others have said, there's no penalty for EMD's. All the update did was remove the 'boost' that may have been given to them.

I also believe it lowered the threshold for link based penalties relating to the EMD term (previously you could get away with smashing an EMD with exact match anchors and nothing else and having it rank #1 - it's the sites that had too many premium anchors/low anchor text diversity that were hit in the EMD update).

Plenty of people still use EMD's and still get them to rank (99% of our sites are EMD's), it's just not as easy as it used to be back in the days when you could throw up 10 ****** pages and a couple of directory links and have it on the first page.

[wonderpunter]

What do you want to build? long EMD domain "spammy" make a quick buck and go? or something long term? yes there are some EMD's that are authority.. but they are also quality sites... are you going to put effort into the site... "10'-20 articles daily" or want to make a quick buck.. if you want to build a long term biz it does not matter what domain you use but short and sweet is enough..

[Simmo!]

Nothing wrong with EMDs, certainly judged by the serps in our industry they are flourishing. Freebets.com and freebets.co.uk are top of the serps for erm 'free bets' and there are many other examples I could give.[/COLOR]

I think a large part of that is most of the EMDs that continue to do well were launched back when EMDs had an advantage so their ranking now is as much about having established a good history and lots of good content as it is about the domain name.

Hi,

I'm currently building my website and I have purchased a few domain names but the one I'm thinking of going with is winningbettingtips . co . uk

I know that what I do with the site will determine the success of it but what do you think of the name? any disadvantages or advantages to it?

Thanks for any feedback

Personally, if you are doing the marathon, I'd go for a name that is more brandable. My immediate reaction to a name like that (obviously as a webmaster) is it is a tad spammy or more accurately perhaps, it doesn't distinguish itself from the crowd. Something like Betsmart (I'm sure that's gone) would be my choice as, being such a competitive niche, you want to give a new punter as many reasons to trust you before they even read your content as you can and a domain name, your Title and Description tags are the obvious vehicles for that.

[gamblingdomains]

The domain seems solid.

As for domains like .football or .tips I don't see them rank and long tail links look like mistakes

[RacingJim]

Yep my main point with EMDs is not that you are suddenly going to get some kind of instant penalty just for existing. My point was they are tougher to build links for, Google is now favouring 'brand' based sites, it is much easier (and accepted by Google) to build links on a brand like the above example 'Betsmart' than it is to build a load of links on 'Winning Betting Tips'. You can build almost unlimited links on a brand name and not be penalised, whereas you will have to do some quite varied link building to stay safe on an EMD. Just makes it a bit more tricky and ambiguous.

The EMD examples given in this thread are long-standing sites that have been around 5-10 years easily and it's clear the rules are less strict on those sites as they have built domain authority up over a LONG time, new sites are much easier to step over the line.

I don't mind a good EMD, fill it full of top content and get high authority links and in theory you should be fine, just saying be prepared for it to be a bit harder (and riskier) if you want to really push for those top positions and don't do ANYTHING dodgy.

[Landofbetting]

As a lot of people were asking, the plan is not to try and make a quick buck it's very much a long term project. The domain name just happens to sit right with me as that is what my whole site is going to be based on! The site itself is going to be content rich and I don't see any reason why this name can't be an advantage.

[universal4]

The fact that you LIKE the domain name and as you stated it sits well with what you plan for the site alone is a great way to choose a domain name, whether it is an exact match name or not.

The fact that you have long term plans for the site is a good start.

Rick
Universal4