Bing: It’s A Myth That Keyword Rich Domain Names Improve Search Rankings

Microsoft Bing’s Senior Product Manager, Duane Forrester, wrote last night at the Bing Webmaster Blog that it is only a myth that in today’s ranking algorithms that a keyword rich domain name will make enough of an impact on your rankings to give you a major boost above your competitors.

Duane said that maybe “10 years ago” there was some truth to that but today – that is not the case.

The domain and keywords in that “domain send less and less” ranking signals to the overall Bing ranking algorithm. Duane said this is a good thing because the other signals can rank sites based on better merits than the words in a domain name plus “it’s better simply because those sites trying to abuse their way to the top with a keyword rich domain and irrelevant or poor content cease to rank well.”

But it doesn’t mean having keywords in a domain name is bad. Duane said it is important to do what is best for your users.