Seomoz.org: 2011 SEO Ranking Factors: Exact Match Domains Less Important; Long Domains Suck; eHow Still In Top 10

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Seomoz.org has just released  data showing the most important ranking factors in for SEO, 2011 edition

“”Since 2005, SEOmoz has released a new version of the Search Ranking Factors survey every two years, a piece of content that many in the SEO world have used and referenced. This year, we’ve continued that tradition and added a whole new element of research, comparing the aggregated opinions of 132 SEOs around the world with correlation data from over 10,000 results in Google.”

It’s a long report full of data so I recommend checking it out in full, but here are the conclusions that I found most interesting:

The power of links has declined however diverse links count more than quantity.

Exact match domains “may not be a powerful as they were last year” and “exact match .com’s  dropped more than any other factor”.

A major of the experts poll believe direct match domains will count less in the future (although some believe they will count more).

However long domain names is the 2nd biggest factor in getting ranked poorly.

Of the over 10,000 keywords here is the order in which Extensions ranked:

.com

.org

.net

.gov

.edu

.co.uk

.info

.us

.biz

.ca

.tv

.cc

com.au

.fm

.me

.eu

.de

You of course need to keep in mind that .Me is a fairly new extension and therefore hasn’t had the time to mature in the rankings.

On the social networking front, Seomoz found that:

Facebook “maybe more influential than Twitter”.

Despite all of the news to the contrary eHow still ranks in the top 10 of the list of “The Root Domains Most Prevalent” in their keyword set Amazon is number 1.

 

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. James says

    Seomoz.org should change it’s name to SeoHype.com. Yeah sure they fumble around in the dark land of SEO better than most, however that object that they’re holding and claiming is an easter basket full of chocolate eggs is actually just the mid section of a beer bellied biker sitting in a corner chair with his pants off.

    Sheesh, these guys are nothing more than snake oil salesmen with glossy presentations.

  3. BullS says

    Agree- Seomoz is totally BS-it is their business to gain more BS marketing.

    Show me the technical data.

    WTF do they think they are?

  4. Barry Berry says

    Quote:

    “may not be a powerful as they were last year”

    If you are going to use the word “MAY” then I have no respect for you. Are they or are they not less powerful ? Make up your mind. You can’t play both sides of the fence. If you do then you are essentially saying nothing and predicting nothing ; Just giving yourself and excuse if you are wrong either way.

    Seomoz.org …… what a bad domain name. They should get a generic domain.

  7. Karl Jackson says

    Long Domains actually work better for conversions than short domains because searches today have learned to search more precisely. I have 3 word domains doing 1,500 to 2,000 uniques a day compaired to some of my 1 to 2 word domains selling tyhe same thing. Guess what? Much higher conversions with the 3 word domain. 🙂

  8. Karl Jackson says

    Also if it is just a blanket statement that short domains are more important than long domains you must look at the fact 99% of ALL short 1 word domains are GONE!

    So truefully the next best are .COMs with 2 and 3 words exact match.

  10. Robert Cline says

    The big thing is that

    long names are no good

    which means that these people will be crowding over to

    .CO OL company corporation commercial

    .CO picks up where .COM left off.

  11. Brad says

    Longer niche keyword .COM have a lot of value. Their conversion rate is higher as the traffic is far more targeted.

    Most SEO people just hate quality domains, because they totally overvalue their own services.

    Brad

  14. Benny says

    Seo moz have always been over hyped, glossy styled SEO bullshit artists, but they also worked out how to sell to agencies at high consulting/project prices, appeal the the lay seo and have done very well for themselves. And yes, commenting on domain names with a .org domain/company name like that bad shouldn’t really be allowed.

    ps. MHB, please ban ‘Mr Cline’ and ‘Mr BS’. They really detract from the message in ALL of your posts and frankly it’s time they went and built their own fountain to drink kool aid from. They offer nothing and detract from nearly everything you work hard to create. I’m sure everyone else agrees.

  16. doh-maine says

    I think BullS provides a needed balance of perspective and comic relief. There are an incredible number of bullshit websites – absolute garbage. Millions of them. And many of them actually produce income. Total BS. Domaining works, but cannot be taken too seriously in light of this fact. We should be able to laugh at it.

    The reason why SEO “consulting” is so obnoxious is because they appear to take themselves seriously and hold themselves out as professionally skilled. They are gaming an internet search engine with stupid web tricks that I could teach to a 12 year old.

    And making eHow a public company is an embarrassment.

    Just my opinion.

  19. asdf says

    .info > .us very interesting
    —

    Part of the reason most people fail so badly at life is because our primary schools neglect to teach how to properly scrutinize data.

  21. reynaldi says

    It seems too early for us to judge how .co domain will perform. Both of my .co sites have climbed slowly in Google. I am watching for the result everyday.

  23. Craig says

    Well of course .coms suffered the most…….they were leading the pack so ANY change would see them suffer the most.
    IMO a search engine that ignores exactly what the client is looking for, cannot survive –
    no matter how you twist the algos. People will soon figure it out…..
    The whole system is domain based and those addresses represent where the searcher wants to go.
    Even if you ignore the advantage of direct nav. and the implied power of having your exact business and service area flying the .com banner, the exact match name will ultimately prevail.
    Lots still out there at good prices – get em if you can, they will never be this cheap again!