Is the word free in a domain advisable?

**elbandelero** · 11 October, 2009, 14:44 PM

So, I'm going to create a new website. In the long term I'd like to make some decent money from AdSense, but the site won't be an MFA site. Instead it will be a site that gives away free information that people normally have to pay for.

Looking at the ads that appear on the google search results page there is a clear difference between ads when the search term has the word free in it, or without. The question is, should my domain name have the word free, or is that going to limit the advertisers too much?

**Snak3** · 11 October, 2009, 15:02 PM

It depends. Acc to me, you need to do some keyword research, 'free' attached to a keyword is sometimes much much more searched than just that keyword.
As far as adverts are concerned, yes i agree with you, the word 'free' will surely grab you less than it would have without that word. But i'd say you concentrate more on keyword research for SEO rather than keyword research for Adsense.

**elbandelero** · 11 October, 2009, 15:15 PM

Originally Posted by Snak3

It depends. Acc to me, you need to do some keyword research, 'free' attached to a keyword is sometimes much much more searched than just that keyword.
As far as adverts are concerned, yes i agree with you, the word 'free' will surely grab you less than it would have without that word. But i'd say you concentrate more on keyword research for SEO rather than keyword research for Adsense.

OK, good points. The site I'll be creating will be giving away free stuff, and I guess it would be great to rank for that, but the reality is that I have to earn an income from the site as well, and in the long term I'd prefer an income stream that is more passive than active, AdSense fits the criteria nicely until the site is big enough to make more money from other programs.

So even though I need to concentrate on keywords for SEO, I still want to make sure that the site can earn good money from AdSense and I'm worried that the word free in the domain will limit my earnings. My problem, like a lot of people, is that I have in the past started projects without thinking too much about the long term issues I'm going to face, consequently I've started a lot of sites with the wrong domain. Right now I have the choice of domain with or without the word free, which do I go for if making money is a significant goal?

**tmongy** · 11 October, 2009, 22:42 PM

Originally Posted by elbandelero

OK, good points. The site I'll be creating will be giving away free stuff, and I guess it would be great to rank for that, but the reality is that I have to earn an income from the site as well, and in the long term I'd prefer an income stream that is more passive than active, AdSense fits the criteria nicely until the site is big enough to make more money from other programs.

So even though I need to concentrate on keywords for SEO, I still want to make sure that the site can earn good money from AdSense and I'm worried that the word free in the domain will limit my earnings. My problem, like a lot of people, is that I have in the past started projects without thinking too much about the long term issues I'm going to face, consequently I've started a lot of sites with the wrong domain. Right now I have the choice of domain with or without the word free, which do I go for if making money is a significant goal?

The word "free" in your domain won't be affecting the Adsense ads on most of your content pages.

If, for example, you build a page entitled "Building a website" on a domain called "freewebmastertips", the ads that will be displayed in the page will be targeted for keywords related to building a website and will earn you money.

If you can find a good domain with the word "free" in it that will get you some good exact match domain traffic, then go for it. You will then earn money from people looking through the different pages on your site and clicking relevant ads.