Thread: Attorney Domains

The attorney niche is low-volume and high-competition, but the CPC can be exceptionally good.

Here are some unregistered exact match domains to give you a leg up on the competition.

The numbers in parenthesis are exact match keyword volumes from the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

3600 LONGBEACHATTORNEY.ORG
880 MILWAUKEEATTORNEYS.ORG
880 NEWYORKATTORNEYSEARCH.NET
720 NEWYORKATTORNEYSEARCH.ORG
590 CHARLOTTEATTORNEYS.ORG
590 COLUMBUSATTORNEYS.ORG
590 DENVERDIVORCEATTORNEY.ORG
590 IMMIGRATIONATTORNEYCHICAGO.NET IMMIGRATIONATTORNEYCHICAGO.ORG
590 MIAMICRIMINALDEFENSEATTORNEY.ORG
480 FORTWORTHATTORNEYS.ORG
480 RALEIGHATTORNEYS.ORG
390 ALBUQUERQUEATTORNEYS.ORG
390 ATTORNEYSINDALLAS.NET ATTORNEYSINDALLAS.ORG
390 ATTORNEYSMINNEAPOLIS.NET ATTORNEYSMINNEAPOLIS.ORG
390 COLORADOSPRINGSATTORNEYS.ORG
390 HOUSTONPROBATEATTORNEY.ORG
390 SANFRANCISCOCITYATTORNEY.NET SANFRANCISCOCITYATTORNEY.ORG
390 VIRGINIABEACHATTORNEYS.ORG
320 ARLINGTONATTORNEYS.ORG
320 ATTORNEYSINCHICAGO.NET ATTORNEYSINCHICAGO.ORG
320 TAXATTORNEYSANFRANCISCO.NET TAXATTORNEYSANFRANCISCO.ORG
260 ATTORNEYINCHICAGO.NET ATTORNEYINCHICAGO.ORG
260 ATTORNEYINSANDIEGO.NET ATTORNEYINSANDIEGO.ORG
260 ATTORNEYSINATLANTA.NET ATTORNEYSINATLANTA.ORG
260 ATTORNEYSINDENVER.NET ATTORNEYSINDENVER.ORG
260 ATTORNEYSINPHOENIX.NET ATTORNEYSINPHOENIX.ORG
260 FRESNOATTORNEYS.ORG
260 HONOLULUATTORNEYS.ORG
260 PATENTATTORNEYCHICAGO.NET PATENTATTORNEYCHICAGO.ORG
260 PATENTATTORNEYSANDIEGO.NET PATENTATTORNEYSANDIEGO.ORG
210 ATTORNEYINLASVEGAS.ORG
210 ATTORNEYINNEWYORK.NET ATTORNEYINNEWYORK.ORG
210 ATTORNEYINSANFRANCISCO.NET ATTORNEYINSANFRANCISCO.ORG
210 ATTORNEYSINMIAMI.NET ATTORNEYSINMIAMI.ORG
210 ATTORNEYSINSEATTLE.NET ATTORNEYSINSEATTLE.ORG
170 ATTORNEYSINAUSTIN.NET ATTORNEYSINAUSTIN.ORG
91 ATTORNEYSINSACRAMENTO.NET ATTORNEYSINSACRAMENTO.ORG
46 LOSANGELESCALIFORNIAATTORNEY.NET LOSANGELESCALIFORNIAATTORNEY.ORG

What do you thing about attorney domains on the .com tld that have dashes between the keywords?

Originally Posted by bogart

What do you thing about attorney domains on the .com tld that have dashes between the keywords?

They won't benefit from the exact match domain bonus, but they can still be useful if you promote them hard enough -- or if you just use them for link selling in that super-competitive niche.

Originally Posted by bogart

What do you thing about attorney domains on the .com tld that have dashes between the keywords?

That often creates a debate, whether or not to use dashes. Since attorney's are offline businesses, they will often advertise offline. I think that's where the dash has a disadvantage, especially where the domainname is passed word of mouth/over the phone etc. You might even lose some potential leads to the competitor.
For SEO purposes, I think, it doesn't matter.

edit:

They won't benefit from the exact match domain bonus,

Interesting. I always thought that the search engines wouldn't 'read' the dashes and consider only the keywords so that it would be considered an exact match domain.

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Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

They won't benefit from the exact match domain bonus, but they can still be useful if you promote them hard enough -- or if you just use them for link selling in that super-competitive niche.

Probably wouldn't be worth it to swim against the current just because the domain is a .com tld. I guess I will go with a .org

Originally Posted by Loko

That often creates a debate, whether or not to use dashes. Since attorney's are offline businesses, they will often advertise offline. I think that's where the dash has a disadvantage, especially where the domainname is passed word of mouth/over the phone etc. You might even lose some potential leads to the competitor.

For SEO purposes, I think, it doesn't matter.

The domain without the dashes is better for the offline business. I would suggest to own both the dashed and non-dashed domains.

Originally Posted by Loko

Interesting. I always thought that the search engines wouldn't 'read' the dashes and consider only the keywords so that it would be considered an exact match domain.

I thought the same thing. The search engines won't read the dashed. But the issue is that the use of dashes are considered sp*mmy. I'm seeing less sites with the dashes that are ranked.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

They won't benefit from the exact match domain bonus, but they can still be useful if you promote them hard enough -- or if you just use them for link selling in that super-competitive niche.

Will, why do you think that there isn't any exact match domain bonus with hyphens? Have you seen any evidence that the exact match bonus is forfeited with hyphens?

All of my domains using hyphens are branded, rather than exact match, but I have not seen any evidence that hyphens in domains are essentially penalized.

Mat Cutts has downplayed any advantage with exact match domains, but I think the evidence that there is a benefit--at least for non-hyphen domains--is overwhelming.

I'm curious, plus I plan to write some new articles about choosing domain names, so i am interested in how you came to that conclusion.

BTW, I manage AdWords accounts for a few attorneys. The CPC for the most competitive keywords is in the $80 to $100 range. A lot of attorneys do not hesitate to drop $20,000 or more into AdWords each month.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

Will, why do you think that there isn't any exact match domain bonus with hyphens?

It appears to be an arbitrary decision on the part of Google.

Similarly, .co.uk, .net.uk, and .org.uk get an exact match bonus -- but .us doesn't.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

Have you seen any evidence that the exact match bonus is forfeited with hyphens?

I haven't seen any effect of a bonus with hyphenated domain names. Maybe it's there but it's too small to notice?

Originally Posted by TopDogger

All of my domains using hyphens are branded, rather than exact match, but I have not seen any evidence that hyphens in domains are essentially penalized.

I concur, unless you think of "lack of a bonus" as a penalty.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

Mat Cutts has downplayed any advantage with exact match domains, but I think the evidence that there is a benefit--at least for non-hyphen domains--is overwhelming.

I've been ranking sites on page one with nothing but the default Wordpress template. No content and no links, just the exact match domain bonus.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

BTW, I manage AdWords accounts for a few attorneys. The CPC for the most competitive keywords is in the $80 to $100 range. A lot of attorneys do not hesitate to drop $20,000 or more into AdWords each month.

Hmmm... do they buy links?

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

It appears to be an arbitrary decision on the part of Google.

Similarly, .co.uk, .net.uk, and .org.uk get an exact match bonus -- but .us doesn't.

Any exact match bonus on the .biz tld?

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

I concur, unless you think of "lack of a bonus" as a penalty.

Well the lack of a bonus for hyphens relative to domains that do get a bonus sounds like a penalty for the poor little hyphenated domains. Google is just not playing fair. Wahhhhh!

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

I've been ranking sites on page one with nothing but the default Wordpress template. No content and no links, just the exact match domain bonus.

He, he. I saw that this weekend with an new site that I put up that has an exact match domain. There is nothing up but the default WordPress theme. The domain is localized, but uses competitive keywords. It is currently ranking at #5 in G. I am shooting for #1 when I finish the site.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

Hmmm... do they buy links?

What so you mean? Do you have legal site links to sell?

FYI. The most competitive phrases that the local attorneys bid $100 a pop for are DUI attorney, DUI attorneys, DUI lawyer and DUI lawyers. We must have a lot of drunks here. There are so many lawyers bidding $100 for these phrases that they still do not reach one of the top 3 positions until they accrue a significant numbers of clicks.

Originally Posted by bogart

Any exact match bonus on the .biz tld?

Not in Google. I don't think in Yahoo. I'm not sure about Bing.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

What so you mean? Do you have legal site links to sell?

Well... if they buy links... I'd register all the domains from the opening post and sell them links.