keywords in url vs. length

[Onestop]

URL length and new site name. Am I overdoing it?

My site name contains relevant searched keywords, but it is bunched together like this: www.myretailsite.com.

I have purchased www.my-retail-site.com. The theory here is that the spacing will make the url more relevant based off the keywords it contains. I would redirect the original www.myretailsite.com to the new one. Is this a good idea and how long is too long on the url?

Next part of this question. I am having my site redesigned on a new platform. The old www.myretailsite.com is hosted in a way that I do not have a lot of options in changing pages. I am not ranked incredibly high, but I do have some history and have been indexed. If I make the new my-retail-site.com the main homepage and then redirect the old site name to it am I hurting myself? What happens if someone types in the old site name or does a search and finds something I ranked for? Will it redirect them from an item page or just give them a "page not available" screen?

[Brian Mcfarlane]

Here are your three answers;
1. use a few hyphens as possible in your domain name and stop thinking like a googlebot and start acting like a human. Put your keyword phrase in your title tag like this ; myretailsite|keyword| page title. This goes in your meta data tag called title.
2. look up 301 redirects and the new cononical link tag for your redirects.
3. Use a thematic siloing architecture for your site to insure deep indexing.

contact me as i work as a seo coach should you need some free advise

[cryptblade]

Your theory is faulty and here's why. Search engines do not look at your domain name as a ranking factor. Even KWs in URLs are only a minimal effect. KWs in URLs serve only to make it easier to organize and slightly easier for your website users. SEs only slightly consider it but do like KWs in URLs as part of "best practice".

As for KWs in domain names - that only works if your link building uses your company name in the anchor. For instance, you want to rank for "my retail site" as a KW. By having a domain that says www.myretailsite.com and then doing link building where your company name is called My Retail Site, LLC - and links use "My Retail Site, LLC" as the anchor text, then you end up ranking for your targeted KWs. All that redirecting is doing nothing but creating a Rube Goldberg machine that ultimately does nothing.

[Brian Mcfarlane]

looks like i have to spell things out for you.
If i were to give one piece of small advise this is it.
Your header title tag matters and it should use a relevant keyword that has been proven to convert with ad words testing.
Step two keywords might not matter as much in the meta tags for google but they are still relevant to Yahoo, MSN. If you dont believe me ask Jerry West at SEO revolution.
Keyword relevancy in your on page content also matters.

look at how many top three sites use .com and no hyphens and also you wonèt find to many with long urls and naming your site the same as search term never hurt anyone.

[JohnW]

>your keyword phrase in your title tag like this ; myretailsite|keyword| page title.

That's not exactly right. Figure out how to make the keyword(s) be the first words (or even all of the words) of the title tag. If you want to waste some space with "myretailsite" do it at the end, after the keywords. Maybe some variation of this:
<title> Get Keywords: Keyword2, Keyword3 - Big Keyword Selection at myretailsite.com </title>

Like CB said, keywords in domain don't help unless it attracts links anchored that way, which BTW, it can - and that's why keyword domains sometimes *seem* to be preferred somehow by search engines. Keywords in URL do appear to help also, check out a search for something like:
0128.html

[Brian Mcfarlane]

As long as you use a keyword phrase in your title that relates to your H1 tag and your content it does not really matter the order it is in as long as it is their. You do not want to go past 8 words as it will just get cut-off. You want to have aleast one unique phrase that relates to each page. I see far too many sites just repeat the same information over and over on each page and then wonder why they get no traffic.

[JohnW]

Brian you have made some good points in your several posts, however there are some things I must disagree with.

>As long as you use a keyword phrase in your title that relates to your H1 tag and your content it does not really matter the order it is in as long as it is their.

The extra weight is at the front of the tag. I don't know who Jerry West is, but ask him if you don't believe me ;-)

>You do not want to go past 8 words as it will just get cut-off.

It's based on character count, not word count.