A case study: ranking improvements for websites with keywords in website domain.
Following the launch of Google’s latest June Core update yesterday, I did some spot-checking of Google rankings this morning. One thing stood out when I analyzed ranking results. Websites with keywords in the domain- either a city or state, or the service that I was searching for- seemed to appear in the top 10 results, along with popular directory sites like Yelp.com, expertise.com, thumbtack.com, Justia, etc.
I actually visited the websites themselves when analyzing the results, and some of the sites I visited didn’t appear to spend a ton of time or money in SEO- there wasn’t a web developer logo or link in the footer (which is very common in the legal field, and a sign that they’re working with, and paying, a “professional” legal SEO company to improve rankings), the WordPress theme in some cases was basically a stock template, not a ton of content, limited backlinks, not a lot of on-page SEO, etc.
So is it possible that, following the latest search algorithm update, Google has reverted to the “good ol’ days” when keyword-rich URL’s had an upper hand in organic search results?
After looking at the data presented below, I don’t think there’s much doubt that the answer is “probably”.
Step 1: Identify websites
What I decided to do was perform some additional Google search queries, and come up with a list of domains that 1) ranked well for the random search query I was performing, and 2) included the city or state, and/or service that I was searching for.
The 10 random websites that I came up with when analyzing data are:
- https://www.mddwi.com
- https://www.mdtriallawyer.com
- https://www.marylandbankruptcycouncil.com
- https://www.chicagofamilylawyer.com/
- https://www.immigrationmiami.com/
- https://www.employmentrightscalifornia.com
- https://www.houstoninjurylawyer.com
- https://zindawrongfuldeathlawyers.com/
- https://www.houstondental.com/
- https://www.miamiplasticsurgery.com
Step 2: Populate ranking data
Next, I put each website into SEMRush’s organic research tool, which monitors and tracks Google rankings for websites over time. With the launch of the Google June Core Update being so recent (yesterday), it’s easy to assume that data would be limited, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find a number of keyword movements since June 4, 2019.
A few things worth noting:
- The update clearly launched yesterday. For each of the 10 websites I analyzed, I also analyzed a competing website without a keyword in the domain. Across the board, going back to early May, the most keyword movements came on June 4th and June 5th.
- The websites with a keyword in the website domain had the most movements, by far.
- The majority of movements occurred when it was a Google search that included a city or state.
Step 3: Format and analyze ranking data
I exported ranking changes for each website into a .csv, and created a Google Sheet which is embedded below. For each website, the following metrics were included:
- Keyword
- Current position (anything prior to June 4 was deleted)
- Previous position
- Difference (for each website, I created a Google Sheets formula to calculate difference in ranking. For websites that weren’t ranking before, I assigned a value of ‘100’)
- Search volume
- CPC
- URL of page that ranked
As I started analyzing all of the data that was populated in the Google Sheet, it became clear to me that part of this latest update is related to local rankings.
Here are a few examples of what I found:
mddwi.com
What stood out to me was the overall number of positive movements, and average number of spots that each keyword improved by. I did some spot checks for keyword searches like “Maryland DWI lawyers”, “Baltimore DWI lawyers”, etc. and this site was in the top organic results consistently.
Out of 141 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 96 occasions.
Rankings dropped for this website on 46 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 9.83
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 21.98
mdtriallawyer.com
Out of 485 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 248 occasions.
Rankings dropped for this website on 237 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 9.82
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 24.36
marylandbankruptcycounsel.com
Keyword: bankruptcy lawyers in Maryland (ranks top 10 for Maryland bankruptcy lawyers, a number of other terms I spot-checked, this data is all according to most recent SEMRush rankings)
As of 6/4: Number 16 on Google
Prior- Not in top 100.
chicagofamilylawyer.com
This website improved dramatically for a number of extremely competitive local search terms, many of which it didn’t rank in the top 100 for prior.
Out of 122 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 106 occasions.
Rankings dropped for this website on 16 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 11
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 21.4
immigrationmiami.com
Out of 51 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 34 occasions.
Rankings dropped on 17 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 13
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 28.39
employmentrightscalifornia.com
Out of 95 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 64 occasions.
Rankings dropped on 31 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 11.09
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 19.63
houstoninjurylawyer.com
For anyone who has worked on a Houston legal website when it comes to SEO, you know how extremely ridiculously competitive it can be. And the number of keywords that this website has improved rankings for, especially for EXTREMELY competitive search terms, is absolutely mind boggling.
If you take a look at the CPC for each of the keywords that have improved, you’ll have a better idea of what I’m talking about. For a website to not be in the top 100 for some of these extremely competitive, nationwide search terms like “maritime law” and “personal injury law firm”, and then to seemingly overnight break into the top couple of pages is pretty spectacular. This is in addition to the ranking increases for practically every Houston-related personal injury search term, which, once again, are possibly among the most competitive search terms in the country. This is what really stood out to me.
Out of 191 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 172 occasions.
Rankings dropped on 19 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 7.47
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 33.5
zindawrongfuldeathlawyers.com
This is a website that didn’t see a TON of positive movement, but I wanted to include a domain which ranked well for a nationwide term like “wrongful death attorneys” and “wrongful death settlements”. Below is the data:
houstondental.com/
Once again, another case of being blown away by the number of “money” keywords that this website obtained top rankings for seemingly overnight.
Before June 4th, the website wasn’t in the top 100 of Google for “Houston cosmetic dentist”, “cosmetic dentists of Houston”,and obtains #1 ranking on Google. Wasn’t in top 100 for “Dentist Houston TX” and is now #3.
Out of 87 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 56 occasions.
Rankings dropped on 31 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 8.48
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 21.11
miamiplasticsurgery.com
The last website of our case study, and once again a website with the city keyword in the domain, and some pretty noticeable movements.
Out of 116 total movements (both positive and negative) since June 4, this website’s rankings improved or stayed the same on 77 occasions.
Rankings dropped on 39 occasions.
Average spots when keyword rankings dropped: 14.46
Average spots when keyword rankings improved: 22.39
Final Conclusion
While these 10 websites help to prove the theory that having a city/state and keyword in your website domain could possibly play a part in SEO after the latest Google June update has rolled out, it’s also important to pay attention to the individual page URL’s that rank. Many of the pages that rank aren’t necessarily the home pages themselves, yet website URL’s that include the keywords and topics that the searcher is looking for.
That being said, like I mentioned at the beginning…I compared these 10 websites to competing websites with website domains that didn’t include keywords, and the most noticeable movements were clearly from these 10 websites.
