The effect in Google of the word "the" in a URL?

Question

Keywords in your URL are extremely weighted, and I am aware of most bad practices, but the question as to whether the word "the" in a URL, as in www.thewebdesigner.com, is a bad idea or not is very hard to find information on.

Searching has yielded next to nothing because the definite article is a special case in search algorithms. That is, you end up searching for the word "the" which is a bit too random.

I'm wondering if this is a good idea, because as in the example case, "web" and "designer" together in a URL would theoretically be a fantastic step in solid SEO. However, if Google somehow reads it as a stop word or treats it differently, it might not be so smart.

Can anyone tell me the effect of "the" at the start of a URL like thewebdesigner.com, and if this is good or bad practice, and a good or bad idea for a quality URL?

Answer 1

I think what you're asking is really if the word "the" in your domain name (not URL), will impact your search engine results and ranking in Google.

Google no longer weighs keywords in a domain, referred to as Exact Match Domain (EMD) - see my answer here for more on that. Since EMD is no longer a factor, the keywords "web" and "designer" in your domain won't really have much of an impact on your rankings, as the article "the", commonly referred to as a stop word (rightly or wrongly), shouldn't either.

The effect of your domain name in searches is really only impacted by how much your domain name as a brand is connected to your site or products/services, and how popular as a search term your domain has become. As discussed in the link to my answer above, the word "Amazon" has become such a popular brand-name linked to amazon.com, that it outranks the actual "Amazon" geographical location in SERP.

For the generic keywords "web" and "designer" however, these are so commonly used that it's doubtful you can achieve brand-name recognition for them alone. You would have to add something more unique to them like: lightningboltwebdesign.com (available by the way) - but the word "the" isn't going to affect that.

What the word "the" might actually affect however is the length of your domain name and how complicated it is for people to remember and type into a browser's address bar. Most SEM suggest keeping your domain name as short as possible, so removing an unnecessary, non-beneficial word like "the" and replacing it with something that helps to build brand-identity would likely be wise.