Domain length and acronyms

[positivecarry]

I am wondering what the consensus is regarding domain length and acronyms. As an example, let's say I am considering an seo domain. The difference between the acronym and the complete spelling here is quite large: 3 letters compared to 24.

How do the SEs treat acronyms? Would it be significantly wiser to use the full spelling or does it not really matter because you are ranking for keywords with anchor text? What is considered too long for a domain? And lastly,if anyone has any experience, how do acronyms affect Adwords ads. For instance, with seo vs search engine optimization, the domain with seo will bold in the ad only if someone types seo, but if someone types search engine optimization I don't believe it will. Anyone know if this has a significant affect on the CTR of the ads, or is this negligible. Any thoughts about how the acronym affects both natural rankings and PPC ads in Google would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Linda Buquet]

"Would it be significantly wiser to use the full spelling or does it not really matter because you are ranking for keywords with anchor text?"

Well it really depends on if people search for the acronym and if the acronym is your primary KW target. In the case of SEO they do and it probably has as many or more searches than it does spelled out. OPM (Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager) wouldn't be as good because many people don't know the acronym and everyone is going to search for all the words.

In general the shorter domain the better for branding - search engines don't mind if it's pretty long. In general the more targeted the domain the better it is for Adwords. A human review would consider the acro if it's well known - not sure if the algo takes it into account though.

[positivecarry]

Hmm, I see what you're saying, my situation is that the full spelling is definitely searched more than the acronym. The difference in domain length would only be 6 letters, from 22 down to 16. For me it's a no brainer to go with the full spelling for the natural rankings. However, for ppc it looks like you are allowed 29 characters in the url, so the www and .com would put me right at the limit for the top level without a subdomain /keyword. But , that extra 6 characters might not do much for me anyway. The problem with my niche is trademarks are everywhere, so I need to keep it very generic, but descriptive at the same time,if that makes sense, haha. Any new guys reading this, do a trademark search if you don't want to waste your time and possibly end up with negative earnings. Thanks again.

[Linda Buquet]

Here's a great post I just stumbled across.

Using industry lingo & acronyms in your PPC ad copy - Jennifer Slegg - Search Engine Marketing Consultant

[positivecarry]

Thanks, just say this latest response , will read it through.