Dartboard optimization matrix

Dartboard Optimization Matrix or DOM methodology is the way of optimizing a website for search engines using white hat techniques.

DOM involves mapping your website pages and keywords in concentric rings, similar to a dart board. The aim of the process is to come up with a plan for optimizing your website in such a way that the sales-related keywords for the site start ranking much in advance to the more competitive branding keywords.

Significance of various rings of DOM

The innermost ring in DOM consists of the branding or top keywords for a website. Just like in a dart board, it is the ultimate goal for the entire optimization process to have a website rank for these keywords. The innermost ring maps the branding keywords to the top pages of the site like the home page and the about us page.

The second ring in DOM consists of the specific service-related keywords and the second-level pages that represent these keywords.

After this there can be several rings depending upon the complexity of the domain in which the site deals.

The outmost ring in DOM is also referred to as sales ring. The keywords in this ring are sales-related keywords or keywords specific to a product that the company sells. The pages mapped in this ring are the sales pages of the site where a user can make a purchase.

How It Works

The methodology followed in DOM involves optimizing the site for the outer ring keywords first. These keywords generally have very low competition and tend to rank easily. Since these keywords are sales related, even though the traffic on these keywords is low, it is very targeted and leads to direct sales.

Once the keywords in the outermost ring start ranking, one should move to the inner rings in similar fashion. By the time the second ring keywords start ranking, the branding keywords in the innermost ring will already be in the search engine results and with very little effort they can achieve top ranks.^{[citation needed]}