Does adding the word "site" at the end of a URL hurt SEO?

[Jim Coe]

Strictly speaking, there are disadvantages to adding "site" to the end of a domain name, especially if the version without that ending is your competition. But they are not about SEO.

First, many people may forget to type the whole URL and will end up on your competitor's site.

Second, because the names are so similar, there's a chance that the other owner may complain and or try to stop you.

As far as SEO goes, if someone searches on the term with out "site", you URL will still come up, since the term is included inside your domain name - but it will probably rank lower.

Also notice that neither "glassiron.com" nor "glassironsite.com" are using the keywords "glass" or "iron" or "glassiron" - unless "glassiron" is a dictionary word. Let's take a better example, like the domain name "getrichin2013.com". "getrichin2013" is not a dictionary word, so it has no keyword boost. But suppose you also got the domain name "get-rich-in-2013.com as well. "in' is a "stop word", so won't do anything for you. But "get rich" will act as keywords, because the search engines can parse hyphenated domain names. So, by buying both those domains you do 3 things.

1. You stop a competitor from copying your domain name (legally) by using a hyphenated version.
2. You get a keyword boost for your site from the hyphenated version.
3. If people forget to type the hyphens, they still get to your site via the version without hyphens.

The trick is to "park" one of the domain names and point it at the site, while the other domain name acts as the usual main domain name (you can't have 2 main domain names at the same site.

Hope this helps...
_jim coe